Howdy! My first post here after being recommended this website by a colleague at work.
A couple of months ago my car went in for its MoT. It was just under 4 years old and had done around 63,500 miles - the cambelt was changed at 60,000 miles over the summer.
The garage reported some "noise" in the engine and asked if they could investigate. I told them to do so and they reported that "found camshaft to have excessive wear which has caused damage to the tappets, possibly failure of the camshaft hardening" for which they charged me a large sum of money to replace the camshaft, tappets & seals. Over the phone, they told me that there appeared to be no problem with the oil supply to the cylinder head so there was no apparent cause for this problem.
Seat, when approached by the garage for a goodwill payment, said "the car's too old & has travelled too far". Which left me rather surprised that a 4 year car should, presumably, expect to suffer a failed camshaft. The car was bought new & has been regularly serviced at the Seat garage it was bought from.
So, what I'd like to know from you good folks in the first place is can anybody suggest a garage in the Farnborough (Hants) / Reading area where I could get an independent report on the failed camshaft?
If the hardening really has failed, are there any suggested approaches to getting some sort of recompense from Seat? Or am I really not on with a hope as the car's "too old"?
Thanks in advance,
James
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If you have the camshaft, look at it, it should be mostly pencil grey amd smooth, but not glossy like chrome plating.
Look for scoring on the lobes of the cams (humps) run your finger and nails along the width of these humps, do they appear to have wear? Also, check the bearing surfaces between these humpred lobes for scoring, or a distressed look.
Did you ever notice a noise yourself? Did it seem better after the work had been done?
It sounds unlikely to me unless the vehicle was used with an incorrect oil, or it wasn't changed.
Was the garage a VW dealer?
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Just out of interest, has the vehicle been running on the extended servicing intervals scheme?
Andrew
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Simplicate and add lightness!!
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Camshaft is usually the first thing to go when lubrication is poor. Have you skipped as service?
SEAT will not want to know, I'm sure.
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No services skipped, all done as close as I could to each 10,000 miles.
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It's been serviced every 10,000 miles (give or take the odd couple of hundred miles).
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I couldn't really say I noticed a noise. It's a diesel, it rattles. It may have been slightly less noisy with a new camshaft - but I can't really be clear on that as there was nothing I noticed wrong in the first place.
The garage is a SEAT dealership and is the one it was bought from originally.
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One suggestion. Ring the Mechanical Engineering dept of your local university (Brunel?). Ask if they have a metallurgy lecturer. Get his extension number or e-mail and give him a call - he will probably take a look at it and give a quick opinion as to cause of failure. These guys aren't paid much relative to their skills - so offer him a couple of beer vouchers for his trouble.
If you want a full-blown report then it'll cost a few bob, I suspect, and probably a waste of time since its well out of warranty and SEAT have no liability.
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Thanks Aprilia ... I spoke to the local CAB who suggested I may be able to use the "(not) fit for purpose" argument with Seat. However, I'd like to be sure of my facts before following that up. As you can imagine, I'm not best pleased that a part that should run for years and years (or miles and miles) has failed.
I've taken a look at the camshaft itself. The worn metal (across the central 80% or so) of each of the cams is slightly darker and shinier than the unworn at the edges. For myself, I can see a tiny mark almost (but not quite) in a line across three of the central cams but there's not much "feel" in them. They don't really register to the touch. In fact, there are far bigger bumps where the pointed end of the cams becomes more rounded. For my (untrained) eyes, I can't see anything wrong with it.
Hmmm.
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