Timings, they are a chaining
I’m having a problem with Vauxhall and just wondered if you could give me your thoughts. I have a Vauxhall Zafira 2.2 SRI, registered 22.02.07 that has done 28,000miles. On Monday, it wouldn’t start so as it is less than three years old and should be under warranty, I got it towed to Vauxhall Perrys in Preston. They informed me the timing chain had slipped and probably caused a considerable amount of damage to the engine. Therefore, they had stopped work on it due to the expense of the repair and wanted all details of what I have done to the car including any service history. The car had its 20,000-mile service in July 08 and as it has only done 28,000 miles, I have not yet had another service. They say, irrelevant of mileage, it should have been serviced again in July 09 (6months ago). Therefore, they will not fix it under warranty. My point is that the vehicle has only done 28,000miles and is only coming up to 3 years old and should not have such a major fault occurring. I bought a new car so I wouldn’t be let down. How wrong can you be? Have you any advice on how I can fight my case?
You have caused this damage by your failure to service the car adequately and in particular your failure to have the oil changed sufficiently frequently. What happens is that contaminants in the dirty oil clog the oil feed to the timing chain tensioner that then cannot function properly leading the chain to slip. It needed an oil change at least every year regardless of mileage and preferably more often than that.
Answered by Honest John on
