Oil leak after dealer replaces cambelt and water pump

[Dmt29]

Hi can anybody give me some advice here. My girlfriend has had her cam belt and water pump replaced on an 02 puma and about 10 miles down the road her car started jerking and she said she'd lost power. She pulled over when she saw steam coming out of the engine which appeared to be an oil leak. I got recovery to take the car back to the garage which was shut so they looked at it the next morning told her that they'd taken it for a test drive and found nothing wrong with it!! I phoned them straight away to complain about them driving it anywhere then I got a different story that they had only started it and driven it into the garage. Then the explanation for the oil leak was that they hadn't put the rocker cover back on correctly (snagged gasket). Am I just getting fed a pack of lies? Do you have to touch the rocker cover to replace a puma cam belt and water pump? Plus any ideas on what may really be wrong would be appreciated thanks.

[neiljohnson]

The rocker cover does have to come off so the camshaft locking tool can be fitted to the rear of the cams.

Hope this helps

[motorwise]

neiljohnson said:

The rocker cover does have to come off so the camshaft locking tool can be fitted to the rear of the cams.

Hope this helps

it certainly does - new gasket at their expense and you'll be fine - these thing do happen from time to time but I have to say it should have shown up on their quality control check after the work was done

[Dmt29]

Thanks for replying and clearing that up. The car has gone back to the garage again =/ When we got it back after having a new gasket fitted the car was slower and less responsive. Plus at 5k revs the car skipped and did it consistently at 5k revs. The garage took it back and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it and that they wouldn't test drive a car to 5k revs! Plus he told me that he's raced Pumas and he didn't think the car was slow. Which is beyond cheeky considering my girlfriend has driven the car for 5 years so she knows how her own car works. Short of going round and ttting the cockey tw@t in the service department can anybody give me any advice on what may be wrong? Thanks again

[MartinMGBGTSV8]

He's most likely got the cam timing wrong. The car will run with the belt one or two teeth out but for proper running it needs to be redone to put the cam timing to where it should be.

This should cost around £80 from an independant garage. Just make sure you go to one thats got good reviews.

You can recover your money if the original garage has not done the job properly. First you send them a letter demanding a full or partial refund, then take them to the small claims court, and/or trdaing standards. Both processes are cheap and easy and not as much of a ballache as you might think.

Good luck and keep smiling.

[Dmt29]

Thanks again.