Took my vrs tdi in to the local main stealers yesterday for a cambelt change,this was agreed as a condition of me buying the car 2 weeks ago.

I dropped the car off at 8am and collected my courtesy car and was told that it would be ready at 5pm or they would call me if it was completed sooner.So at 4pm i headed off on the 20mile journey back to the garage assuming that it would be ready at 5 as i had heard nothing from them.

When i arrived i saw my car in the ramp still in bits,and when i went into reception the service chap said "i'll go and find out whats happening".After about 5 mins he came back and said" sorry the technician has had problems getting the tensioner on and the belt's got to be taken back off and the timing done again" WTF!! arent these guys supposed to be trained?? My car is now stuck on the ramp for another 3 days and to say im unhappy is an understatement !! They could have called me to save the journey and I now have no faith in the work they have carried out and what the hell could the problem be fitting the tensioner,it all seems a bit fishy to me.

I will be writing to their service manager when i get the car back and i'm going to have a bloody good look at the work to check for any bodge ups.

Rant over for now

tbh

be glad they didn't bodge it and let you drive off with it. My car (Vw Golf) just had the timing belt changed at a VW dealer and I drove it home, next day it wouldn't start. The tensioner had come loose, they recovered the car and fixed it only for the mpg to be really bad. Back it went again to have the whole job done again.

Probably due to the woes above hurried my new purchase (Octavia vrs)

I could understand problems getting the old tensioner 'off' but surely if the old one has been successfully removed then fitting the new one should be straight forward.

I lost faith in my local dealer many months ago and I certainly wouldn't take what they say at face value.

Ask to look at the car whilst its still on the ramp and ask them to explain exactly what the problem is whilst being stood next to the car!

...be glad they didn't bodge it and let you drive off with it...

+1

Based on what you were told, I'd say there was some kind of problem with the tensioner stud. Even if the problem is of their making, it's good that they caught it.

I've had similar experiences in relation other types of work & have learnt to ring ahead as in many cases they just don't contact you! Hope you resolve

Thanks guys,i've calmed down a bit now lol :wonder:

i would go and ask them to show you what the issue is Monday morning

that way you will know what you are dealing with and not worry when it comes back

This happened on my friends fabia, they let the car leave the garage which caused it to fail to start.

Its worrying how useless some garages are.

well picked the car up this morning and everything ok,seems as though the service receptionist was talking out of his ring on friday spoke with the tech and found out that he didnt have any problems fitting the tensioner,the problem was with the tensioner itself,it wouldn't tension the belt so they had to order another one from tps and that didnt arrive till late friday if only they had told me that before cars seems to run better now, managed 50mpg on the way home from work