I still fail to understand why your garage would fit a new alternator to a car with a seized engine ?

Alternators work on a three phase principal. Sometimes, the electrical windings in one phase fails and you will get a smell of burning and smoke from the alternator. One solution is to cut the drive belt so that the alternator is not rotating. You can then drive the car a short distance ( this depends on the state of charge of your battery ). As your's was flat, the AA Patrol fitted a fully charged replacement. You said that your car is a Renault Megane 1500 diesel ?. Despite what angrycrow would have you believe, the removal and replacement time for an alternator on this vehicle ( according to Autodata ) is 2 hours and 10 minutes.

PS : I think you're being a little harsh when you say that the car should have been repaired by " a professional mechanic ", as most of the AA Patrols are highly qualified and have usually come from main dealerships. I've been in the motor trade for over 40 years, so I've met quite a lot of them. Some of them I would employ tomorrow without question.

This is all very strange !. Why did the garage tighten the crank pulley bolt without first fitting a new woodruff key - that doesn't make sense. Secondly, they say that the timing belt was o/k. Therefore the AA Patrol could not have damaged this. Not quite sure what the Patrol was doing in your engine, but it would have been easier to just cut the alternator drive belt with a Stanley knife as it almost certainly needed a new belt anyway. Can't understand how the engine was running one minute, and was then locked solid the next. More to this than meets the eye, and I still think that you're blaming the AA man ( unfairly ) until it is established EXACTLY what the fault is with the engine. The main fuse would blow if you tried to start the engine if it was seized ( caused by excessive Amp draw by the starter motor ).

Angrycrow, if the alternator drive belt stuck to the crank pulley, the torque on the pulley would snap the drive belt. The only way that the timing belt could be affected, is when the alternator drive belt is shredded and parts of the belt get behind the crank pulley. Regarding an alternator replacement, yes on some cars it's quite straight forward, but on others it can take about an hour and a half to do. These are still capable of being done, but would you want to do it in the rain or cold on your driveway ?. Remember, the AA is emergency breakdown assistance, not a mobile repair mechanic service. The AA Patrol did what he could under the circumstances. Let's wait and see what the OP tells us what's exactly wrong with his engine. By the way, the Fiat Punto engine is an interference engine and it will bend the valves if the timing belt fails, I've done one very recently. Most engines are interference nowadays, and you'd have to go back to a Ford Sierra or Vauxhall Cavalier for examples of a 'safe' engine.

Some engines are notorious for seized spark plugs. The garage should be aware of these and should have advised you that the plugs may snap. It would be up to you then to give them permission to proceed. I have refused to remove spark plugs in the past for exactly this reason. Spark plugs are getting smaller, and there is more of a propensity for them to snap. I honestly doubt if you would be successful in winning a claim unless you could prove that the mechanic was negligent. The next step is to have the engine examined by an independent engineer who would be prepared to testify in Court if necessary on his findings.

Why is this a consumer action issue ? You would be better posting this on a VW technical forum.

Apart from the exhaust blow, none of the other items would cause an m.o.t failure. Most engines leak oil to some degree. I'm guessing your car is a diesel, because they tend to vibrate more than petrol engines. If you've had work done on the clutch and exhaust, take it back to the garage, as these items should be covered under their warranty.

So what EXACTLY is the fault with your engine ?. It appears to me ( as a qualified mechanic ), that the alternator was possibly burnt out and that the AA Patrol was attempting to remove the drive belt so that you could drive the car to the garage. Obviously, because the alternator was faulty, the battery would be flat. The Patrol has fitted another battery in order for you to start the car. The fact that the car would not start implies another fault. Why didn't the garage try and start your car BEFORE fitting a new alternator and drive belt ?. I think that you are unfairly blaming the AA, and need to question your garage with regard to THEIR actions in relation to your car.

Love it !. Keep us posted how it's going.

Protection of Freedoms Act - 2012

Firstly it's not a fine, it's a speculative invoice. There are no signs for the parking company in your photos, have they provided you with photographic evidence of your ' offence ', showing your vehicle actually parked ?. It would help if you could post up a redacted copy of their letter so we would know exactly what they are accusing you of. I don't think you'll have a problem with this one, but you will have to go through the motions and play the game. More experienced advice will be along shortly.

Scaniaman, you are right. I took a Ford Focus into a Ford main dealer as that's where our customer wanted to go. The fault was a failed alternator. The receptionist told the customer that there would be a £90 diagnostic fee. You can diagnose a failed alternator in a few minutes, but £90 is their standard diagnostic fee. Some garages will knock off the diagnostic fee if they repair the vehicle, but others won't.

Firstly, report the matter to the Police. Your vehicle has been stolen. The auction house are not liable as you have paid for the vehicle and taken control of the keys. Being in the motor trade myself, £100 is not unreasonable to transport a heavy vehicle for 22 miles. Don't forget, it's 22 miles back again for the truck. The fuel used and the driver's wages will add up to this amount. If you can find a recovery company willing to do a 44 mile round trip for £35, let me know and I will use them for my recovery work !

I think the Institute of the Motor Industry are taking the lead on this and are really pushing it now. They already have a voluntary system in place ( which I'm registered for ), but if the current ' Technicians ' are set in their ways either through bad practice or lack of training, then this is what they pass on to their apprentices.

It makes you despair !. The sooner a licensing system is brought in for mechanics ( similar to the Gas Safe / Corgi registration for gas engineers ) the better. This will sort out the cowboys.

As a qualified mechanic of over 40 years myself, I have to disagree with you slightly on point 2 Conniff. I would have replaced the drive belt, cured the coolant leak and then test drove the car to ensure that the cooling system was functioning normally. If it was all o/k, I would then have serviced the rest of the car to finish off the job. No point in servicing a car with a blown head gasket. Other than that, I agree with all your previous posts.

Wear and tear items are not covered by any warranty, not just the AA's Breakdown Repair Cover. What made you ask about the timing chain when you took out your cover ? Did you know that it was already worn ?. I recently had to recover a car which was only 3 days old with 273 miles on the clock which had snapped the timing chain. That is obviously covered by the warranty, A car with many thousands of miles on the clock with a stretched timing chain wouldn't be. You haven't said what type of car you have or the mileage. The AA would have paid for your coil, which the Patrol could have fitted at the roadside if that was the only fault. Depending in the type of car, these are around £50 for a quality item. Don't forget that you have a £35 excess to pay, plus the AA does not pay for diagnostic fees. Some dealers will charge you around £100 for that if the fault is not immediately obvious I.e : something like a water pump failure or broken drive shaft. You can't expect somebody else to foot the bill for wear and tear on your car. The AA's repair cover is for the sudden failure of a part which stops the car, not for ongoing wear and tear. You will get this response from any warranty company so I don't think the AA have done anything wrong on this occasion. Cancel your policy and try another warranty company. Not everything is somebody else's fault.

Duplicate post, sorry.

In your post above, you contradict yourself firstly by saying that the AA Patrol didn't know what was wrong with your car, and secondly by saying that when you arrived at the garage, the Patrol told the mechanic that there was a fault with the timing chain. I suspect that the Patrol knew immediately what was wrong with your car, but spoke to some of his technical colleagues in the office to confirm his diagnosis. The Patrol was right to tow the car, because if he allowed you to drive it and the chain snapped the AA would be liable for a new engine. Some cars are notable for worn timing chains ( particularly Vauxhall, Seats / VW and some Ford models ). Again, I suspect your initial breakdown was caused by the ignition coil as the engine would be misfiring and running rough. This would make the worn timing chain to be even more evident. Timing chains can break suddenly, but in your case it has become worn over a period if time and the AA were quite right to refuse a claim for wear and tear. The PCV valve ( positive crankcase ventilation ) would not cause a breakdown and is a relatively inexpensive component. As any garage has a duty to repair a vehicle to the manufacturers standard, your refusal to have the worn timing chain repaired meant that the vehicle could not be repaired to this standard, hence the AA's refusal of your claim. If the timing chain was o/k, then I'm sure that the AA would have paid for the cause of the breakdown i.e : the faulty ignition coil. This could perhaps have been done by the Patrol at the roadside. I'm not sure if they would have paid for the PCV valve though. All engines or mechanical components are subject to wear and tear and yet you don't seem to be able to accept this. You also state that if your timing chain snaps at a later date, the AA will be ' happy ' to pay out for that claim. I very much doubt that as it will now be logged in their records that you refused to have a worn timing chain replaced. Your claim will be rejected. You might think that I'm being a little harsh, but I'm just giving you my practical advice as a motor mechanic for over 40 years, and my experience of dealing with the AA for the Breakdown Repair Cover claims that come into my garage.

If they are claiming that they issued a NTD, then they must provide proof of that by something like photographic evidence of your car with the ticket on the windscreen. They cannot issue a ticket to a moving vehicle.

Just a reminder NOT to identify the driver, or even their gender.

The usual practice of parking companies is to send a Notice to Keeper, stating on the back something along the lines of " Any appeals must include the name and a serviceable address of the driver ". They are trying it on with this, as you have no legal obligation to name the driver. They only include this because they know that there is no keeper liability so they're relying on you to tell them who to chase.

If this progresses to the point where you need some photos of the signs, I will gladly go and take some and e-mail them to you as I live quite near to the airport.

In the " About " section on their website, it says that they " Work with the DVLA....blah...blah.....to obtain the keepers details ". The whole website makes interesting reading, but their repeated use of the phrase " Penalty Charge " won't get them very far in Law.