Hi all I would appreciate any feedback on the content of this post, my timing belt snapped on my Q5 a couple of days ago I called out the AA who told me that it was caused by bad fitting the tension was to tight and he took a photo of the pointer not being in the middle of the “V” see attached photo, so I had the car relayed to the garage that fitted the kit. I visited the garage today to find out the situation and they told me the fuel pump had seized and that caused the tension for the timing belt to snap, is this possible as I’ve never heard of a fuel pump seizing before?

20 minutes ago, Donscott said:

Hi all I would appreciate any feedback on the content of this post, my timing belt snapped on my Q5 a couple of days ago I called out the AA who told me that it was caused by bad fitting the tension was to tight and he took a photo of the pointer not being in the middle of the “V” see attached photo, so I had the car relayed to the garage that fitted the kit. I visited the garage today to find out the situation and they told me the fuel pump had seized and that caused the tension for the timing belt to snap, is this possible as I’ve never heard of a fuel pump seizing before?

Hi I think they are spinning you a yarn, the fuel pump is normally cam driven but in the event of it seizing the locating dogs on the pump will snap so it has no drive, looks like someone didn't tighten the tensioner properly as if it was down to another component seizing the belt would have just snapped but the tensioner would have remained in its correct position.

Steve.

Hi Steve thanks for that info I am somewhat confused on what to do as the garage owner is a friend of mine but I didn’t feel comfortable with his explanation that’s why I came to the forum for some guidance.

3 minutes ago, Donscott said:

Hi Steve thanks for that info I am somewhat confused on what to do as the garage owner is a friend of mine but I didn’t feel comfortable with his explanation that’s why I came to the forum for some guidance.

Hi problem is noted and I can appreciate your predicament but I really think the explanation is a smoke screen, I can honestly say I have only come across possibly two cases of seized pumps and in both cases the pump delivery capacity was terminated as the drive dogs on the pump were snapped which had no effect on the cam belt whatsoever, if you think about it why would something on the engine that is made primarily of softer metal be able to bring a much harder material such as a camshaft to a halt, I think they did not fit the kit properly which leaves you with the fall out from valve damage etc, its not fair or right whichever way you look at it, THEY DID THE WORK, I rest my case.

Steve.

If the garage owner is a professional can we assume he has insurance to cover this sort of predicament?

Hi Cliff

I wouldn’t know if he has or not what I am trying to achieve here is to get enough knowledge to ascertain if am getting the correct information.

Apologies for jumping in on this, but it seems you already have reasoned opinion that what you have been told is unlikely to be fact.

I feel for you and the situation you now find yourself in, but regrettably you, or your friend are potentially into spending orbit money to ‘sort of fix’ this. 
Do you have a receipt for this work Don?

Regards,

Gareth. 

Hi Gareth

 

what work are you referring to ? I have a receipt for the timing belt and water pump that was replaced about 6 weeks ago.

Yes, that’s what I was referring to. 
Does the receipt include a VAT element?

 

No it doesn’t as I bought the kit and as the owner is my friend I got mates rates .

I fear you are onto a hiding to nothing as I see it. Most garages( understandably?) will dismiss their responsibility for issues if they don’t supply the parts. 
Mates rates. Possibly cash rather than card? 
 

Regrettably, all of this does not bode well, and I guess it depends what kind of a mate he is, as to whether he would be prepared to financially assist with the cost of rebuilding. Good friend, or friend by association?

Regards,

Gareth. 

Hi Gareth last year I bought a replacement engine for my rover evoque the original engine had seized. The garage had been doing all sorts of work on it before it seized I suppose they felt some responsibility so they fitted the replacement engine for free.

Bless you, you are having issues.

Evoque - Ingenium diesel? Guess they didn’t hear timing chain rattle and/or oil dilution/ extended oil changes? Pre late 2019? 
I do hope they renewed both timing chains and associated assembly before fitting the replacement engine.

Let’s hope they will do the right thing by you and deal with you fairly and squarely. 
Regards,

Gareth.

 

2 hours ago, Donscott said:

Hi Gareth last year I bought a replacement engine for my rover evoque the original engine had seized. The garage had been doing all sorts of work on it before it seized I suppose they felt some responsibility so they fitted the replacement engine for free.

Am I misunderstanding this, or are you telling us your mate is responsible for two damaged engines?

My mate has 6 mechanics working for him 2 years ago I bought a 2014 SD4 Evoque that was sold as a non starter with fuel issues I had it delivered to my mates garage to check over and solve the issue. I replaced every part from the back of the car to the front that could be associated with fuel if we started the other way around we would have found the problem on first attempt all the injectors were blocked🤷‍♂️got the car going then the turbo failed replaced that (all parts second hand)I can’t remember what was done that caused the engine to seize up it was decided it would be cheaper to buy used engine than do a strip down. They fitted for free and it’s still ticking away. On the SQ5 am still trying to get the bottom of what went wrong that the cam belt snapped 🤷‍♂️

So it seems you have unfortunately suffered two unexplained engine failures when using this garage. Um? 
With the current Q5, the AA has told you that the belt was tensioned too tight. Stevey Y has given you an opinion on the validity of your garage’s explanation of the mode of failure, which doesn’t stack up. 

From your comment ‘…..can’t remember what caused the Evoque engine to seize..’ it would seem you weren’t that concerned about the whys and wherefores with that engine, so not quite sure ( apart from the financial burden) why the strong concern re the cause of this engine’s failure - ? Failed it has, and the common denominator at the moment is one garage looking after two vehicles, both of which suffer significant engine damage. 
It should be respected that the Evoque SD4 engine was far less trouble than the later Ingenium diesel one, so it would be interesting to know what went wrong there. 
I certainly don’t want to be dismissive of the very unfortunate situation you now find yourself in, but personally, I can’t think of anything else I can add Don.

Let’s hope someone else maybe able to come up with an acceptable explanation for you.

Regards,

Gareth.

Hi Gareth

what I was hoping for was that maybe some Audi specialists would be able to comment on the seized fuel pump possibly causing the cam belt to snap, that would give me the confidence to say to my friend either your correct or that your bullshiting me at the moment in time, I appreciate the comments thus far but I am not confident yet to confront him on the strength of the information that I have.

3 hours ago, Magnet said:

So it seems you have unfortunately suffered two unexplained engine failures when using this garage. Um? 
With the current Q5, the AA has told you that the belt was tensioned too tight. Stevey Y has given you an opinion on the validity of your garage’s explanation of the mode of failure, which doesn’t stack up. 

From your comment ‘…..can’t remember what caused the Evoque engine to seize..’ it would seem you weren’t that concerned about the whys and wherefores with that engine, so not quite sure ( apart from the financial burden) why the strong concern re the cause of this engine’s failure - ? Failed it has, and the common denominator at the moment is one garage looking after two vehicles, both of which suffer significant engine damage. 
It should be respected that the Evoque SD4 engine was far less trouble than the later Ingenium diesel one, so it would be interesting to know what went wrong there. 
I certainly don’t want to be dismissive of the very unfortunate situation you now find yourself in, but personally, I can’t think of anything else I can add Don.

Let’s hope someone else maybe able to come up with an acceptable explanation for you.

Regards,

Gareth.

Hi Gareth the SD4 engine was derived from PSA and the same engine was used in the MK4 mondeo 2.2, if looked after the engine was bomb proof, I know I ran one of the mondeos up to 360k, the ingenious engine was flawed from conception suffering with bad injectors, inlet manifolds and worst of all a DPF  that they now admit was faulty hence the compensation system which as far as I know is still running, what it did was blocked frequently and would not regenerate itself this led to too much back pressure which in turn annihilated the turbo, worst case scenario was it blew the cylinder head studs, GAME OVER. As for Audi specialist on this forum I think our combined membership knowledge may well qualify us a tad.

Steve. 

Don.

Bear in mind that none of us have laid eyes or hands on your engine, so our assessment is based solely on your description and one photograph. Nevertheless those of us who have offered an opinion can not imagine that siezure of the fuel pump can snap the cambelt unless it was either defective or wrongly fitted.

Hello Don,

If the opinions you sought on here are not considered to be sufficiently ‘specialist ‘ then I don’t think the forum can assist you further via. its experience - which in Stevey Y’s case is build on hundreds of thousands of miles. 

To move this on, you will need to put your hand in your pocket and pay for an inspection report on the vehicle from an experienced automotive engineer, and hope - from your standpoint- that that inspection will concur with that of the AA and the opinions you sought on here. If not, of course, you will  have zero redress. 

For what it’s worth, I have the SD4 engine in a non-Audi, and I chose this 2.2 variant following some research of opinion. 
You mention you cannot remember the mode of failure of that engine, maintained by your garage friend, but surely you can recall symptoms which led to that failure. 
Apologies Don but all I can do is to wish you luck with getting some recompense. 
Regards,

Gareth. 

Thanks Cliff I do understand I have to make a decision in the next couple of days on either get a replacement engine or do a strip down sounds a bit déjà vu.

Hi Gareth

the reason why I can’t remember the symptoms that caused the failure of the evoque engine was that when it was delivered from the seller the car never left the garage again until the replacement engine was in it. The car was in the garage for nearly 2 months as I wasn’t in a hurry to use it they worked on it as and when. I just want to make clear that I do appreciate all opinions but it did hope for more that 3 from a nationwide forum.

Thanks Don,

Anyone else have an opinion for Don? 

12 hours ago, Donscott said:

Hi Gareth

the reason why I can’t remember the symptoms that caused the failure of the evoque engine was that when it was delivered from the seller the car never left the garage again until the replacement engine was in it. The car was in the garage for nearly 2 months as I wasn’t in a hurry to use it they worked on it as and when. I just want to make clear that I do appreciate all opinions but it did hope for more that 3 from a nationwide forum.

Hi more than three opinions stating the obvious, I like that , I really think that you need to get an engineers report which will clarify the mechanical problem but as for your friendship with the garage owner, sorry no one can help you with that on here and I get the distinct feeling that what you have been given is not what you want to hear, two engines on the bounce I think I would be questioning my own judgement, as for mates rates that works only if the job is done correctly, other than that go elsewhere and pay the right price for a job that has the elements of redress if the part fails or shoddy workmanship.

Steve.

Cheers Steve