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Cam chain woes. Any advice?

Boxer70

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Joined
Oct 4, 2022
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Cannock
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Audi
Hi all. I will try and keep this short but looking for a bit of advice.
18 months my daughter purchased an approved used GLC 43 from a Mercedes main dealership. 67 plate with 25k miles on it with 2 years warranty. Car now has 44k miles on it. A couple of weeks ago a rattle started from the engine followed by engine management light a few days later. Returned the car to the same dealership and upon inspection it seems the engine code brings back something to do with the cam shaft (the light has now gone off). The technician and a few other colleagues who have looked at it think it’s the cam chain or the tensioner. However they can’t guarantee this so initially told my daughter she would have to agree to foot the bill of the strip down and inspection if it was found to be something other than the chain / tensioner and possibly something not covered by the warranty BIG MONEY 💰. My daughter refused as couldn’t afford this option if it was something else and not covered under warranty. They informed her she couldn’t drive the car as it may be disastrous to the engine so have provided her with a car. They then got some expert in. Daughter called it a Pit inspection or a Pit case 🤷‍♂️ these findings haven’t yet been told to my daughter as the results were sent to Mercedes Germany, and still waiting for answers. That was just over a week ago.
I must add the people we speak to at the dealership are helpful and understanding but we worry where we may stand going forward and not sure what is reasonable to demand. Any advice?

Thanks
 
If the car has a full dealer service history, I don't see how this wouldn't be covered withy the warranty.
Your daughter needs to look at exactly what is, and isn't covered and decide on her plan going forward.
The car is pretty much worthless with a ruined engine, so in her place I'd bite the bullet, depending on that warranty and have it stripped down.
 
I think that the potential issue here is if the car was abused in some way, I.e. if the wrong type of oil was used, or a service was skipped, etc.

I fully understand that it's still the dealer's problem, because they are the ones who serviced the car, but technically it's not covered under the MB warranty, instead the franchised dealer will have to cover it themselves.

But as far as the process is concerned, when the dealer is wearing their MB representative hat, they need to warn you that you'll have to foot the inspection bill if the issue isn't covered under warranty.

As AMGeed said, I don't think you have much choice here. What I would try and do, is to get the dealer to provide an estimate for the inspection fee (in the unlikely event that the fault isn't covered by warranty), and also provide a list of potential findings that would render the fault as not covered under warranty.

The latter is particularly interesting, because it will provide some insight into what the dealer is concerned about, or, alternatively, they'll accept that they can't think of anything that might cause these symptoms and not be covered by warranty.
 
Cheers for the reply. I will have to double check what service history is like. I presume it’s decent to be sold as an approved car, but will check. As I say the chain and tensioner is covered no problem but they saying if they strip it all down and it’s something else that isn’t covered then she pays the labour. Which is a few thousand I think
 
I think that the potential issue here is if the car was abused in some way, I.e. if the wrong type of oil was used, or a service was skipped, etc.

I fully understand that it's still the dealer's problem, because they are the ones who serviced the car, but technically it's not covered under the MB warranty, instead the franchised dealer will have to cover it themselves.

But as far as the process is concerned, when the dealer is wearing their MB representative hat, they need to warn you that you'll have to foot the inspection bill if the issue isn't covered under warranty.

As AMGeed said, I don't think you have much choice here. What I would try and do, is to get the dealer to provide an estimate for the inspection fee (in the unlikely event that the fault isn't covered by warranty), and also provide a list of potential findings that would render the fault as not covered under warranty.

The latter is particularly interesting, because it will provide some insight into what the dealer is concerned about, or, alternatively, they'll accept that they can't think of anything that might cause these symptoms and not be covered by warranty.
That a good point about getting some possible ideas of what other potential things it could be and maybe costs. Appreciate that 👍
 
Do you think it’s right to say to the dealership the car has got an obvious issue and showing error codes and it’s up to you to diagnose the problem? Not to ask me to pay thousands of pounds in labour for you to check if it’s the problem you are saying you think it is. After all they’re the experts and in my daughters case know nothing about cars. It’s like they saying we think it’s the chain but pay us 2k so we can make sure it is. And if it isn’t that then we will see what else it could be 🤷‍♂️
 
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Do you think it’s right to say to the dealership the car has got an obvious issue and showing error codes and it’s up to you to diagnose the problem? Not to ask me to pay thousands of pounds in labour for you to check if it’s the problem you are saying you think it is. After all they’re the experts and in my daughters case know nothing about cars. It’s like they saying we think it’s the chain but pay us 2k so we can make sure it is. And if it isn’t that then we will see what else it could be 🤷‍♂️

From:


"...you will usually be responsible for giving the repairer permission to start any exploratory, investigative or dismantling work and for paying the costs involved if this proves that the warranty company are not liable for the claim"
 

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