Wet timing belt disintegrated, new engine required outside warranty

[daveb1089]

Hi all, my turn to jump in on this conversation. I had my Grandland X 70 plate serviced yesterday and was advised that the dreaded wet belt needed changing. The car is still just in warranty, so it’s been agreed to sort it FOC. Of course the belts are on back order and nobody knows when they will appear in the dealership. I’ve been advised not to drive it, I guess that’s the only advice they can give. I rang CC and asked for a Courtesy Car, but they were adamant that I have to hire a car, up to £45 a day and then claim it back via the dealer. So this could turn out expensive if my car is off the road for a few weeks. I have sent an email to the CEO asking why I can’t have a courtesy car, as none of this is my fault. I await his reply.
Dave

[dale1990]

I have this issue ongoing currently (Sept 2023, Grandland 68 plate 1.2 petrol).

Engine oil light flashing randomly at different times, some start stop issues also.

Taken to Eden Vauxhall to look at alongside my MOT, flagged up as my wetbelt being at maximum width and will need replacing.

Total cost advised is nearly £1400 inc labour. Thankfully no further damage done to engine, so needs new wetbelt kit, sensor, oil change and filter with labour.

Put in complaint to Vauxhall directly (good old ChatGPT helped right a solid email!) and Eden Vauxhall have also lodged a claim to cover costs.

Just awaiting final decision over next few days but all parties confident that it’ll be fully covered by Vauxhall.

Yes it is a known fault from manufacture, it’s rediculous that they haven’t recalled these engines.

My advice for those in this situation:

- Oil change and filter change every year is a must
- When you get this oil change done, request they very quickly measure width of belt to check if disintegrating or similar to catch it early
- New belt needed every 5 years or 60k miles

And that’s it. Yes I will be selling this car and not buying another with a welt belt again!

Update:

Vauxhall covering repairs in full. Needed a new wet belt kit, oil filter and change, oil gauge/sensor.

Needed to lodge a complaint with customer services, have a full service history since owning vehicle, no requirement to email CEO office or any chasing etc like others have reported.

Pretty straightforward, but still annoying.

[GRANDLANDX68]

I have this issue ongoing currently (Sept 2023, Grandland 68 plate 1.2 petrol).

Engine oil light flashing randomly at different times, some start stop issues also.

Taken to Eden Vauxhall to look at alongside my MOT, flagged up as my wetbelt being at maximum width and will need replacing.

Total cost advised is nearly £1400 inc labour. Thankfully no further damage done to engine, so needs new wetbelt kit, sensor, oil change and filter with labour.

Put in complaint to Vauxhall directly (good old ChatGPT helped right a solid email!) and Eden Vauxhall have also lodged a claim to cover costs.

Just awaiting final decision over next few days but all parties confident that it’ll be fully covered by Vauxhall.

Yes it is a known fault from manufacture, it’s rediculous that they haven’t recalled these engines.

My advice for those in this situation:

- Oil change and filter change every year is a must
- When you get this oil change done, request they very quickly measure width of belt to check if disintegrating or similar to catch it early
- New belt needed every 5 years or 60k miles

And that’s it. Yes I will be selling this car and not buying another with a welt belt again!

Update:

Vauxhall covering repairs in full. Needed a new wet belt kit, oil filter and change, oil gauge/sensor.

Needed to lodge a complaint with customer services, have a full service history since owning vehicle, no requirement to email CEO office or any chasing etc like others have reported.

Pretty straightforward, but still annoying.

Good to hear your getting it sorted.
It does seem to be hit and miss with the dealerships some need to email etc others are fine.

[Jw427]

I have also heard from a VX insider at a Dealership that a 71 plate model 1.2 was also having its wet belt changed, symptoms and the cause of it were not said just that a new model vehicle was having it done.

Not been on any Peugeot website but no doubt these will all be the same tails of woe

[carrtot92]

I may as well add my recent experience of the wet belt issue as hopefully it can help anyone who hopes they can get theirs replaced under the special warranty.
I have a 1.2 turbo 68 plate Grandland X with 47,000 miles.
TL;DR at the bottom if you don't fancy reading the full story of my fight against big corp.

It started when I had the oil pressure warning pop up very briefly when starting the car on a couple of occasions. Both times the car had not been driven for a few days. The warning would flash for a second at most and if you weren't staring at the dash you probably would have missed it completely. It had just been serviced and passed its MOT (not that they would specifically check for a wet belt problem). It had also been brought in for the wet belt recall 6 months prior which apparently found no problems.

Bring it to a dealership and as I suspected wet belt starting to wear, oil strainer clogged, new vacuum pump needed etc. £1500 to get it fixed.
The service department informed me that if you had all your stamps in your service book it would be covered under a special warranty. Nothing mentioned about it needing to be serviced at a dealership, you just need the service book with a stamp and a date every year and/or 16,000 miles.
Unfortunately I wasn't the original owner and my service book was missing some stamps so I was originally rejected for the warranty. I was advised that if I could find proof of services then the fix would be covered. Luckily the dealership I had mine serviced at a few weeks prior also happened to have carried out all the services bar the first one in 2019, so they could send me all the invoices for proof. This left me with only one service missing however there were no records of it anywhere I looked (I rang the original dealership the vehicle was sold at and they said they have no record of it, I also tried to see if one was logged with Vauxhall but no luck) and so I thought I was out of luck.

I argued that the car had never done more than 16,000 miles between services even with one missing and that when I brought my car in for the recall 6 months ago I was told there was no problems with the belt and that I couldn't see how this first service would have caused my belt to degrade 4 years later. I was told by the dealership that their hands were tied and I should simply try to argue it with Vauxhall.

I logged my complaint with Vauxhall and also sent an email to the old and new CEO office. I don't think the email got me anywhere since I had zero reply however after chasing the complaints team, my case was passed to the goodwill department (wasn't very impressed that they considered this as a goodwill gesture but oh well). After chasing the goodwill department almost every day I finally got confirmation that they would cover the repair bill in full. So good news finally.

As I'm writing this my car is still at the dealership waiting a repair but the parts are here and it should be done by the end of the week. The bad news is that it's been 2 weeks already and they have no courtesy cars available to lend me so I've been carless all this time.

My main gripe with this is that the problem seems to manifest very quickly and with no warning you can be left with a huge bill. Everyone I talked to at independents and the dealership agreed that this is clearly a design flaw that should be fixed by Vauxhall. If it wasn't for this forum I would have been less vigilant to any issues and it could have been far worse.
Incidentally the independent garage advised me that for them to replace the belt it would be £600-800 so that was my plan B is Vauxhall denied my claim. They had already replace a fair few this year.

TL;DR: Car had wet belt problem, special warranty will fix it if service book is filled as per service intervals. My car was missing its first service (I'm not the original owner) however after complaining to Vauxhall they agreed to cover the cost in full. So it's always worth taking up the fight with Vauxhall and not give in if the dealership says no.

[marc1987]

Hi,
I have recently had the same issue with a 2018 Vauxhall Crossland X and managed to get all costs covered by Vauxhall's contribution team.

Firstly, DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE. As soon as you are aware of the issue, report the issue to your dealership and arrange a recovery vehicle.

Even if you are outside of your warranty and you don't have service history - VAUXHALL WILL RESOLVE THIS ISSUE as it is a manufacture's error, not user error.

Call Vauxhall Head Office on 0800 026 0034 and advise that you believe it is a wet belt issue.
Vauxhaul will insist you have your Vauxhall approve dealer run a diagnostic on your car to confirm the cause of the issue.
Vauxhaul will then provide a case number.

Once the diagnostic check has been undertaken - report immediately to Vauxhaul - using your case number.
Any damage caused to your vehicle from the disintegrating wet belt will be covered.

Vauxhaul have advised all dealerships that 'upon complaint from customer' they will cover all costs up to 6 years out of warranty or up to 100,000 miles on the vehicle.

The staff at the dealerships are trained to knock this issue back on you, the owner but ignore them and go above them to Vauxhaul Head Office.

My local dealership were very passive aggressive and tried to convince me that the fault was mine as I had not taken out extended warranty and my vehicle had not been serviced for
15 months. They urged me not to speak to Vauxhall and to instead by the bill (approx £2000) using 0% interest free credit split over 6 -12 months.

All my costs were covered - including the diagnostic check.

This is a common problem with these specific engines and both manufacturers and dealerships are aware.

[daveb1089]

Hi all, just a little follow up on my missive from 27th September. I have had zero response from the CEO of Vauxhall or any of his cronies, but out of the blue, I received an email from the Service Manager of the garage that is dealing with my claim and he advised me of the ‘good news’ that the parts are now available to rectify the wet belt problem, but that they cannot fit them until the middle of next month. I assume that they are booked up until then. So that will be 8 weeks exactly but I can have a courtesy car for the two days that it takes, at no cost to me, wow. So I must carry on hiring a car, circa £300 pounds a week, should I wish to be mobile and carry on working. I will update once the work has been completed.
Daveb

[Deleted User 265]

Dave, they covered me with a paid courtesy car throughout the time it took to get the parts (3 weeks) . I'd have a word...

[GRANDLANDX68]

Hi all, just a little follow up on my missive from 27th September. I have had zero response from the CEO of Vauxhall or any of his cronies, but out of the blue, I received an email from the Service Manager of the garage that is dealing with my claim and he advised me of the ‘good news’ that the parts are now available to rectify the wet belt problem, but that they cannot fit them until the middle of next month. I assume that they are booked up until then. So that will be 8 weeks exactly but I can have a courtesy car for the two days that it takes, at no cost to me, wow. So I must carry on hiring a car, circa £300 pounds a week, should I wish to be mobile and carry on working. I will update once the work has been completed.
Daveb

I am suprised no one has replied as they are normally pretty good. What email did you send it to?
I would see if you can get the contact details for the regional manager of that branch as that sometimes help to get thing done quicker.

[daveb1089]

Hi GrandlandX68, I used paul.willcox@vauxhall.co.uk. I will try and get an email address for the regional manager and see if that route is more fruitful. I have contacted Customer Care three times via my case number, which gets me to the same person who initially raised the complaint and she just repeats the same mantra, that they cannot, or will not authorise a courtesy car.
Thanks for that suggestion.
Daveb