Out of warranty timing belt tensioner busted

Aidans

Hi,

looking for some opinions on this - maybe from some people who've had a similar experience.

The timing belt tensioner in my better halfs VW Golf (181) has given up the ghost with less that 20,000 Km on the clock.

It'll cost approx 1,000 to get it repaired.

Called VW hoping for some help - nada - wouldn't entertain any request for help as the car is 3 months out of warranty.

Question is, would a small claims court be worth pursuing .... as in basically the car was not fit for purpose in that it broke down after only 3 years and you would have a reasonable expectation of a longer period of trouble free motoring ?

Rgds

Aido

Oops!

Was the car bought new by you from a VW dealer?

spiggotpaddy

Wonder whats getting replaced for the €1000. Parts quality is really going down on all marques.

bazz26

Does the car not have a full VW dealer service history? With such low mileage was the car serviced on a time schedule rather than mileage schedule? I'd imagine there must be something like that for VW not to offer at least partial goodwill contribution towards the cost of repair. Was that 1k estimate from a VW dealer? If VW are drawing a line and not covering any of the cost then I'd take it elsewhere for a repair. I'd imagine a good VW specialist would come in a bit cheaper than a main dealer for the work especially around labour costs.

DaveyDave

Surprised to hear they won't even offer money towards it as a goodwill gesture seeing as it's only out of warranty a few months? Very little mileage on it too.

Whocare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058205874/out-of-warranty-timing-belt-tensioner-busted

Less than 20000km 181 and vw is tell you to take a jump. That doesn't sound right

rodge123

Assuming you purchased it new from main dealer and got it serviced at recommended time/mileage intervals, then I’d pursue it though small claims court IF it is reasonable to expect that component to last longer than 3 years / 20000kms.

Sale of goods acts allows for claims up to 6 years after purchase if something is reasonable expected to last longer than it actually did.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/faulty-goods-know-your-rights-if-things-go-wrong-1.3450322%3fmode%3Damp

Apple repaired my MacBook Pro a few years ago free of charge even though it was 5.5 years old! Would have cost me about €600 if they didn’t.

Id email the dealer and cc VW Ireland outlining the issue and arguing it’s not reasonable for that component to break after such a short time (if you can find some official stats somewhere to backup this point up then even better), and quoting the sale of good act..probably find official link to it somewhere too.