Re: Recently out of warranty car engine failure

Can't help on the mechanical side.

As the car is out of warranty you will only be able to claim against the dealership that you got the car from. You will have to show that the car was not of satisfactory quality and/or reasonably fit for purpose at the time you bought it.

Subject to what the mechanics say, I think that this will be difficult to show - the car ran for nearly 70k miles after all. I don't fancy your chances of winning a case against the dealership unless this is a fault that should virtually never go wrong, and then only after hundreds of thousands of miles.

I'd look for a secondhand engine from a write off at a breakers. It might mean searching nationally but it would surely be cheaper than that quote.

Morse

I would expect a contribution from Vauxhall as you have maintained the car as per the schedule

I would what know why if a Valve is scored internally, why it would need a complete new engine? Surely just a head & new valves

I would want a complete breakdown of the problem & possible cause from the engineer

The cracked manifold is a common problem across the range

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:02:29 +0100, I waved a wand and this message magically appears in front of David Mahon:

Why can't they just replace the valves?

Incompetance?

Profiteering?

Stupidity?

You might get the garage (that supplied and maintained it) to contribute to the cost of repairs, if they do the work. That should reduce the cost down to the sort of price that you could get, shopping around.

Legally, the manufacturer is off the hook as it has done 69k and run for almost 4 years.

The garage is off the hook - unless you can show that they didn't follow correct maintenance procedures.

An independent engineer might be able to determine what led to the damage - eg over-speed, low oil level, low oil pressure, excessive temperature, weak/broken valve spring, inter-action of tolerances, etc. But it looks unlikely that he could provide clear proof of a design or manufacturing or servicing fault. The odds are that it is a combination of factors, that led to lubrication failure of the valve stem. "Just one of those things".

How much difference where you got it repaired would make to the value of the finished product - I leave to you. It makes a lot of difference, to me at least, whether they are rebuilding the present head or simply buying and fitting a replacement. The former I would get done at a company that specialises in such things.

Where about in the country are you, I know a chap who was breaking one of these for spares.

Tom

In article , Tom Burton writes

Hampshire. Z20LET engine. There is absolutely no way I could do the work myself.

I'd suggest it's the cylinder that's scored. A sored valve wouldn't have caused the problem. Mike.

So, new valves and guides, at least one new piston, possible con rod bent, rebore on at least one bore, a strip-down of the bottom end needed, probable damage to the head surface, so may need welding and reprofiling. As a DIY project, it may be do-able for less than £1000, a dealer would charge at least 10 hours to do this, so it isnt going to be cost effective. The best advice IMO would be to get another engine from a scrapyard.Probably less than £1000 to buy it. Alan.

It's not unusual for garages to jump the gun and strip an engine without carrying out full diagnostic tests, and for engines to be replaced without curing the original fault which is later located and cured for a couple of quid unbeknown to the customer. Could also happen with human organ transplants for all I know...

In article , A C writes

I've asked them to put in writing what the problem was, and this is what I've received:

MEC CHECK FAULT EML ON AND POOR RUNNING - CARRY OUT TECH TEST 4 TROUBLE CODES STORED FOR MISFIRE DETECTED - CARRY OUT COMPRESSION TEST FOUND LOW COMPRESSION ON NUMBER 2 - REMOVE CYLINDER HEAD AND INSPECT - FOUND NO. 2 PISTON DAMAGED - CAUSING THE LOW COMPRESSION - WILL REQUIRE EITHER TECH REPLACEMENT ENGINE OR REPAIR - COST TO REPLACE ENGINE 2980.21 - COST TO REPAIR 2259.52 - ALTHOUGH WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THIS REPAIR - PLEASE NOTE EXHAUST MANIFOLD IS CRACKED COST TO REPLACE 895.35

I'm still waiting for a manager from Vauxhall Customer Assistance (01582

My next door neighbour uses a friend of his to do work on his car. He used to work for Vauxhall before setting up his own garage. I asked my neighbour to get an idea of how much he would charge to fix an engine and the reply came back to me that he doesn't want to touch it until I've spoken directly with Vauxhall - a relatively new and well maintained / regularly serviced engine should not need replacing and he would expect them to offer a contribution.

Unfortunately, even if they offer 50%, it may still work out cheaper to get it fixed elsewhere.

If I have a reconditioned / second hand engine dropped in, do I have to alter details with the DVLA? Is this easy? Will it show up as a black mark against in future, when I come to sell the car?

For the legal people:

If Vauxhall offer nothing, given what the mechanic has said, how would I go about bringing a case in the small claims court? Is it the dealer I would have to sue rather than Vauxhall? Obviously if that was the case I would first go back to the dealer and try and get them to offer me a better deal first.

I am led to understand that going to the small claims court would be of little financial risk to myself should I loose - is that right? My hope would be that things would never get that far anyway and the talk of it would help persuade the dealer to make a contribution.

Is s small claim decided upon a balance of probabilities? Can the judge decide to award a percentage of the repair/replacement costs?

Would I have to arrange for an independent engineer to give an opinion or do both sides just give their own engineers report to the court? If and independent engineer is required, how is the engineer decided upon? Obviously, the ideal solution for me would be to get whoever gives the opinion to then fix the thing, as they will probably then give their opinion for free - but would this then make them non-independent?

In article , David Mahon writes

I've just called another engine repair specialist (to get a quote) and he said would be absolutely fuming if he were to get such a fault on a car of this age/mileage/service history and it not be repaired by Vauxhall.

Maybe I really shouldn't just put up with this.

The upshot of my problem, for anyone that is interested is that Vauxhall have refused any "goodwill" payments whatsoever for my 3.5 year old

I was faced with several options:

Specialists (Regal and Courtney) quoted me a similar figure to Vauxhall for a replacement. A N Other engine repair shop would do it cheaper, but I had never heard of them and to keep it warranted I had to have it serviced by them every 6000 miles at a £135 a time (plus parts, and the time and petrol involved in taking it there and back). A 2nd hand engine was within 10% of the price of a reconditioned engine (and there were exceedingly few of them about - one in fact).

A local chap said he could repair it cheaper, but only because he charged half of what Vauxhall charge for labour. The parts would be the same. Nice bloke, advised against a repair and said a replacement would be better. Unfortunately, if it goes elsewhere, I have to pay Vauxhall £400 in labour already done.

So I'm stuck. Take it elsewhere and I cut my nose off to spite my face.

Vauxhall will be getting £2980.21 from me to replace the engine. I talked them into throwing in a service (which is due) as they're putting a new engine in anyway. And they'll give me a car until mine is ready. Then that's it. As soon as the warranty is nearly out on the replacement engine, I'll be buying something else.

Do I have to do anything about my V5 because of a new engine?

Nearly =A3900 for an exhaust manifold, I am in the wrong business.

Kevin

Still doesn't sound like the whole story. Was the piston burned or did a valve fall in? Makes little difference to the bill but whay can't they give you the full story? "Damaged" is such a wolly term.

I'm not convinced we know what happened yet. What was the nature of the piston damage? Is it visible on the crown? Was the piston burned? cracked? damaged by a valve? singing rule Britania? Any evidence of similar damage on the other pistons? Deposits all the right colour?

Could this have been a long term fuel/mixture/timing problem? Were any parts in the fuel/ignition/mixture/turbo replaced at a previous service? Are those bits still in warranty? Could they have failed or been installed incorrectly causing the problem?

CWatters ( snipped-for-privacy@turnersNOSPAMoak.plus.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I wonder...

Is the exhaust manifold crack also on or around no 2?

I can't help but wonder if you might be on the right track with this one...

Timing's unlikely, since it'll be computerised and probably wasted-spark. But running very lean on one cylinder will cause that cylinder to run hot and/or pink. I presume the turbo Astra's got a pinking sensor, but is it around no.2?

Could be that that cylinder was running very lean for some reason - duff injector, extra air (no, on boost it'd be more likely to be blown out than sucked in) - causing that cylinder to overheat the exhaust manifold and pink, damaging the piston.

In article , CWatters writes

Just been down to pick up my courtesy car (at least they gave me a decent one, rather than a 1.2 Corsa). Unlike Vauxhall, the dealer has at least been sympathetic and "to keep my custom" are perhaps doing it at a bit less than the total price that they could invoice (free service, no charge for the diagnostic work already done, surprisingly competitive on the replacement engine compared with a regular garage that doesn't charge such extortionate labour rates). Still not owning up to it being a problem of theirs, or of Vauxhall's making though.

Anyway, while I was there I picked up my GPS which led me to see the engine. Three of the cylinders look fine. The top of the fourth (#2) looks as if it has been sandblasted, as does the cylinder head. Something has been inside the engine. How would it get in - I'd have thought that they would have filters on fuel and air to stop such problems.

I didn't take a photo, but it looked something like this - however the holes were tiny, as if they had been made by a pin, and there were thousands of them.

To my knowledge, no work has been done on anything to do with the engine, other than the water pump almost 2 years and 25,000 miles ago.