right i finally have the car back.

apparently a screw from the air filter cover found its way into the engine.

according to the garage it would have happened to anyone who changed the plugs as the screw was noted as missing by the mech who serviced it .

they think it was sitting around the spark plug and fell in when they removed it.

anyway it cost me £146 for a full service.

they have fitted a new cam belt ,head gasket ,manifold gasket free of charge.

what price on 3 days of stress and aggro though ?

Spenk said:

according to the garage it would have happened to anyone who changed the plugs as the screw was noted as missing by the mech who serviced it .

they think it was sitting around the spark plug and fell in when they removed it.

Click to expand...

What a load of b*ll*cks!

Surely any good garage cleans around the plugs before removing them to prevent this kind of thing happening.

If they cut corners like this I suggest you never use them again - How sure are you that they serviced the brakes properly ????

yep even the haynes manual tells you to clean around them first to stop crap going in

Well they obviously don't want repeat custom as any garage worth it's salt would have given you the service free of charge, apologised profusely and offered you a healthy discount on your next service (not that you would have used them again).

Personally I think that's pretty poor.

Honest of them to own up to it and sort it though... I mean I have known a lot worse such as outright scams when nothing is wrong at all.

IMHO, problem is the quality of work that some apprentices turn out and more pointedly, the quality of their supervision.

Why was the airfilter screw missing and sitting in the spark plug recess anyway?
Dropped and not found at the previous service?


Glad its sorted for you

yeah at least they did most of the work for free, some garages might have tried to cover their tracks and get the full cost out of you. In the end the outcome wasn't too bad at all

no i wont be using them again.

only to put right anything that goes wrong with the work they did this time.

there is a bit of oil around the head . i have wiped it dry and will keep an eye on it.

if it leaks its going back.

they put a sticker in my window to remind me to take it back in november for another service ?!!!!

i dont think so.

blufin said:

Its their problem - if they don't fix it threaten them with the goods and services act. If they refuse you may need to take the vehicle away, get an independent report / get it fixed and then sue them via small claims court for cost of repair, court costs and any out REASONABLE out of pocket expenses.

Another way is to sit outside their garage with a big sign saying how crap they are - that usually focusses minds!

Jools

Click to expand...

Happened to me,reversing car out of garage(slowly!) & it just cut out! Tensioner broke up.... these things happen incase you didn't know it.

In this case we brought customer to garage & explained,he paid parts & we fitted labour free....very understanding customer

Glad you got it sorted now

As T said, things can go wrong and quite often the first thing you'll do is blame the garage and try to make them pay out - in this case this was the right thing to do as it was their fault.

Timing marks should be aligned before removal of timing belt. After fitting new belt timing will not be altered. If the belt hasnt been correctly tensioned it could slip a notch causing the timing to go out of sync. On certain engines valve clearance is very minimal and any deviation would cause valves on certain engines to become damaged. I cant say on the Doblo. Basicallt theyve done a bad job and should be liable to fix your vehicle. My mechanic took my head off to be skimmed and belt went back exactly in the correct position with no problems up to now

Just a thought, if there was a screw sitting in the recess where the spark plug resides, how on earth did they get the socket to fit the plug?
(I don't know this engine but thinking of all the other makes I've tinkered with - and never ba11sed up like this).

On all the cars I've tinkered with, the plug socket has been a tight fit down into the recess or the plugs are installed on a ledge - so nothing could sit there.

it was just an excuse to try and save face i think.

all i can do is take my custom elsewhere.