S60 Timing Belt Wont Go Back Over All Things

Originally Posted by majic

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:33 pm Post subject: New cam belt broken. Who's responsible?

In May our Renault Scenic reached 120,000 kilometres (we live in France) and we were advised by our Renault garage that the cam belt should be changed, per Renault's own recommendation.

We agreed and were presented with a bill for just over 600 euros.

Five months on and 6,000 kilometres later, the new cam belt broke, and caused extensive damage! We have now been presented with an estimate, from the same garage, for 1,800 euros for parts and labour, excluding the cam belt, which was still under warranty. The labour costs amount to nearly half the estimate. The replacement parts include gaskets, 4 inlet valves, 4 exhaust valves, water pump, alternator, and some bits which I can't translate in to English, but certainly contain the word for cam belt.

Question 1. Would a broken cam belt be likely to cause immediate damage to those parts listed above?

Question 2. Are we then liable for the whole bill, or should the garage pick up the tabs for fitting a (presumably) faulty cam belt?

NB I am a complete ignoramus with all things mechanical!

Answer to question 1, sometimes a broken cam belt can result in a replacement of whole new engine(can be a reused good working engine) as it better & cost effective that way....there are companies usually (engineering firms, buy your kind of faulty engines and make them back to working order & sell them back in the market, mind you they are very good at doing these kind of job)

Answer to question 2, where did you serviced your renualt, is it at the authorised renault dealers? If that is the case you have a high chance for them to take responsibility. But renualt have a bad repo with customer service (which company these days doesn't if you look at watchdog) as I could only hear them.

You need to find out more about your car.....

I believe this is the second timing belt change for the car. You have to check what other components are usually changed when the timing belt is ready for a change....

Check whether these changes are reflected on your bill. The bill has to state all the replacement parts, components, etc.

Don't worry about what had happened...Be happy that it does not result in an accident or something even more painful.

Normally when we changed the timing belt it will be given a warranty which is totally different from guarantee.

One could say you were unlucky.

1. Check the broken belt is the original product.

2. Try to find out at what tension the belt should be.

3. Check with the garage where they replaced it & enquire this with them.

4. Ask them what instrument they used for checking the tension.

All these can be done over a phone call & ask to be spoken to the chief mechanic. If you can record the telephone conversation, then do it.

This information might be useful in the event of a small claims court.

Advice, sould you go this path... it will take time & more money(solicitors fee)

In most case you can get back your money & car (working). My advice is you should buy a second hand car to accommodate your current needs & do all this.

Before you proceed this path, remember your car had travelled more than 6000 km, that means it ready for another servicing, which I guess you wanted to do before this thing happened. Your case is a very difficult one, no doubt a timing belt can do 50/60k km, there are other factors that contribute to the long life of the timing belt, example regular servicing is one factor, driving habit, etc

I hope the above info is useful for you :)

S60 Timing Belt Wont Go Back Over All Things

Source: https://www.rac.co.uk/discuss/forum/any-questions/technical-and-maintenance-questions/9446-new-cam-belt-broken-who-s-responsible

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