Hi Guys, Haven't posted in a while but been keeping an eye on things. Anyway the car is just about 5 years old now, I've had it for 4 of those. I would have changed it before now but like a lot of you, the car hasn't seen much use. I've only done about 2000 miles in the last year. So it was due its service and a cambelt. I opted to get it done at the dealership for peace of mind. The car only has 30600 on the clock, it had 14000 on it when I got it at a year old. So anyway, I got the car back late Monday afternoon and didn't touch it until Tuesday morning. Was going to pickup my wife from work at 8:30am and only got a couple of minutes from home when there was a clunk and the engine cut out. It wouldn't start, the starter just seemed to be spinning, no warning lights on the dash. I had to let it roll back down the hill I was on to get it to a safe place, not easy at school run time with no power steering or servo'd braking. Phoned assistance and someone was there within the hour and it was loaded onto the flatbed and back to the dealers. Anyway, got the dreaded phonemail from them this afternoon, the tensioner has failed. Car is in the process of being stripped down to see if there is any other damage. I've got a 21 plate Fabia to run about in for the time being. What are your feelings on this. Hopefully seeing as its the dealership dealing with this, It will get repaired properly surely? Has anyone else had the misfortune of a cam belt or tensioner failure? How did things go for you? Did you keep the car afterwards or did you get shot? These are the questions running through my brain at the moment. In all the time I've had the car, nothing has ever went wrong, only money spent up till now has been on petrol, servicing and a set of tyres.
New cambelt fitted, tensioner fails within 24hrs!!!
- Thread starter james.milroy
- Start date
Which engine is in your car?
Makes you a bit sick when "doing as advised" by your SEAT dealership wrecks things that doing that was meant to avoid being wrecked!
I'm sure it will get sorted out, that workshop will not be happy to be forking out to repair it though, so go over everything well as soon as you get it back.
This is exactly why I'm always dreading getting these belts replaced, should be n easy job though to get right.
Makes you a bit sick when "doing as advised" by your SEAT dealership wrecks things that doing that was meant to avoid being wrecked!
I'm sure it will get sorted out, that workshop will not be happy to be forking out to repair it though, so go over everything well as soon as you get it back.
This is exactly why I'm always dreading getting these belts replaced, should be n easy job though to get right.
That's my take. You're not paying for better mechanics, you're paying for better back up in situations like this.
Having said that, I know of plenty of cases were dealers have tried to wriggle out by denying responsibility or blaming the customer so it's far from cut and dried. You just have to hope they do the right thing and take care of you.
This is also the exact reason I prefer to use a reputable VAG specialist. I use Midland VW for all my work, including cam belt and waterpump change last year. I just think a proper specialist is far more knowledgeable and passionate about their work.
Hopefully Seat fully repair all the damage done to the OP car and fully cover the cost.
Hopefully Seat fully repair all the damage done to the OP car and fully cover the cost.
I've had my 184FR for four years, and now it's five years old, I've got it booked in at my SEAT dealer for a cambelt/waterpump change in a couple of weeks. I hope we use different dealers!
I think this is almost certainly true most of the time. I used to know a guy who had been a Vauxhall master technician and he said the same. He said the mechanics in dealer have allotted times for any given job. They are under pressure to get jobs done.
The main reason for using a dealer is that it looks good in the book. Also, if they choose to play ball, they have the full resources of the manufacturer behind them. If the car needs a new engine, they can get one.
There are pros and cons to everything.
Its a 1.4 ECOTSI ACT FR and the engine is CZEA according to sticker in the service book. I think it goes without saying that it will be an interference engine. It'll be interesting to see what the damage is, or if I'll even find out. I've been given a 21 plate Fabia for the time being, Dealership will contact me Monday at the earliest with an update.
If it’s the ACT engine then another member had similar issues if I remember right. If you search Laser Tools on the internet there is a warning for the cam belt locking tool being over tightened causing damage? In over 50 years of vehicle engineering experience I have never seen a new tensioner fail, and probably only a couple of 100k examples just get noisy etc. Hope you get sorted.
I read about potential issues with the ACT engine before I got my belt done and it was one of the reasons I went with a dealer. Not always a good idea it seems.
Main dealers muck up all the time, I've heard about it many times. They're not gods, they're just mechanics.
You would certainly think and hope that would be the case, I can tell you though from experience as a Staff Engineer with AA Technical Services that I examined absolutely loads of dealer muck ups, on virtually all makes where the correct procedure had not been followed. One interesting case was a Main Dealer Master Tech who fitted a square tooth profile timing belt, on an engine that had round tooth profile pulleys! Cylinder head gaskets fitted upside down, clutch plates fitted the wrong way etc etc. I personally know some top notch master tech’s but they seem to be few and far between. Modern engines are full of trip ups if you don’t keep your eye on the ball, no timing marks, pulleys on tapers with no keyway and pulleys that are not even circular means lots of things to go wrong unfortunately.
I’ve just remembered another, workshop manual and literature in the timing belt box clearly states “only turn the tensioner counter clockwise” So which way do you think that it got turned so that the timing belt rubbed against itself on its opposing run, resulting in engine failure two weeks later, go on have a guess 
Maybe luckily for me, when its cambelt time for my wife's 1.2TSI 16V 110PS Polo, it will be going to a VAG Indie.
I've had a new cambelt tensioned so tightly on a Ford CVH engine that it "sang" and would have probably "sorted out" the new water pump if I did not take it back to get sorted out by my Ford main dealer, also that same Ford main dealer replaced a heater matrix under warranty, and when fitting it snapped off part of the plastic end cover/pipe mounting points, I knew that because they left the broken off bits under the driver's seat, so that was another "return to dealer". Funnily enough same Ford main dealer fitted the wrong spark plugs to my Orion Ghia Injection - when challenged the service manager said "that is the correct plug now, a change in spec" - strangely their parts store had none of the correct plugs in stock, their showroom had a new car still using the original spec of plug and their petrol station still had stocks of the correct plugs, so as I had none my homework before facing the service manager, he did the only thing he could "book it back in next week" which did not work as next week I was driving to Cornwall on holiday, so I bought a new set of the correct ones, fitted them, and handed the wrong set back in for a full refund after coming back from holiday, a bit annoying, but easily fixable in my cases.
Another Ford main dealer, I took my MK2 Escort 1600 Ghia into for its service, went to collect it only to be told "lucky you handed that car in, its engine has just blown up" when I quizzed the apprentice about what was wrong, he said that it would not start after getting an oil change, as I couldn't face getting the bus back to work, I suggested that he removed the plugs and dried them off, 10 minutes later I was driving back to work after being handed that car back, funny old world eh?
I've had a new cambelt tensioned so tightly on a Ford CVH engine that it "sang" and would have probably "sorted out" the new water pump if I did not take it back to get sorted out by my Ford main dealer, also that same Ford main dealer replaced a heater matrix under warranty, and when fitting it snapped off part of the plastic end cover/pipe mounting points, I knew that because they left the broken off bits under the driver's seat, so that was another "return to dealer". Funnily enough same Ford main dealer fitted the wrong spark plugs to my Orion Ghia Injection - when challenged the service manager said "that is the correct plug now, a change in spec" - strangely their parts store had none of the correct plugs in stock, their showroom had a new car still using the original spec of plug and their petrol station still had stocks of the correct plugs, so as I had none my homework before facing the service manager, he did the only thing he could "book it back in next week" which did not work as next week I was driving to Cornwall on holiday, so I bought a new set of the correct ones, fitted them, and handed the wrong set back in for a full refund after coming back from holiday, a bit annoying, but easily fixable in my cases.
Another Ford main dealer, I took my MK2 Escort 1600 Ghia into for its service, went to collect it only to be told "lucky you handed that car in, its engine has just blown up" when I quizzed the apprentice about what was wrong, he said that it would not start after getting an oil change, as I couldn't face getting the bus back to work, I suggested that he removed the plugs and dried them off, 10 minutes later I was driving back to work after being handed that car back, funny old world eh?
If memory serves this is / was an issue with Laser's clone of the VAG tool not being designed properly and causing camshaft alignment issues as a result, rather than a problem with VAG's own tool.
A Seat dealer will be using the proper VAG tools not third party clones.
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