Mechanic Problem?

[kevo2k7]

Cambelt snapped on my sisters Clio and bent some of the valves, AA came out diagnosed it as snapped cambelt straight away and took the car to a back street mechanic who has quite an ok name for himself apart from taking on too many jobs at once and taking a while to get jobs done.
Anyway he has been 3 weeks and been feeding tripe down the phone about the Thread being worn out on the head and he is waiting on the new head to be delivered from London then he will throw the head back on the car and the job will be done.
Gets a call yesterday from him to say that the car feels sluggish and the engine very lumpy now and that the car needs a new engine.
Same guy has been saying that the cambelt has been sorted and everything ok now for the last week while he apparentley waits for this new head to arrive.
Ive paid him £450 for this job. Car was fine before cambelt snapped, never had a problem with it, he is saying that the pistons must of clashed to hard together when belt snapped and damaged engine.
Im going his garage tomorrow to demand a refund as he told me when he checked car over in the first place that the job will be £450.
Fair enough shouldn't of paid him first but the money would of been dipped into if not and plus i know the guy a bit now as he has done a couple of small jobs for me and is actually a really nice guy as a person (or seems so anyway) and im also not soft if things were to get personal and he tries gettin funny etc.
Anyway am i in the right to demand a refund here as the job was not done as promised regardless of how much labour he has put into it.
Cheers Kev

[SirOracle]

It is certainly not uncommon for an engine to be completely knackered if the driving belt snaps.

[RATTER15]

I wont advise you on this as im not sure about the legalities, however it is very common to totally screw the engine when the cam belt breaks, im just a little confused as to why he didn't notice damage to the pistons when he had the head off. Incidentally, it is impossible for the pistons to clash together, with a cam belt breaking the pistons can hit the valves, this is normally very evident when the head comes off, the pistons almost certainly hit the valves, that is probably why you needed a new head.

[kevo2k7]

Cheers lads, im going the garage tomorrow to demand the £450 back (nicely of course unless he starts gettin funny) at the end of the day, he told me he could sort the job for £450, the job has not been done therefore i want the money back. As Ratter say's, he should of noticed how bad the damage was when he first checked it all out (he has had 3 whole weeks which makes my argument even stronger) im not leaving the garage until i am refunded! he has not done his job properly and that is that. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow night (if im not locked up). Cheers

[TWR]

I presume the AA put the car on the back of his truck? or used an "A" Frame to town the car? If the valves has come into contacted with the piston & as said, that can be seen with the head off, that mean a complete strip down or a replacement engine, thats the cheapest way, He should have said this to you when the head was off.

[SpikeyBush]

Hindsight is great and this may not benefit you, Kev, a great deal, but maybe others in a similar situation may take the advice on board. When the timing belt goes, as other posts have confirmed it can cause catastrophic internal damage, the extent of which may not become fully apparent until the garage (while charging you their hourly rate) have stripped the engine down. In your shoes I would have gone to a scrapyard and bought a secondhand engine. Then part exchanged the old lump as scrap to get a few bob back.

[RATTER15]

SpikeyBush, any damage should be apparent just by removing the head, damage will be on piston crowns or valves.

[tonyav]

RATTER, by the sounds of this thread I seriously doubt if the ''said'' mechanic removed the cylinder head to inspect the pistons untill he had got another cylinder head to replace the knackered one, my guess is he just assumed that the pistons would be ok. How wrong was he !.

[RATTER15]

That maybe the case, but generally speaking if there is any damage to the head or stems caused by cam belt breaking there is a very high probability of damage to the pistons, it would be madness to assume otherwise.