CamBelt Disaster

[Akagi]

İf you can afford a new car you should have let the garage get the parts.

I can afford a new car if needed. Should I take my £600 Lexus to the main dealer for its cambelt service?

If I get a garage to work on one of my cars, I supply the parts myself so that I know exactly what parts are being used. Some routinely fit cheap crap, others only fit high quality stuff. Even if you ask, they might lie. I get them to leave all the old stuff in a box in the boot too.

OP were the parts you supplied of good quality? What brand were they? Even if the garage try and claim it was your fault you'll have a better argument against it if you supplied an SKF kit, rather than a Ridex one, for example.

 

[Lopéz]

I had thought the responsibility for parts quality is transferred to the garage, when they agree, verbally or otherwise, to use the parts you supplied?

Which is why many tyre fitters don't fit part worns, and sometimes don't even fit new tyres you bring along yourself.

I'm sure a garage would refuse to fit a second hand cambelt rather than taking an "oh well if its breaks its not my problem" attitude

If a customer supplies new parts, surely the garage saying they will fit them, is an admission that they think the quality is good enough?

No, it's nothing like as clear cut as that.

OP, having witnessed someone do exactly this on a Mondeo with a Zetec engine, unfortunately I'm fairly certain a number of valves will be bent. A good used head is the easiest and cheapest option for all.

 

[Scania]

OP, Your garage agreed to do the work and have screwed it up as far as I'd be concerned, its their problem to resolve, not yours.

I can afford a new car if needed. Should I take my £600 Lexus to the main dealer for its cambelt service?

If I get a garage to work on one of my cars, I supply the parts myself so that I know exactly what parts are being used. Some routinely fit cheap crap, others only fit high quality stuff. Even if you ask, they might lie. I get them to leave all the old stuff in a box in the boot too.

OP were the parts you supplied of good quality? What brand were they? Even if the garage try and claim it was your fault you'll have a better argument against it if you supplied an SKF kit, rather than a Ridex one, for example.

I can't afford a new car but I still took my £1k Volvo to a main dealer for its recent cambelt and service - a: they were actually a lot cheaper than many fast fit centres and b: I knew they'd do it right and I'd have comeback if they didn't , they didn't leave the old crap in a box, they use video's these days to show the work....

 

[gc123]

Who will promptly blame incorrect installation.

fairly straight forward if the tensioner has failed or the belt is damaged, my gut is incorrect fitment but its all down to what was said and written on the invoice. i never liked fitting customers own parts when i was dealing with paying customers because its a minefield and easy to get caught out, used to just price the job out the frame and let them go elseware.

too many cheap pattern parts coming in from overseas with no comeback. even if it is a part failure chances are they will either dodge it or just replace the faulty part

had a friend with a focus as it happens supply and fit a clutch kit with flywheel from ebay and then booked it in with ford to fit it.

they rang him up and said they had fitted it and on test the flywheel was faulty /noisy dmf.

he paid i think around 400 pounds for the parts from ebay., they then gave him the choice pay for there fitment and take vehicle away or pay for new ford parts . in the end he payed ford and it was neary 1200 pounds and got the new parts from ebay back in a box....he never managed to get his money back from the ebay company.

as ford stated you supplied the parts we fitted them , the onus was on the customer , if they supplied them and they were faulty then they would warranty them and replace no quibble.

 

[builder22]

if the parts you supplied had failed at some point after you got the car back I could see the garage being able to blame the parts but if it comes out the garage in a worse state than when it went in then the garage has got to take responsibility surely

 

[Building Candy]

The 1.6 in my fiesta (Ti-VCT) has a floating crank pulley, so when you change the belt everything has to be locked down tight.

 

[Liquidfox]

if they supplied them and they were faulty then they would warranty them and replace no quibble.

Yep, it's why I'd never touch eBay for parts. I'd either get my mechanic to buy them, or buy genuine parts from the likes of ECP/CP4L. eBay is a minefield for parts.

 

[adwol48]

Yep, it's why I'd never touch eBay for parts. I'd either get my mechanic to buy them, or buy genuine parts from the likes of ECP/CP4L. eBay is a minefield for parts.

Parts where bought from ECP so cheap parts arent really an issue for this problem. Have been to the garage and looked at the head the valves are indeed borked speaking to the owner he doesnt know why this has happened its really stumped him apparently the bottom pulley was tightened to torque specs as he helped do it with another mechanic. He has said he will put it right for me he even offered to buy the car at market value he has already got the valves in he just needs to send the head off for them to be fitted as he doesnt have the shims at his garage. cost of repair isnt going to be cheap, I dont mind footing some of the bill as its a family run garage which i want to continue to use and unfortunately I think this was just a complete and utter bad luck on my part and theirs.

 

[montymint]

Parts where bought from ECP so cheap parts arent really an issue for this problem. Have been to the garage and looked at the head the valves are indeed borked speaking to the owner he doesnt know why this has happened its really stumped him apparently the bottom pulley was tightened to torque specs as he helped do it with another mechanic. He has said he will put it right for me he even offered to buy the car at market value he has already got the valves in he just needs to send the head off for them to be fitted as he doesnt have the shims at his garage. cost of repair isnt going to be cheap, I dont mind footing some of the bill as its a family run garage which i want to continue to use and unfortunately I think this was just a complete and utter bad luck on my part and theirs.

Just let them foot the bill if they are willing because:

1. They'll be insured for it anyways
2. The word of mouth is worth more to them in the long run

 

[dlockers]

Parts where bought from ECP so cheap parts arent really an issue for this problem. Have been to the garage and looked at the head the valves are indeed borked speaking to the owner he doesnt know why this has happened its really stumped him apparently the bottom pulley was tightened to torque specs as he helped do it with another mechanic. He has said he will put it right for me he even offered to buy the car at market value he has already got the valves in he just needs to send the head off for them to be fitted as he doesnt have the shims at his garage. cost of repair isnt going to be cheap, I dont mind footing some of the bill as its a family run garage which i want to continue to use and unfortunately I think this was just a complete and utter bad luck on my part and theirs.

Just let them foot the bill if they are willing because:

1. They'll be insured for it anyways
2. The word of mouth is worth more to them in the long run

^^ This.

Good that they have stuck by you though. I think chappy knows he made a balls up and is being honest about it. A lose belt following a cambelt change, where the belt itself isn't the fault? That is divine intervention if I ever heard it

I really should have put a lottery ticket on when I slipped the cambelt on my 1.4 TDCi. My ex-gfs dad at the time, despite being a mechanic, offered zero help or sympathy. I had it booked in with Ford but they basically sat it outside for 2 weeks and said it was too complicated to touch. I ended up changing the belt at age 17 on my front drive having never done anything bigger than a wheel change at the time. I went back smug as anything when it turned over absolutely perfectly.

 

[adwol48]

I never had any doubt that if they had made a mistake he would own upto it and fix the issue this garage has been used by our family and extended family for well nearly 20 years so we have a long standing rapport with the owners, I know what your saying about the insurance side of things as liability insuranace would cover the cost of the repairs.

 

[dlockers]

Well he hasn't directly said it but he is paying for the repairs so I would say that is admission more than any token words

 

[pugheaven]

So bad news but good news. For me, I'd not be footing any of that bill for same reasons as above, it'll come out of their insurance anyway and they made the mistakes not you. if they crash a car into it would you pay some of the bill? No, I understand they're friends etc etc, but they basically creamed your engine whether it's a genuine mistake or not. However that's your choice and more importantly it'll be fixed which is the main thing.

 

[Akagi]

Parts where bought from ECP so cheap parts arent really an issue for this problem.

ECP sell some complete junk, but they also sell some good brands.

They are also excellent at sending the wrong parts. In my experience, they manage to send out the wrong parts more often than they manage to send out the right parts.

I wonder if a different Focus has a cambelt kit which looks similar and would physically bolt on, but the belt length is different... And I wonder if the mechanics didn't closely compare what they took off with what they put on.

 

[adwol48]

So guys just an update picked the car up its all been repaired at cost to the garage so cant complain about that, heres to hopefully a couple more years before the next issue haha.

 

[fastwunz]

Fair play to that garage.

 

[jsmoke]

So guys just an update picked the car up its all been repaired at cost to the garage so cant complain about that, heres to hopefully a couple more years before the next issue haha.

Will you still be using the garage in future?

 

[paradigm]

Will you still be using the garage in future?

Why wouldn’t you? Humans make mistakes, it’s how you handle those mistakes that make the difference. Clearly the garage and people involved are actually the type to care about their workmanship (and by extension their reputation), yes they ballsed up, but they also made good without (by the sounds of it) much fuss. Puts a lot of bigger dealerships to shame.

 

[jsmoke]

Why wouldn’t you? Humans make mistakes, it’s how you handle those mistakes that make the difference. Clearly the garage and people involved are actually the type to care about their workmanship (and by extension their reputation), yes they ballsed up, but they also made good without (by the sounds of it) much fuss. Puts a lot of bigger dealerships to shame.

Just wondering, some people might avoid due to the potential bad felling but maybe not.

 

[adwol48]

there's no bad feeling between me and the garage they owned their mistake and did the right thing without any pressure from me at all, I will use them again as I usually get my MOT done there also, and the previous 10 plus years have never had an issue with them, I think it's just a 1 in a thousand mistake and unfortunately it happened to me.