Posted by Greg Cox on October 19, 2012, 6:39 pm Message modified by board administrator October 22, 2012, 7:34 pm
Hi i remember seeing on ukautotalk about a garage being taken to court. by the customer as the cambelt had broken as it should have been changed on the service they had done.and the judge ruled that it is the customer who should tell the garage to change the belt. can anyone remember which forum it was on.
Greg
Re: Broken cam belt court case
Posted by Graham Bullock on October 19, 2012, 11:42 pm, in reply to "Broken cam belt court case" Graham Bullock
Sorry I can't point you in the direction of that post but a garage near to me had a similar problem a few years ago and the judge in that case went the other way and ruled against the garage. The garage is supposed to be the expert not the customer!
I can't remember all the details but think it may have been a rover with timing belt replacement at 60,000 or 5 years whichever occurs first. As the car had been serviced elsewhere and had a service history, was say 7 years old and maybe around 70,000 miles the garage wrongly assumed that the belt must have been changed at 5 years old, therefore it had only done 20,000 miles over 2 years since replacement.
The belt failed shortly after the service and the garage was taken to court, they lost and had all costs of repairs, customers legal cost and their own legal fees to pay.
From what I remember it boiled down to the fact that the customer was not made aware that the belt should have been changed or even asked if it had been. I often thought if they had just written something on the invoice recommending it be replaced if not already done then it would have put the ticking time bomb back in the customers hands.
Graham
Re: Broken cam belt court case
Posted by Tony Attwood on October 19, 2012, 11:55 pm, in reply to "Broken cam belt court case" Tony Attwood