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good news...and bad. help required

DeanS15

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hi people,

i recieved a call this morning, my s15 is ready to colect tommorrow, but this good news has been marred by bad.

my fto was all but sold and after 3 years of problem free motoring and no breakdowns, it packed up.

basically while driving along the car stopped suddenly and would not start. the starter motor sounded like it was trying, so i removed it to find there were 2 bolts and a load of swarf inside the bell housing that had got wedged between the starter ring and starter motor and locked everything up completely.

at the end of feb i had a new lightened flywheel and clutch fitted (only put 1000 miles on it), and it turns out the bolts are from the flywheel, holding the starter ring to the flywheel itself. the guy i bought the flywheel off has said that if thats at fault he will replace it, but surely if a defective part causes damage to other parts, he is liable to pay for any damage caused by that part to other components.

the garage are now in the process of carrying out an engineers report to find out exactly what has happened, but because the new owner has fallen in love with the car and is willing to wait for it (i've assured him i wont let him take the car till its 100 percent), i have advised them to go ahead and repair the damage asap (fitting a standard flywheel), as soon as the report is done. this means initially that i will have to foot the bill, and recover the money later from the responsible party.

i surely cant be held to blame for this situation, the garage said if its thier workmanship they will sort it, but i really need some sort of advice from someone who can help explain my legal options to me.

the reason i have posted this on here is that i dont want to smear details on the fto forum and ruin the guys name if he is willing to do whats right.

still on a lighter note, tomorrow ill have the s15 after what seems like the longest wait.

looking forward to becoming a proper member within the next day or so:)

any help very much appreciated guys.

Dean
 
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Sorry to hear that mate, was that one of Stu's flywheels ?

How did the bolts come loose then, sheared or undone ?
 

Nicely

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Sounds like you're taking the right route by getting a report done. Usually most people will accept the findings. Including courts.
 

DeanS15

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hi jez mate, yes it was. looks like they have just worked loose and come out. not good as i dont know what else could have been damaged as a result, ben has said possibly clutch and starter motor, but for this job the labour is killer and theres no way im paying for it in the long run, ive been fair and said all i want is the car put right. i dont want compensation for the 2 days off work sorting it out, ill even swallow the cost to trailer it there if it makes things go smoother in rectifying it ( 100 quid, even though i could ask for it, i want to be reasonable to get this resolved).

im absolutely furious about the whole thing as hes gone very defensive (but im trying to stay cool when comunicating with him), all i asked was for him to be as courteous as ben has been and accept liability if its his product and not the workmanship of fitting.

what a crap week i have had:( i really am starting to despair.
 

DeanS15

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Sounds like you're taking the right route by getting a report done. Usually most people will accept the findings. Including courts.
thanks nicely, thats reassuring but i really don't want it to go that far. if it does end up getting like that, regrettably ill have to do it.

is an engineers report from the garage that did the work acceptable? if i have to get an outside garage involved its only going to incur more costs which will be added to the running total that needs recovering, thats why i think the easy thing to do is for the guilty party to just do the right thing before it blows out of proportion.
 
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Surely if the bolts have come loose its due to incorrect fitting though ? Probably havent torqued the nuts up properly ? It may be a problem having an engineer report done at the garage that actually fitted it, depends on how honest they are though :(
 

DeanS15

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the bolts that come off jez actually hold the flywheel together, they are not used in the installation of the part, they are a piece of the part itself. if it was something else i would be asking the garage to sort it and not him. it makes no odds to me who fixes it,as long as its fixed.

the problem i now have is stuart is saying eurospec should have rechecked the bolts prior to installation, whereas they say its not something that has to be done, they have argued with him in the past about having to put them together (as its supposed to be a pain), which is why he started sending them out assembled. if a part comes assembled ready to fit then it should be exactly that.

i have a nasty feeling that this is going to have to be resolved by a small claims court in the end, something that isn't really that neccessary.

dean.
 

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Sorry to hear that mate.

Surly if its the bolts that hold the flywheel together then that part is at fault and not the installation.

Unless the flywheel came with a warning telling you to check all the bolts before installation I cant see the supplier has a leg to stand on?

Anyway hope you get the S15 soon :)
 

DeanS15

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Sorry to hear that mate.

Surly if its the bolts that hold the flywheel together then that part is at fault and not the installation.

Unless the flywheel came with a warning telling you to check all the bolts before installation I cant see the supplier has a leg to stand on?

Anyway hope you get the S15 soon :)
yes well thats exactly what the mechanic said, if there had been a note then fair enough.

by the way the s15 arrived yesterday but it hasn't been without its teething problems. basically when ive taken it out for a drive its perfect, but if i switch it off and restart it when its started to cool down, it was firing on three cylinders.

me and a mate thought that as its been serviced (oil, filter and plugs) it may have been a loose connection on one of the coil packs when they refitted them. sure enough, the rear most coil plug coupler nearest the bulkhead when disconnected made no difference, but when plugged back on all was perfect. it has now done this twice now and is very annoying, but when you remove and refit the plug its back to perfect again.

does anyone have experience of this fault as the wiring on this plug (pink wires that seem to have a coil of slack on them) appears to be very tight going onto the ignition coil coupling due to the black metal bracket on this end of the engine sort of trapping them.

i was wondering if the metal pins in the coupler may be heating up and contacting fine, but when cooiling creating a resistance or something? the reason i ask is i have to take it back to the garage for undersealing anyway, and shouldn't be getting a fault after only one day of ownership, but if anyone has had this and sorted it then i can let them know what to fix.

any help greatly appreciated - i know its not a major fault but it is unacceptable for a car i bought yesterday:rolleyes:

oh and the battery died (the journey over on the ship must of killed it) but this has been sorted.

other than this, im in love with the s15....what a car:D
 

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Did you swap over with another coilpack to clarify whether its a wiring or coilpack problem? Coilpacks have intermittent problems when they start to fail.
 

DeanS15

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:notworthy:no i havent swapped the coilpack over (der, should of done that first) but i will do tommorrow and if the fault happens again on the cylinder i move it to then i will know its that. just out of interest are these readily available in the uk as if i give it back to them to fix it, i don't want to wait forever:) bet they are expensive too....oh well - thier problem:)
 
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Where did you get it from?

And I would not be playing with the wiring on them, I think voltage/amp is pretty high on ignition.

First things first, have a look/get another set of sparkies. They may be too cold a set. Take the sparkies out and see if they are fouled. Checking HERE in the process if you are unsure what to look for.

Could also be coil packs. All coilpacks can be pretty tempermental. Part and parcel of not having a seperate distributor. Good excuse for a set of Splitfire's!

Hope this helps...
 
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DeanS15

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i got it from sva imports, when i first dealt with them they were fine but when i went to collect it they weren't very helpful and i wouldn't use them again even though im very happy with the actual car, there were a few things i snagged on the first visit that they hadn't fixed and have to do on another visit as i got them to specify the unfinished jobs on the reciept (undersealing and a kerb on one wheel).

then again i don't think i have ever been entirely satisfied with a car dealer in all four cars i've bought. its a rogue trade if you ask me from my experience.
 

DeanS15

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and now i know why mate!

i swapped the coil pack with another and put 250 miles on the car today (lots of running about to do), worked perfect all day until tonight when i left for work. the fault had moved along with the coil pack i moved, so its definitely the pack. looks like sva will be getting a phone call tomorrow.

as for the fto.......i took the new owner to collect it today and the damage was unbelievable. the flywheel was being held together by one mashed up bolt! the other 5 had come off with not a trace of threadlock in sight. the bolts had taken out the starter motor, flywheel, main engine oil seal and cover, engine block backing plate and lower drive cover plate. they are all mangled and boxed up as evidence to try and recover the cost from the flywheel supplier who is being a royal pain in the a**e.

i must throw a shout out to mark and ben at eurospec2000 who have been amazing throughout this, they even said not to worry about the money side of things until i have recovered the cost from the supplier. also to ben for explaining the possibilties with the s15, for which it sounds like thier MAP ECU could make some serious gains. here is thier website http://www.euro-spec2000.co.uk/. can't reccommend them highly enough:)
 
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