Garage Covering Warning Lights And Blown Engine!

[Ash132]

Sorry this is a bit long guys but your help would be greatly appreciated. Where I say I am part of a forum below I do mean this one, just wrote the whole thing to go in a few places.

I bought a 2002 Toyota Corolla T-Sport from a local garage in late July 2010 on hire purchase under my mothers name. Within a couple of weeks the engine check light, the vehicle stability control (VSC) and the traction control off (TRC OFF) all came on at once. I took the vehicle immediately back (one of about 5 times it went back for various problems, none of which were sorted satisfactorily) as it came with a 3 month warranty . The car was returned a number of days later and indeed those three lights were no longer illuminated. Within a couple days however I noticed the engine check light was not coming on during the preignition. Again took it back as I was not happy about that but was told that they had done some checks and there definitely was no faults and the light would come on if there was a problem. For reasons I still don't understand I took their word on this and took the vehicle back. Fast forward to April 2011 and while driving home the engine has a catastrophic failure. From what I can tell one of the con rods has snapped and punched its way through the block. End result is the engine is completely destroyed and the cost of a repair outweighs the value of the car (second hand engine alone is £1500-2000). At least I had my AA membership from when I had to get one after the offside rear brake dismantled itself due to another bodged repair (honestly for a supposedly serviced and MOTd car I am now amazed at how many things are wrong with it) so got a tow home. I initially tried to get the garage to take it back or at least buy it back at a decent price but they were not interested so decided to try and sell it as is. At this point I was unaware of how a hire purchase agreement worked nor the rights I had. With no success with that either I decided to part out the vehicle to release some value from it. The first item I sold happened to be the instrument cluster which I sent off. Within days the gent I sold it to emailed me to say he had opened up the unit, because he wanted the coloured LEDs my model had,

and found a large amount of black silicon sealant had been injected into the plastic surround of three of the warning lights, which just to happened to be the engine check, VSC and TRC OFF lights. I was of course livid at this news and gave the guy a full refund to return the unit which he was more than happy to do.

At this point knowing that the only time the car had been out of my possession was the time it was with the garage I was 100% sure they were the ones responsible. As I was completely unaware of what to do in this situation I contacted consumer direct who put me on to trading standards who advised I would have to go see the garage first to see if the situation could be resolved that way first. Both my father and I dutifully went along with the pictures of what was found but the owner said he sometimes sends out vehicles to other garages and would need to do some investigations so we agreed that he would call me within a week. Not surprisingly there was no call so I called a week after the meeting to be told he had found nothing out (didn't sound like he had even tried in my opinion) so said I would call again within a few days again. I was by now looking in to the legal aspects of all this and realised the car was purchased on hire purchase and as such I should contact the finance company also. I called them and explained the situation to generally be told that because it was 2 weeks over a year since the purchase they were unwilling to do anything about it. They also said that I should not be selling off parts of the car. I now know that indeed I should not have tried selling parts but at that point only the cluster had been sold so with its return I put all the removed parts back on the car so it was in the same condition as after the engine failure (in fact better as I replaced a few of the screws/bolts that had rusted and sheered ). The follow up call to the garage 5 days later was much the same as before so I stated that no matter who did it, it was his responsibility to put right as the person who sold me the car and whose care it was under at the time the silicon was injected in the cluster and said I wanted a full refund. He laughed at this and at my saying I would take it further if need be before saying that was my prerogative and hanging up. Incensed I again called the finance company so I could confirm the address to send a complaint to and that if written permission was added that they could deal with me despite the policy being in my mothers name. This was one of the more interesting calls I have had with a 'professional' company with such phrases as 'I can guarantee we are not going to do a thing about it mate', 'I wouldn't even bother sending the letter' and brilliantly now I know more about hire purchasing 'why are you even contacting us about it? You should deal with the garage, I fail to see what it has to do with us'. Before the call ended one of the things they said was along the lines of that if I tried to complain they would call in the loan as I had breached the contract by taking parts off to sell. Now I do understand why they would recall the loan but the way it was said and in the context I took that as a threat.

This is basically where I am now and not sure what to do next. I want to send a letter to the finance company but I do not have the money to hand to cover it if they recall the loan. Can they do this even though as soon as I knew that I shouldn't sell items I got the only one I had sold back made every effort to rectify what I had done, which as I say has brought the car back to the condition before I started removing stuff? I know ignorance isn’t an excuse but I honestly had no idea about hire purchases, sale of goods acts etc and was just trying to get some value out of the vehicle. I got in contact with trading standards but they said as far as they are concerned I have no options as it would all be too difficult to prove anything etc. I should add I have a bit of supporting evidence in so much that back in August 2010 I made a post on a Toyota owners club forum that the 3 lights in question had come on and that I was suspicious that they did not come up on the preignition check when I got the car back (I still to this day wish I had followed up on those suspicions but I have a trusting nature and took they guys word for it). The guy that bought the cluster is also willing to write any necessary supporting statements as to what he found

If anyone can advise me at all it would be greatly appreciated as all of this is making me feel very ill and I just want these folks to put right what they have done and hopefully not do it to anyone else!

Some further info:

Toyota Corolla T-Sport 2002

Mileage ~ 83000

Purchase price £3450 (£3000 after £450 trade in)

Date on HP agreement: 26th July 2010

Engine blew on April 9th 2011, AA receipt copy is being sent out.

If I am missing anything or you need more info just ask.

Thanks in advance

Ashley

[Jamesbelfast]

I doubt very much if blocking the warning lights would directly cause engine failure and even if it did proving such would be the difficult.

Yes the AA may be able to say the engine has failed but can they state as to why it failed.

Only with a full engineers inspection and report proving the garage caused or contributed to the engine failing would you have any chance of redress.

Sadly until the exact cause of engine failure is established will you be able to go any further.

No doubt you are much wiser to the terms and conditions of HP and personal loans, etc.

[jw67]

I do hope you can get something eventually but,I fear this could take a long time and a lot of money to try and prove your case.The thing is that 1) you have to prove the garage is responsible for tampering with the instrument cluster and 2) that the "hiding"of the warning lights was directly responsible for the demise of the engine.

I hate to say it,but you may have to put it down to experience and continue to pay for the car until the hp agreement is over.

[Ash132]

The covering of the warning lights wont have caused the problem but it could have been on for months indicating a problem and I kept driving until something went. Regardless on whether it was a contributing factor I feel the mere fact they did that is warrant enough for me to demand a full refund? They can have the car back if they want it.

There is an exit clause in the HP agreement that I can return the car after half the payments are made, I am currently exploring this avenue as I have no problem giving them the car back at that point but I suspect they will play the breach of contract card.

[reidy]

Its a very messy situation, feel for you mate

[jw67]

The covering of the warning lights wont have caused the problem but it could have been on for months indicating a problem and I kept driving until something went. Regardless on whether it was a contributing factor I feel the mere fact they did that is warrant enough for me to demand a full refund? They can have the car back if they want it.

There is an exit clause in the HP agreement that I can return the car after half the payments are made, I am currently exploring this avenue as I have no problem giving them the car back at that point but I suspect they will play the breach of contract card.

IIrc,you can hand the car back to the finance company after you have paid a certain amount BUT,they will then sell the car on and you will have to pay the difference between the outstanding finance and the amount they get for the car.

I also think this may go against your credit score as you have defaulted on your finance agreement.