As some of you are aware my car is at the mechanics trying to have an overheating problem solved. The mechanic pulled the water pump out and noticed that my timing belt is ruined by "puddles of oil". It seems the seals were either nicked or not lubricated during my 100k service The car had it's 100k service by a different mechanic about 6k ago. What recourse do you think i have against the mechanic who did my 100k ? Do i have the right to ask him to pay for a new timing belt and pay for some of the labour costs ? I think a new belt is about $50, no idea seals etc, but how about the labour ?
could also be the intake cam front plate o-rings >>> Did you replace the crank oil seal, cam oil seals during the 100K service? If so then they have been installed incorrectly and most likely due to not using a proper drift to push the seals in place or even worse scoring the sealing surface on the alloy. If these were replaced during the 100K service then I'd be getting a written quote and itemised list to take back to the original 100K service mob and negotiate. Like all mechanics they'll claim it's not their fault and you will only have the choice of pushing it through the small claims court. New cam seals are at most $55 for the 4 seals. New front crank seal could be as much as $50. Time to replace cam seals requires removal of the timing belt and cam sprockets so if you are removing the timing belt already then you'll spend an extra 1 hour to replace the cam seals - pretty easy job.
Seals Thanks for that. I will call them tomorrow and put the word to them. I got about 6,000 km out of the car so far. The least they can do is pay for the parts. If not I will post their reply here on this site. They're quite well known and it won't do their reputation any good if they don't do the right thing
Re: could also be the intake cam front plate o-rings >>> Whats the difference between crank and camshaft seals. I thought they were the same? They look the same
crankshaft seal is down on the crank. There's one at the front behind the crank sprocket + crank pulley and another one at the back of the engine. Cam seals are on the cams which are up in the heads (only have cam seals at the front of the engine between the heads and cam covers but behind the cam sprockets.
Re: I'm betting it'll be those wankers at Chapman and Chapman. Ok so the seal behind the crank sprocket is the same as the 4 seals behind exhaust and cam sprockets?
no the two crank seals (front and rear) are different sizes to each other I think the rear crank seal is a bigger diameter than the front crank seal. The cam seals are a smaller diameter yet again but all 4 cam seals are the same.
