I own a 2007 Citroen C3, I bought it new and it has been dealer maintained. The service book states that the cam belt must be replaced at 100,000 miles but mine failed at 80,000 miles.

There is no obvious cause, the water pump etc is fine, the engine just stopped working when I was driving in town at about 25 mph. Citroen say that the repair would be covered by warranty if the belt had snapped but as several teeth came off rather than the belt breaking it is not covered. I don't understand why, as the belt must be faulty for the teeth to come off without any obvious cause just as it would have to be to snap without any contributory fault to be covered by the warranty.

As I see it they supplied a car with a cam belt that did not last the 100,000 miles they say it will or the 100,000 mile interval (which used to be 80.000 on the previous model) is too long.

In either case the fault seems to be theirs. The dealer is being helpful but the matter is with Citroens customer services and they take up to 5 working days to respond to "cases". If they don't cover this I will be faced with a labour charge in excess of £1000 to repair the car because of a faulty belt which just doesn't seem right.

Can you offer any advice / help and would I have a case if I took Citroen to the small claims court for supplying goods (the cam belt) that did not meet the standard that they specified?