Wet timing belt disintegrated, new engine required outside warranty

[sharpy10]

Hi there,

Joining with the same problem - car cut out on the motorway on Sunday travelling 70mph with my 2 young children in the car very scary experience. My car is under 6 years old and under 30,000 miles! A local mechanic has confirmed its wet belt, but Vauxhall customer care have insisted this is diagnosed by a Vaxuahll dealership. I have booked it in tomorrow to get a diagnostic test.

I am the second owner on the car and there is a service missing from 2019 before I owned the vehicle. Since my ownership. all services have been completed at the correct intervals and the right oil has been used (0-30).

Do you think i will encounter a problem with one missing service since before my ownership? I will fight Vauxhall against this as i can't see how i can be penalised for this! But wanted to check if anyone had a similar experience.
K
Thank you!

Hi, yes we also broke down on the motorway and as you say it was a very scary experience!! As to your other question about the service history - we had one missing too, before we bought the car and it didn’t seem to make any difference to Vauxhall accepting liability. They do seem to set great store by the correct oil being used though.

[daveb1089]

NB28
Hi there, you quote “the right oil was used” but the correct oil is 0-20 as far as I’m aware. I stand to be corrected on that point. Good luck with your diagnosis and the Customer Care that follows. By all accounts they seem to be very hit and miss, as to my chagrin, but it all worked out eventually after many a call.
Dave

[NB28]

Hi there,

Joining with the same problem - car cut out on the motorway on Sunday travelling 70mph with my 2 young children in the car very scary experience. My car is under 6 years old and under 30,000 miles! A local mechanic has confirmed its wet belt, but Vauxhall customer care have insisted this is diagnosed by a Vaxuahll dealership. I have booked it in tomorrow to get a diagnostic test.

I am the second owner on the car and there is a service missing from 2019 before I owned the vehicle. Since my ownership. all services have been completed at the correct intervals and the right oil has been used (0-30).

Do you think i will encounter a problem with one missing service since before my ownership? I will fight Vauxhall against this as i can't see how i can be penalised for this! But wanted to check if anyone had a similar experience.
K
Thank you!

Hi, yes we also broke down on the motorway and as you say it was a very scary experience!! As to your other question about the service history - we had one missing too, before we bought the car and it didn’t seem to make any difference to Vauxhall accepting liability. They do seem to set great store by the correct oil being used though.

Thank you thats good to know - I have provided my service invoices for the services I have had done since owning the car (which were all done correctly) so fingers crossed. My manual says 0-30 but I have also seen people on here saying it got changed to 0-20, so not sure when this was changed but I wasn't notified so hopefully that isnt an issue. Fingers crossed!

[NB28]

NB28
Hi there, you quote “the right oil was used” but the correct oil is 0-20 as far as I’m aware. I stand to be corrected on that point. Good luck with your diagnosis and the Customer Care that follows. By all accounts they seem to be very hit and miss, as to my chagrin, but it all worked out eventually after many a call.
Dave

Hmm - my manual says 0-30 for my car, I have read various things on this post and other forums. Some are saying it can be either, some are saying apparently it got changed to 0-20 at some point, but i've followed my manual as provided by Vauxhall so hopefully not an issue! Thank you for the reply.

[NB28]

Vauxhall are paying in FULL for my repair!! Please keep going if you are in this situation. They told me initially they were contributing zero but today have confirmed they will cover in full.

Happy to help anyone on what I did if you need any tips!

[Samskihero]

Vauxhall was picking apart my service history and sounded like they were not going to do anything or only 50%.. however, the news yesterday that they are paying in full.
It's total BS regardless if you have a stamped service history so long as you can prove the basic service work was done and at the time the right parts were used, they should cover it REGARDLESS.

I was looking forward to starting to use independent garages as they are so much cheaper the work is the same, you can even ask some independents to use manufacturer specification parts but looks like I'm stuck paying Vauxhall Prices due to this belt.

Sadly the car has been at Vauxhall now for 7 days and it is likely 1-2 weeks before the work can even be done, also no courtesy cars until the 24th... it was the same back in April 2023, why do these garages not have enough courtesy cars is a real sore spot.
Vauxhall stated they do pay for rentals up to £45 a day, (you source the rental like enterprise, etc) however, that's only if the dealer states the car is both off the road, and the parts are on backorder, and only up to when the parts become available as Vauxhall don't always offer courtesy cars within back-ordered parts... which makes little to no sense (Maybe I mis understood though)

My vehicle parts are not on backorder, so I didn't qualify for this, but because I still had a courtesy car booked in for the 24th. (Courtesy car under Vauxhall is free as this issue is considered a repair under warranty by the dealer but considered a courtesy repair by customer service ((My car is not under Vauxhall warranty))
I managed to call them up and get them to still to pay £45 for my own rental until, until the 24th if I wanted to.

I think the lack of courtesy cars is a real sore spot going through all this crap.

I will still hound at them for statements regarding what I need to do to get more than 21,000 miles out of the shitty belt as I do not want to go through this again.
My only knowledge is to use 0W-20 oil, and change oil MUCH sooner than 12k miles, maybe even start considering 6k miles and start doing your own change to make it more financially viable.
Also concerned about longer-term damage to the engine due to the fibers and oil pressure.

[chaymond]

Dropped my Grandland X into Vauxhall dealership who are well aware of the wet belt issue. Left it with them for 2 weeks whilst away on holiday. Belt replaced with the newer type in that time. No hassle. No cost to me and have liaised with Customer Care through. Can’t fault the dealership at all. The work is covered for another 2 years. All they have said is regular servicing and oil changes and recommending 0W-20 oil and should hopefully have no further issues.

[Samskihero]

Dropped my Grandland X into Vauxhall dealership who are well aware of the wet belt issue. Left it with them for 2 weeks whilst away on holiday. Belt replaced with the newer type in that time. No hassle. No cost to me and have liaised with Customer Care through. Can’t fault the dealership at all. The work is covered for another 2 years. All they have said is regular servicing and oil changes and recommending 0W-20 oil and should hopefully have no further issues.

The work is covered for another 2 years

This is interesting to know, I will ask my local dealer this but it is funny as 2 years / average 20k miles is about the time the belt starts to show bad cracks and needs replacing, and that sounds like a red flag that they will only cover it for another 2 years...
My car already had a new belt and I suppose new oil (will check once I get the documents from the last service) so I'm not confident that the new oil or belt makes a difference, the key is doing oil changes early and often.

I'm basically telling my dealer and support customer to have in writing, that they will cover the belt forever if it fails prematurely to anything less than what was originally stated, if not then the car is being sold.

[Samskihero]

Just as a Final update.

My vehicle used to use 5W-30, then changed to 0W-30 even after my belt change back in 2022, and now as of today with another new belt, it's using 0W-20.
Vauxhall highlighted and stated the belt should still last 6 Years/64,000 miles, in writing, and on paper.

Vauxhall and Customer Care stated no limit to when they stop doing their belt replacements, so if it fails prematurely, I'm going to be super annoyed but know they should cover it as long as I have the stamps and keep any service history.

[Hedge77]

This has happened to me on the motorway last Thursday.
I've a 1.2 turbo 2019 Grandland X with 54k miles on it.
Was due a service this month and was booking it in for next week and I'm worried now that'll say the won't cover the repair because of this.
I've also to get it towed to a dealership, next Wednesday is the earliest I could get, at cost to myself and pay £140 for the diagnosis.
Praying I get a decent out come and a courtesy car as I've been carless for a week now.