Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care

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Sun 25 Jun 2023 10:21
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - Scrooges Mentor

I am in dispute with a main dealer re: premature timing belt failure on a 2016 Focus Eco-Boost.

Timeline is as follows:

  • January 2022: Had work done to rectify oil-pickup blockage
  • June 2023: Timing belt fails @ 91K

I keep every bit of paperwork regarding the car - which has been main dealer maintained.

After the failure I checked every piece of paperwork and the job sheet from 2022 stood out as it stated that the oil-pickup blockage was due to cam belt fibers from an oil-dipped cam-belt.

I guess the two points I an trying to establish are:

  • Would it be reasonable to expect a main dealer to bring this explicitly to the attention of the customer? i.e. with an advisory on the job sheet stating that the cam-belt could be degrading and to seek further investigation?
  • Could failing to bring to the customers attention the cam-belt degradation be considered a breach of duty of care/negligence as the car was handed back with an issue the dealership was aware of, which was not brought to the customers attention, and could have catastrophic consequences for the engine (which it did).

My knowledge of car engines is zero - so everything I have learned over the last week is courtesy of google. I did not pick-up on the significance of the technical jargon on the job sheet relating to cam belt fibers. Until the last week or so - a car engine was as big a mystery to me as a warp drive on the star-ship Enterprise.

I am not seeking deep-dive legal advice, I just want to canvas opinion as to whether my expectation that I should have been notified about this is a reasonable one?

I know cam-belts can fail at at time, but in my case I believe that if the potential degradation was brought to my attention a year ago, then I could have taken corrective action by replacing the belt, and this whole mess could have been avoided.

Thanks in advance!

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Sun 25 Jun 2023 10:43
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - elekie&a/c doctor
Blocked oil pick up and strainer are the first signs of a failing cambelt. I would agree that the dealer should have advised a replacement belt at this stage. If the belt had been changed at this point , then you would not be in the current situation. Definitely go back and challenge them .
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Sun 25 Jun 2023 14:31
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - Andrew-T

I am not seeking deep-dive legal advice, I just want to canvass opinion as to whether my expectation that I should have been notified about this is a reasonable one?

I am sure that most even-minded people would consider your expectation to be reasonable, but unfortunately that often ends in disappointment when taking a car for servicing. When taking it in, it can be useful to ask questions which give the impression that you know what is expected of them, but as you say you know little about cars, that may be tricky. But it's clear from your account that they are aware of this problem and may have thought about doing something ; but as time is money and is often in short supply perhaps they chose not to.

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Sun 25 Jun 2023 16:11
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - Steveieb

Sounds like you are in for a long drawn out negotiation to get some recompense.

But speaking from two cases I know of , one where the owner negotiated by email and the other who visited the dealership in person up to three times a week , the personal approach won hands down.

That case was resolved in three months. The other still hasn’t been finalised after seven months !

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Sun 25 Jun 2023 16:41
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - Scrooges Mentor

Sounds like you are in for a long drawn out negotiation to get some recompense.

But speaking from two cases I know of , one where the owner negotiated by email and the other who visited the dealership in person up to three times a week , the personal approach won hands down.

That case was resolved in three months. The other still hasn’t been finalised after seven months !

Unfortunately time is of the essence as it is my wife's car, and it is off the road until this issues is resolved, one way or the other. I would like to think this will be solved amicably, but my gut instinct tells me that dealerships will always prioritize protecting their bottom line over doing the right thing, so I can see me having to get an engine replacement elsewhere and then small claims the dealership - all very unpleasant, and unnecessary.

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Sun 25 Jun 2023 16:35
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - Scrooges Mentor

I am not seeking deep-dive legal advice, I just want to canvass opinion as to whether my expectation that I should have been notified about this is a reasonable one?

I am sure that most even-minded people would consider your expectation to be reasonable, but unfortunately that often ends in disappointment when taking a car for servicing. When taking it in, it can be useful to ask questions which give the impression that you know what is expected of them, but as you say you know little about cars, that may be tricky. But it's clear from your account that they are aware of this problem and may have thought about doing something ; but as time is money and is often in short supply perhaps they chose not to.

The thrust of my argument is that there were three acceptable ways in which this could have been handled::

  • Put a customer advisory on the completed job sheet recommending that I seek a further evaluation of the belt. From their point this is a zero time and zero cost option as no actual work is required.
  • Do a quick belt inspection whilst the sump was dropped and report to customer. But as you say time is money.

  • Ring the customer recommending that they also perform a belt check whilst the sump is dropped at an additional cost of £X

I do not penny pinch on car maintenance, so had any of the above occurred I would have done whatever was needed to head-off possible future problems.

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Sun 25 Jun 2023 16:49
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - paul 1963

I agree with the others, the dealer really should have advised a belt change, I posted in separate thread the other day that new genuine Ford engine is approaching 6k!

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Sun 25 Jun 2023 17:11
Ford Focus Eco-Boost 1.0 (2016) - Main Dealer duty of care - Adampr

I would also expect a decent garage to tell their customer that cambelt fibres causing a blockage in the oil pickup indicated the need to change the belt.

In fact, with my usual garage, I would expect them to phone me once they worked out what the blockage is and ask if I wanted them to change the belt.

The service manager has messed up, and I suggest you speak to them and/or their boss in person to let them know that you expect them to repair the damage at no cost.

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