Hey guys,

Bit of help needed...

Cut a long story short - bought an L200 - 10 days later engine packed up. Took it back to original owner's local garage where a lot of work over the years had been carried out.

He re-built the engine as he told me the oil pump had failed, and hence timing belt failed.

On several occasions I brought to his attention the oil in the expansion tank, which he said would disappear with a few more flushes. But a few other things started to get me concerned about his competence.

Anyway, on discovering oil in the radiator, oil all down the sides of the engine, I returned it to me local garage. This is about 3mths after repair.

They've now stripped the engine and rebuilt - finding a number of negligent repairs....

So I'm sending the bill for £660 to the previous garage, plus will pursue this through Court - so need to get the first letter sent.

I've written a report, which I will ask the garage to sign off on - I've written it myself to give them a template, as you know these guys are busy, and I wanted to make it as straightforward as possible for them. Before I show it to them, could I get some input on how I've worded what they found - want it to be as straght forward as possible for them to just copy and paste onto their own headed paper...


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The customer brought the vehicle, a Mitsubishi L200 Reg. PX53 ###, to us on the ######.

We had previously seen the vehicle once before in ##### of last year, as it was delivered to us on the back of an RAC Recovery Vehicle, due to engine failure. At this time, the customer explained to us that a lot of work on the engine had been previously carried out by the former owner at a garage in ######, so we advised him to return it to this garage as their may be some kind of warranty or cover from the previous work carried out.

At this time we did no investigation into the cause of the engine’s failure.

When the customer returned to us on ######, he explained the engine had been rebuilt in ######, but despite bringing it to the attention of the previous garage about oil entering the expansion tank, had only been given the advice that it was oil remaining from the engine build, and wouldn’t effect the engine.

He had now found that not only was the expansion tank full of oil, but also the radiator, and there was considerable oil spillage down the bottom half of the engine block.

He expressed his wish for us to examine the engine, as he had considerable doubts of the previous garage, so we proceeded to strip the engine down, as it looked likely that the head gasket was leaking.

During our investigation, we found a number of signs of negligence from previous work, and certainly issues that could have caused another catastrophic engine failure.

Whilst dismantling the engine, we managed to remove head nuts with an ordinary, small ratchet. These nuts, under normal circumstances, would be tightened to 29NM, followed by a further turn of 120degrees, and require the use of a large ratchet handle, and a considerable amount of force to undo.

This immediately pointed to the cause of oil leaking both into the cooling system and down the sides of the engine.

We also discovered the timing belt tensioning bolt had not been tightened adequately, and indeed had come so loose, it was only been held in place by the plastic cover over the timing belt. Had this come any further out, the results would have meant irreparable engine damage.

As part of a normal engine rebuild, one would expect the original head to be re-skimmed to ensure a good fit with the new re-conditioned bottom engine block. This was not the case. We saw some signs of rubbing with an emery cloth, but we sent it away to for complete skim before re-fitting.

We have now finished the re-build, and can see no signs of problems with the engine.

In my professional opinion, the work carried out prior to this was not only negligent and un-professional, but could clearly have led the customer to yet another complete engine failure and very costly repair bill.

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Appreciate any input guys. I've no problem with the court side of matters - dealt with matters for a number of friends, but I just want to get the wording on the report right to ask the garage to sign off on.

report wont mean anything as your not an engineer doubtful a garage will sign anything unless they have written it themselves have they agreed to put there name down on such a report?
what you have written could be picked apart for example
"We also discovered the timing belt tensioning bolt had not been tightened adequately, and indeed had come so loose, it was only been held in place by the plastic cover over the timing belt. Had this come any further out, the results would have meant irreparable engine damage" its a non interference engine so limited in what could be damaged as valves will not come into contact with pistons
29nm plus 120 degree is not a massive amount of torque and dependant on the person could be undone with a small ratchet

What I was trying to do is put something as a framework for them to amend as necessary, rather than write it from scratch. Whilst they have agreed in helping me take this forward, just thought I could save asking one of them to take an hour out to put something in writing, and have a 'template' to copy, paste and amend as necessary.

Thanks for the input though. If that's the general feeling, i'll just go straight to the garage and hope they can put something together for us.

It should help them save time but it will also mainly help to ensure that everything you need to help pursue this matter through the court is written into the letter. It will help them not to leave anything out that could be crucial in the court case. If there happy to use it as a starter template then let them.

That was my thought - I want to be clear they use the words negligent, un-professional etc.. and cover all the details they've been mentioning in our conversation over the course of it's time being in the garage.

What I needed some help on was wording the technical jargon a bit better from more knowledgable people on these matters.

so just to clarify you didnt give the original garage any money? it was the original owner who paid?
could be a bit of a minefield did you give the original garage a chance to fix it after the oil leak at 3 months? if you havent given them another chance to fix this could cause you issues they could claim it was a separate fault or you have not given them a chance to rectify a fault

No, when the engine packed up, I took it back to the original garage that had worked on the car for most of its history. They advised me the oil pump had gone causing failure. He then rebuilt the engine with a new bottom end.

Various things over the course of the work and subsequent visits to investigate a fuel leak started to raise alarms, hence me not taking it back again when I discovered the oil in the radiator and all down the engine.

One of my reasons for the concern was the smell of diesel. The original owner explained the garage had cleaned the injectors and spilled some diesel -

When it didn't go away after the engine rebuild, I looked further, and saw what looked like body filler pressed around one of the injectors.

I again mentioned the smell of diesel - (also knowing by that point, I'd discovered a receipt from him from 2 months previous for fixing a diesel leak) - and he looked surprised to see the bodged repair, so took the car for a couple more days and had a new injector fitted.

So, despite fixing a fuel leak, rebuilding the engine, and supposedly cleaning the injectors - he never noticed this repair.... So hence after that I was determined not to return..

I highly doubt had I returned the vehicle he would have admitted the mistake was his, and I'd have paid out for yet another mysterious problem he would have pulled out of his ass...

After reading the forum, the original major repair he did on the vehicle before I owned it was the pulley - the original owner told me how he had made this ingenious piece of metal to secure the pulley in place (I'm guessing the Woodruff key) - which as I now know, cannot be simply made as a repair.... So I'm highly suspicious now that the original engine failure wasn't in fact due to the failure of this.

you might be better off taking the seller to small claims court for all of your money back if he knowing sold you a car that had issues

Well I'm familiar with the small claims process having fought and won several battles against parasitic debt collectors (but that's a whole other story) -

Anyway, first step is to give the garage the chance to respond with a letter detailing my complaint, and threat of further action if necessary. So this letter, accompanied by the report - which is what I hope will make him realise I have a professional witness to accompany me to court should it go that far - will get the response I require.