Garage Vs Customer, who should pay??

[sickofscams]

A few month ago ,my car broke down, rang rac to tow home, ran diagnostic and showed it was mis-firing on one of the cylinders. was told either c oil pack or a broken valve. After replacing coil pack myself afetr instuctions from rac man and was easy to do, it was clear it was not the fault as still mis firing.

Went to garage for compression test, it showed that a valve or 2 needed replacing. got a quote for £500, left at garage for week to be fixed, before it went in the was a small oil leak. Got the car back all fixed, running well. but noticed that there was blue smoke comming from exhaust when i stared it. Had it to garage again said could be the piston rings but if i go to halford and get oil containing teflon they would drain the oil system and fill with new teflon oil which would coat the cylinder to help the problem. Did not bother went for 2nd opinion, and was asked does blue smole come out when starting and after not driving for while when engine cools down, said yes it does.

said it is the valve stem oil seals, took for mot to 3rd garage and failed on the emmissions due to burning oil from valve stem oil seals. Now problem is should the enitial repair have covered this problem or looked into as they repairing the valves anyway, this is gonna cost £300 + to have the cylinder head removed again to replace the valve stem oil seals and also a new cylinder head gaskit kit renewed again .

Do you think the 1st garage is at fault or will i have to grin and bear it,

Thanks

[raydetinu]

was it burning oil ( blue smoke )before you took it the first garage with the misfire?

I would certainly take it back to the first garage and at least discuss the valve seal problem. they should have replaced these with the new valves, but maybe these ones are not the problem. Ayway if head was off it would have been worthwhile replacing all the seals and reseating all the valves, would not of cost much more. you need to check exactly what they did.

[Stressed Out and Worried]

I have an Astra 1999 model which the head gasket went on. I had an RAC warranty on the car which was 6 months and so I had the car taken in for repair in Jan 09. The garage telephoned me and said that the warranty would not cover all the work and so I had to pay £250 of the £600 bill. The garage told me that they would have to replace the cambelt on the car due to taking the head of the engine off which I agreed with although I had had a new cambelt 6 months earlier when I had purchased the car. Anyhow yesterday I was on my way to Bournemouth when the car made a noise and came to a stop. I called my RAC recovery who came and told me that the cambelt had gone and I had to be towed. I am livid as I had paid out only 2 months ago for a new cambelt and have receipts to this effect. I telephoned the garage today who have come to collect the car but are denying that they have any duty to do anything about it at the moment as they feel that the cambelt may have gone due to something else ie. the water pump. I did not have any problems with the car especially the water pump. They have the car now and are going to look at it to see what caused the problem but I have a very strong feeling that they are going to deny liability. Can anyone give me any advice. Obviously the problem is down to them being as it was only 2 months ago. This cambelt going is going to cost now around £1000 to repair. Can I take action against this garage if they deny liability for the damage. Thanks

[raydetinu]

would of been better to start a new thresd; however you need to gat an independant engineers report first to establish the precise cause of the failure; cambelt or some other such as a seized water pump! then you will be able see what to do next.