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Hello, I would really really appreciate some help with this, I'm a 25 year old woman with very basic mechanical knowledge, generally pretty assertive but feel like I have been screwed over by a garage, I'll outline the background, sorry it's a bit lengthy:
Ok so I've got a vw t4 1.9td in mint condition- my pride and joy, camper conversion, full respray the works. The engine failed in october and I bought a second hand re con engine from a t4 specialist website and sent it all to a local garage for them to fit it.
They fitted it, engine was sweet, all good till the fuel pump starts leaking so they swap the pump for the one that was on my last engine. Then it all goes to pot. It wouldn't start, there was loads of white smoke, no power, and it felt and sounded like a bag of nails and the accelerator pedal vibrated a lot. So I take it back and tell them to sort the problems out they say the timing needs adjusting so they do it and it's still obviously not right.
Ok so this goes on for months, back and forth, until they tell me firmly (felt a bit intimidated as they clearly didn't like me challenging them) that every thing is perfect and there is no problem with the van at all, the timing 'is to the book' and I have just bought a noisy engine (except it was quiet till the fuel pump was changed). I felt that this was them telling me to stop pursuing it. Then 8 days later with no warning the engine seizes solid.
So not wanting to jump to conclusions I get an independent garage to come and diagnose it. They were alarmed to find that the oil pressure sensor and temperature gauge sensor were disconnected and left dangling in the engine bay, meaning no warning lights could have come on to alert me to a problem.
So I've been taking advice from the citizens advice bureau and have written to them out lining the issues and (as advised) asking for the cost of the engine, and the cost of their labor to be refunded to me (£1500). They have responded to my letter saying that they had taken the fuel pump to a local centre to get the timing set up prior to fitting it. They also said that they would have had to have the sensors connected to do the DTI timing on the vans last visit to them. I've spoken to a amateur mechanic who says that that doesn't sound right at all and the timing is set as a whole system once the pump is in the van. They also didn't seem to know what they meant by DTI timing being set and it's relation to the sensors.
I am stuck as I feel like I've been fobbed off a few times by them and I don't want to blindly except what they're telling me as I don't believe them to be trustworthy (I've since heard a few stories in which they don't come out in the best light)
Could anyone explain briefly the process in which a fuel pump is fitted and what performing the DTI timing is? Also what a loom connecter is, they mention this in the letter too but I've not got a clue.
Any advice would be much appreciated. I've ploughed all me earnings and time into this van over the last 2 years and now am totally stuck. Thank you
Ok so I've got a vw t4 1.9td in mint condition- my pride and joy, camper conversion, full respray the works. The engine failed in october and I bought a second hand re con engine from a t4 specialist website and sent it all to a local garage for them to fit it.
They fitted it, engine was sweet, all good till the fuel pump starts leaking so they swap the pump for the one that was on my last engine. Then it all goes to pot. It wouldn't start, there was loads of white smoke, no power, and it felt and sounded like a bag of nails and the accelerator pedal vibrated a lot. So I take it back and tell them to sort the problems out they say the timing needs adjusting so they do it and it's still obviously not right.
Ok so this goes on for months, back and forth, until they tell me firmly (felt a bit intimidated as they clearly didn't like me challenging them) that every thing is perfect and there is no problem with the van at all, the timing 'is to the book' and I have just bought a noisy engine (except it was quiet till the fuel pump was changed). I felt that this was them telling me to stop pursuing it. Then 8 days later with no warning the engine seizes solid.
So not wanting to jump to conclusions I get an independent garage to come and diagnose it. They were alarmed to find that the oil pressure sensor and temperature gauge sensor were disconnected and left dangling in the engine bay, meaning no warning lights could have come on to alert me to a problem.
So I've been taking advice from the citizens advice bureau and have written to them out lining the issues and (as advised) asking for the cost of the engine, and the cost of their labor to be refunded to me (£1500). They have responded to my letter saying that they had taken the fuel pump to a local centre to get the timing set up prior to fitting it. They also said that they would have had to have the sensors connected to do the DTI timing on the vans last visit to them. I've spoken to a amateur mechanic who says that that doesn't sound right at all and the timing is set as a whole system once the pump is in the van. They also didn't seem to know what they meant by DTI timing being set and it's relation to the sensors.
I am stuck as I feel like I've been fobbed off a few times by them and I don't want to blindly except what they're telling me as I don't believe them to be trustworthy (I've since heard a few stories in which they don't come out in the best light)
Could anyone explain briefly the process in which a fuel pump is fitted and what performing the DTI timing is? Also what a loom connecter is, they mention this in the letter too but I've not got a clue.
Any advice would be much appreciated. I've ploughed all me earnings and time into this van over the last 2 years and now am totally stuck. Thank you