I\'m sure the small print says I\'m liable for any damage these guys do, but I\'d like a second opinion from those who may have been here before!
I drove my \'96 Audi A4 Tdi to fill up with diesel yesterday afternoon after running on the empty light for a little to long. As pulled up to the pump, I ran out completly!
Thinking that this was pretty good timing, I filled up, paid, but couldnt start the car again. Obviously the pump needed priming again so I didnt keep cranking the engine as I know what can happen. So I called my breakdown company out to prime it for me.
After waiting two hours the \'mechanic\' turned up. He obviously couldnt be bothered to prime the pump (even though I asked him to) so got his can of easystart out - sprayed it into the inlet piping and made me continuosly crank the engine. After a few disturbing pops and bangs there came a nasty screetching sound. He made me try the starter a couple more times and all we heard was a whirring / screething sound.
In his words, the starter must have been a bit tired and the gears had been stripped, I common ecent. So he towed me home.
I\'ve just managed to get the starter off the car.. and my worst fears are confirmed. The starter\'s fine - but the flywheel has 6 of it\'s teeth stripped - and I can only find 4 of them.
Immediatley I\'m thinking of shouting at the his employer and getting them to pay for the repair.. but what chance have I got of that happening??
At this point *any* advice will be welcome :(
Company names removed. No naming/shaming please. DD
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Did the garage have CCTV? Was there a camera pointing at your car at the time?
Under the data protection act you are allowed a copy of the tape the whole time you where there for the cost of £10 & they have 28 days to supply it.
If this idiot has been caught on video tape the the breakdown company would most likey pay for the repairs to your car instead of going to court & getting bad press.
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I dare say, what the breakdown mechanic did, was hyraulic the engine on the easystart, this is VERY easy to do, Easystart says on the can not to be used in diesels, Easystart can also build up in the intake manifold, and when the engine starts it will rev to the rev limiter, as there is no throttle plate but plenty of fuel (ether)
I doubt these cars aren\'t self-priming, they all seem to have been for a while now, and you just have to crank.
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Sooty - what do you mean by hydraulic?
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Sooty - what do you mean by hydraulic?
I\'m guessing he means turn the cylinders into swimming pool with too much liquid in there and not fine mists of diesel.
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Thanks for this.
I\'ve been searching a little and I can see that this can actually be a very distructive state for the engine to experiance.
I\'m hoping that the easystart caused a backfire, the force of which caused the flywheel and starter to conflict - and the flywheel came of worse. Bit of an anoying outcome really ;)
I\'ll be on the phone to the the breakdown company on Monday.. mentioning the CCTV tape I\'ll be able to find (thanks Lee:) but I won\'t be expecting much..
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Hi
If you do go for the CCTV tape option, be quick, They are not kept for long before they are recorded over.
There will be some signs up at the garage saying who runs the CCTV & there contact details, Give them a ring & ask if they have captured you, your car & the breakdown idiot on tape.
You only have to pay the £10 when you ask for a copy of the tape.
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And let us know what happens.
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Boris,
Is there any sort of provision for bleeding the engine manually ?
These days most diesel engines bleed with a bit of spinning over on the starter. Easy start has been about for many years and was originally used in very cold weather to start a reluctant diesel.
It\'s still useful these days for firing up an engine - and getting it running for long enough for the pump to take over.
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Not that I\'m aware of, the Haynes manual just tells you to fill up the fuel filter to alleviate the need to bleed. There\'s certainly nothing as obvious as a pump to push.
I just nipped to Halfords and checked the directions of a can of easystart. It does state that for a diesel, to spray when cranking the engine. I suppose this doesnt make for clear cut negligence now ?
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I would be very tempted to ask Audi U.K. if Easystart should have be used on this car.
If they say no, It would be nice to have it in writing.
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Just undo the fuel pipe at the injector pump and buy a hand suction pump and suck the fuel through to the pump.
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I had problems when using solvent cleaner in the intakes, and then when I cam to start the car it would hardly turn over and sounded awful. Oooops! I didn\'t even use that much. A couple of years later, I replaced the cylinder head, and saw why, the top of the piston stops about 2mm from the valves and head. There isn\'t much room at all at top dead centre on a diesel with high compression ration.
Even if the engine doesn\'t lock, the fluid in their must reduce the effective volume and thus the compression ration must increase too much,.
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Easy-start is too volatile to cause hydraulic locking IMHO. Misusing it in the way described could cause a bent con-rod or damage a piston but is most likely to cause starter motor damage.
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I doubt easy start is the cause.what can cause it is when continualy cranking ie it tries to start.when.it doesnt catch engine throws back against the starter.when this happens either the ring gear or pinion on starter has to give.whichever is weakest breaks.
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Was mech1
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I forgot to mention continual cranking should not be used.a few turns.stop.rest then try again.he was wrong in saying this.
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Was mech1
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Pre - engaged starters disengage whenever a 'reverse' load is placed on them. They can only drive in one direction, and cannot be driven in the opposite direction. Even if the starter pinion was momentarily engaged with the ring gear during a backfire, the starter clutch would slip, passing no motion or load from the ring gear to the pinion.
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I managed to get a payout when a mechanic on subcontract to them mis-diagnosed my car. The engine had started to seize so I'd pulled onto the hard shoulder. By the time he came it had cooled. He insisted it was OK to drive and wouldn't ferry me home. On the next leg a conrod went through the side of the engine despite me doing a very gentle speed. They paid 50% and I paid 50%.
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I should have added - the breakdown service paid up and billed the subcontract company - made it nice and easy.
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Everyone supplying goods and services has a duty of care to the customer. If the easistart shouldn't have been used or the system should have been primed (especially when you asked specifically for the man to do this, then you could argue that he did not show sufficient skill in carrying out his work and failed in his duty of care. If this is so, then you do have a case against the company but you must have everything in writing and take legal advice. If you are persistent (you will go to trading standards, watchdog programme etc) they may be prepared to do something, but you must be very assertive and pushy. Try and remember everything that was said and done in chronological order and write it down. I am not a lawyer but HTH. Mikey.
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Thanks for all the advice / comments.
I finally got a quote for a new flywheel to be fitted, £611 without VAT. Of this £200 is labour.
Obviously this can be cheaper if I source the flywheel myself.. but I don't plan on paying for that just yet - especially as I had it booked in for a cambelt and MOT this Friday..
To be fair their customer service's department have been listening so far, the quote's been faxed through and will be passed on to their 'technical department' for their fair and objective view on the matter. I have also explained that I travel over 50k miles a year in that car and my losses will start to rise *very* soon.
I'll keep you all updated :)
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A friend who is a mechanic of a large company in which all their fleet cars are diesel.
He tells me that it is common practise in their workshops to use a spray of easystart into the air cleaner to get the engine fired up after work on the fuel system... mentioned the above case to him and he could only say \"never heard of this one and they had used it hundreds of times and after all...it is produced for this purpose\"
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