Cam belt, service and mot

[alex180]

As above im well chuffed!! my mk2 180 flu through the mot last week woo hoo! Then it was down to staddons mg in budleigh salterton for the service and cam belt to be done, i got all the bits for them as i was sure i could get it cheaper spark plugs oil filter water pump cam belt kit and auxilary belt all for £200. Just picked it up again today the price for the labour and oil wasnt cheap £550 but the guys at mg where real nice and did a top top job and looked after her well so was more than happy plus the car still retains a full service history from the same dealer, they even washed and hovered it out for me.
Sorry ive kept on but am just so pleased shes back and sounding awsome that i needed to tell people :trampoline:

[peterzs]

Glad you are pleased with the service you recieved, have to put them in the trusted garages bit.

Nice to hear some good news about garages and service levels.

:yay::yay::yay:

[Jem]

Yea staddons are good,One of my past cars came from there,Budleigh seems to have some nice zeds going around but TBH i dont think i would buy one from there as Budleigh is mainly full of old people who seem to have some nice cars but they dont seem to know who to drive and look after them.

This was the advice from staddons in exmouth.

[alex180]

Well was on cloud 9 yesterday after getting my car back from the garage today however is not so good!!! I was travelling home to tiverton on the m5 just outside of Exeter at around 70 to 75mph when the car came to a clattering hault on the hard shoulder I open the bonnet to find a rubbery smelling smoke coming from the cambelt side of the engine i turned it over for a beef second but was very slugish, so called the rac they suspect it has jumped a tooth so to say I'm alittle gutted wood b a massive under statment!!!!!!

[KevG]

...I open the bonnet to find a rubbery smelling smoke coming from the cambelt side of the engine....

What side of the engine?, as they are 3 cambelts, the main belt on the drivers side and the 2 auxiliary belts (front and rear) on the passenger side of the engine.

[alex180]

It was coming up out of the drivers side bud so mush so I thought the car was on fire

[roverdave81]

sound to me that (staddons mg) will be have to pay up for a recon engine as they have only just fitted new belts hope you can get thing sorted with them and they dont try to mug you off let us know how you get on mate

[alex180]

Oh yes! they sure will mate and the £150 recovery charge, will keep you all posted on wot happens

[Jem]

I would be very surprized if it was crappy workmanship,As they have been MG/R dealers for years and ive never heared a bad word about them,My old man knows the parts manager and one of their head mechanics,Also the guy who does my car use to work for them and he has allways said they were great to work for without any problems mechanic wise.

Keep us posted will be interesting to know whats going on,Im sure if it is their problem they will right themselves they do go out of the way and help you as much as they can.

[MG6Turbo]

The problem you are going to have now is the fact you supplied your own parts !

I will not fit customer supplied parts on a job like this for this very reason.

I would suspect either the tensioner or idler has failed, causing the issue.

If it is a part you have supplied that has failed, then YOU will have to pay for the labour again and claim it back from the manufacturer of where you have bought the parts from. If it is off ebay, then good luck !

We did a clutch on a zt for a customer, and he bought this performance clutch off ebay. we fitted it even though i advised the customer against it, and the car didnt even make 200 miles before this super dooper clutch failed. So another lot of labour, plus the price of an oe clutch and he only got the cost of the previously purchased clutch, and no payment for labour to replace the broken item.

Car will probably get written off if it needs a new engine if the garage take responsibility.

George

[will-w]

It sucks I know but I'm with George on this one, but I pray for your sake that we're wrong!

A large majority of garages won't give a guarantee when fitting customer supplied parts, although they should have told you this when you said you'd buy the parts..

I was going to buy the cambelt kit for my derv to save a few quid, but decided it would be best to let the garage source the bits so I could hold them 100% accountable.. Hopefully I'll never have to, but it's worth the extra £40 or so of 'insurance' (if you wanna call it that!)

I for example supplied some new rear 180 calipers to go on the rear of the derv after the original ones seized, well these ones have just gone too - I'm not going to even try call the garage as I knew the risk when I supplied the parts :(

Will

[Jem]

Ok not the same but i bought reversing sensors of the net and got a place to fit them to my car not this one,But they kept on going off i was 99%sure they had fitted them to low but they wouldn't have it nope sir its not to low its your sensors.

Ive now learned my lesson i would want to pay that little bit more so then if something goes wrong that place can sort it out.

Obviously if its someting thats not going to be to much of a hassle then i still get it of the net.

[Jem]

When i phoned up staddons last year to ask them how much will it be for a cambelt change they said it will be £450 and a full service would be £200,He was telling me how they change the cambelt and was saying if its low milage then you can go over the 4years.

[alex180]

Well the kit I got was bought from kevin coopers where my uncle works, dayco is the name of the kit I receved from them so no it was not a fle bay jobby! The chaps at staddons have had the car back today and have found that a tensior had chattered causing the problem. Talks between dayco and staddons will commence tomorrow so will have to leave it to them for the time being and see what happens wood just like to say David from staddons was shocked about what he found with the car and has been very undrstanding and most helpfull

[Jem]

Thats good to know,David is one of the good guys some garages might try to wiggle out of it.

[alex180]

That's very true mate and as you have said he has done and will do all he can to help. After speaking with him today I do belive that the kit is at fault and NOT the workmanship that is to blame, thank you to all for your replys and advice will keep you informed

[shcKr-]

I hope it all gets sorted out mate, sounds a bit of a mess :(

[MG6Turbo]

Very unusual for a new tensioner to fail, makes you wonder did it get changed at all?

Did you get the old parts back?

This will be interesting to see the outcome, as i myself have waited 4 months for a warranty claim for a clutch i had fail after 200 miles. Lucky it was on my own car so i didnt have a customer to report to.

G

[roverdave81]

any news matey on whats going on yet

[mattie007]

I had a cambelt change around 2 and half years ago. When I had my head gasket replaced last year and belts done again, the original belts were not set to the correct timing! This was done by one of these 'ex MGR specialist' garages aswell!

As George has said, ask for the original parts so you know the new ones are on.

Good luck with the claim.

[alex180]

No news as yet guys still waiting on an external report to take place but I have been down to see the car the belt is still intact and still in place it appears at the moment! the idle wheel has failed but untill the hole kit gets tested along with the new water pump that was put on no one really knows what has gone on but as I get some feed back I will let you all know.

[roverdave81]

any news on your car yet mate

[Jem]

Hope it doesn't take to long Alex bet you are getting anxious about the outcome.

[alex180]

Well the assessor has finaly been down and has done his report he is sure that the pre tensor bearing failed over heating and melting the belt which in turn took out the idler the parts and reports are now on there way to the manufacturer for testing mean while staddons are now looking into wots been damaged internally so its a waiting at the mo and yeah I'm alittle nervious but I'm sure things will get sorted? Some how lol as before will keep you all posted

[Jem]

Glad you are getting a bit closer to know whats going on,So have you got one of thier loan cars?

[alex180]

No I didn't get one as was a bit short notice so have had to put my zr back on the road after a year lol and to my suprise she flew through mot bit of a bonus realy all things considered!

[MG6Turbo]

Out of a matter of interest what parts did you replace and were you given the old parts back? I have never known a new tensioner to fail, but have seen old ones fail and also idler wheels fail.

I would say that maybe the parts werent replaced and were kept for some reason.

I would deffo ask about my old parts. We always give people there old parts back so they know that they have been removed and replaced.

George

[alex180]

All the parts where from kevin coopers which included a water from QH and the cam belt kit from a company called dayco, plugs and an oil filter. When I picked the car up David from staddons showed me all old bits so am in no dought at all that the new parts where fitted

[Tony10]

any update on this one?

[Jem]

Ive just been to staddons and i just made myself look a right numpty,I was told one of my brake lights wasn't working,Yea i checked the bulbs they seemed fine but for some reason none of the brake lights were working when i was checking it over,So i took myself over to staddons as soon as i drove in the chap said they are working all but one,Turned out one of the bulbs had gone even though i checked it.

While i was in the garage i saw a nice Red 180 real nice bodykit shame it doesn't go yep alex it was your one,Shame its not fixed yet.

[jmcleavy]

Thats bad luck mate, glad i read this cos even though my 180 has only got 44000 on the clock i have been advised that i should still get the belts done.

Guess its gonna make sense to get it done at a garage who supply the parts, if only for peace of mind.

Just picking the right garage.

Any recommendations appreciated guys, would travel to a certain extent but live in Hull

[MG ZS STE]

Well the assessor has finaly been down and has done his report he is sure that the pre tensor bearing failed

Hello mate, did you not get the tensioner replaced as part of the service? i have read that the tensioner can be replaced at every alternate cambelts change but as a matter of course you may as well get it done while youve got the belts off for the sake of the extra ?40.

[alex180]

Well guys it's been a long time since I last posted on here but to day after 17 months lots of solicitors bills and massive headaches I now have my mk2 180 back in one piece and in full working order with a new engine curtesy of the garage, To say im pleased she's home is an understatement! It's been a long time coming, Yes I have fort hard to get my car back and yes it was expensive to do so but im my oppinion these cars are worth every penny! Now time to enjoy her and hopefully get to afew meets

[ZS-GIXER]

Who took responsibility for the damage? and did you get all your costs back mate?

[big_wasa]

yeh tell us the ins and outs, I guess the garage didnt want to swallow the repair ?

[daytona365]

My idler pully broke.................Sheered right in two!!

[alex180]

When if first happened I went strate for the cambelt company who put it down to poor fittment the garage didn't take to kindly to that but offered me no help to prove other wise so ended up paying for an independent engineers reports to be done the report went either way saying both garage and cambelt company where at fault, after this things wernt going any where with nether party accepting fault in part or full so I got a solicitor involved he advised Me to get a 2nd report done which pointed the finger strate at the garage so the solicitor went with the report which stated 3 masive reasons why they where at fault, then started to make a claim against them, after alot of emails between them and my solicitor some good some not! We ended up on an agreement which left me paying for my own legal costs and reports n the garage paying to repair my car. To this day the garage believe they where not at fault and only repaired my car as a good will guesture even though they where the last people to touch it befor it went epically wrong funny though they were adamant for the matter not to go to court!

Sorry if that was abit of a read guys I'm dyslexic and really struggle to explain things so I hope it makes some sort of sence

[tcb 180]

You were lucky to resolve that tbh in the way you did. The garage fitted your own independently sourced parts and ended up footing the bill for a new engine. Nice result for you but I suspect it was a faulty component and the supplier got off scot free. LATES 600 every time for me. Well worth the journey.

[ZS-GIXER]

It's still cr@p that you are what appears to be a lot of money out of pocket for all the solicitors bills and inspections.

[pheelay]

Woah, that's quite a story. Must have been a gruelling 17 months and with no ZS! What are the 3 reasons they gave for faulting the garage? I can't see a cam belt failing so soon after being fitted unless something was fitted wrong, even if it was a cheapo belt.

Interestingly, over here when I needed a head-gasket changed, the garage I went to didn't want (or didn't know how?) to source the parts. They specifically asked me to get my own parts and as long as they were genuine MGR, would guarantee the work. Still charged a bomb and bet I'd have the same battle if something did go wrong.

Glad you have your pride and joy back :thumbsup:

[alex180]

After the problem occurred I got her taken back to the garage for them to find what had happened, when I went down there to see the aftermath the manager said to me that they where concerned about the clearance between the tensor bearing and the bracket it's attached to but fitted it anyway! He even said this to my solicitor! Dayco's own report after testing the components came back saying there where no faults in the bearing or bracket so it was down to poor fitment or adjustment. The 2nd report on the parts and cars damage stated it was soley down to fitment / adjustment and there for the garages problem! 1st reason from the report was if the garage wernt happy with the part why did they fit it and not phone the owner to voice there concerns 2nd after the tensor was being adjusted to the tence position against the belt they my hav inadvertently undone the 8mm alankey bolt holding the bearing to the bracket alowing it to move and rub the bracket over heating the bearing and melting the belt destroying the plastic idler pulley cant really remember the 3rd but I can tell you that all this has ended up costing me over £4500 just in bills but life goes on and there is alot worse happening in the world today So I do count myself as lucky ive got her back although I believe it could have been avoided

[tcb 180]

A good result however. Typical of the modern world, you will always end up out of pocket. Nevertheless, enjoy her now you've got her back.