glenbat

asking on behalf of my ex, and any legal advice too would be greatly appreciated.

She's got a 98 Fiesta Zetec, just put it in for MOT and been told it failed on the emissions. They rang back later to say the engine had blown up (her words) and i later managed to get it out of her that the piston rings had blown. Could they tell this without taking the head off? They offered her £50 for the car scrap and have given her a loan car for free for a week (which seems a bit wierd in itself). They've just done a £290 service on it last week, now theyre saying the engine has blown up?

does this sound right and if so are they in any part responsible? could they have been revving the nuts off it tryin to clear it out?

costina

iTrader: (1)

Think they are taking the piss mate Sounds as if someone has made a fook up and trying to smooth it out.

Collect the car and take to another garage 4 them to look at and then go from there.

Have you seen the car? it has'nt been smashed or stolen?

A mate of mine had a crx took it 4 a mot it came back with a cracked wheel and a bent lwr arm after weeks of hounding the owner of the garage addmited that his son drove the car and offered my mate £2000 4 it this was only after a phone call to the ministry of transport !!!!. he made £600 on top

Good luck

yzfr1boy

it is very possible they have been giving it big licks to try n clear it out as some of those fiestas are renound for failing emmisions some times small exhaust leak or lambda probe wires broke,,, im a mot tester so my advise is to ring them tomorrow and ask for the phone number for the local vosa office and your going to complain to them!bet ya they dont want them involved at all they will either fix it or pay u what its worth as its there fault if any thing is untoward during cat test u should abandon the test rather than risk engine damage ie overheating fan not cutting in and funny noises,ive been testing since 95 and have abandoned a few if ive heard noises or temp gauge goes up 2 much as the garage is liable and they wouldnt want to pay for my mistake good luck and if they dont play ball ring the vosa helpline and go from there

glenbat

cheers people
ive since picked the car up and it smokes for the first tens mins then clears completely, then if you switch it off and leave it for anything more than 5 mins, when you start it again it smokes for 10 mins as before. A friend reckons it could be valve stem oil seals, the smoking is oil leaked thru burning off? Any comments?

and do you know if they can be done without removing the head?

cossie604

iTrader: (2)

As his complaint is regarding a now dead car and not as to whether the actualy mot test was conducted correctly I dont think vosa will be able to help imo (im also a tester)

The smoke as you've just described it sounds like valve guides/seals....going by a forum post description only that is...altho that dont normaly just come on suddenly tbh. Really the engine is gonna need a strip down then a report done by an independant engineer to assertain the problem and to give you something to stand up in court with. You'll have to weigh up how much the car is worth once back to its previous state against how far you want to take it chap...normaly the general public wins against the motor trade in the small claims courts just because the motor trade already has a very bad rep anyhows.

Stu.