Volvo S60 D5 cam belt slipped - Advice please????
 

Hi all, so I had my car serviced at my volvo main dealer (7 year service or 126k miles). Picked up the car all clean no issues except low on the front tyre depth but legal. Drove 8 miles to pick up my child from school and the car breaks down outside the school. The car refused to start and was towed back to volvo main dealer. After a couple of days diagnosing the timing belt has slipped and the engine is totally damaged. Volvo say a new engine is required and would cost £6k, the car is worth around £5,5k so not economical to do.

My car is a Volvo S60 2012 D5 215bhp 98,785miles on the clock. Full volvo service history and I have a volvo service plan since owning the car (2nd owner) September 2016. The timing belt was replaced by the same volvo main dealer on the previous service in August 2017. The car has covered 6000 miles since then.

Where do I stand with Volvo main dealer in this matter? Any advice would be appreciated. Thx

Phone customer service straight away if it's only done 6 k since t belt replacement

Firstly, as has been said, if Volvo did the belt change only 1 year/6k ago and it has slipped, you can point the finger squarely at them. They are the car manufacturer, who will/-should- have used their own parts, fitted by their own technicians, to their own specs, etc. They state that a properly fitted belt and tensioners should be good for 90k/7 years.
A timing belt will only jump if it isnt fitted properly, or, due to component failure, maybe both. This is a volvo belt kit fitted by volvo technicians in a volvo workshop, thus, they have no-one else to blame but themselves.

Im not one for the namby-pamby liability nanny state, but in this instance, 'oh, you need a new engine at your own cost' can only be met with 'I beg your F###in pardon? Your techs fitted this belt, which is not even 10% into its projected working life, etc etc....'


Further to that, Its rare a whole new engine is needed, usually a head rebuild, possibly a piston or two/new head, and its back running.

Tons more detail needed here.
Timing belts don't just slip so what has caused the slip?
What's the renewal history of the auxiliary belts and pulleys?
What's the condition of the alternator pulley?

Good shout regarding aux belts, though, being volvo main agent doing timing belt surely they'd do aux setup too? Alternator pulley maybe not.
The question I have thought of since this morning, were you given options or just a price?
If Volvo simply said 'your price is this' and you said 'yes', then this should be timing and aux belts and tensioners as per their maintenance regime.
If they said ' a) full lot £x b) just timing kit £x c) just timing belt alone, etc etc, and you chose to omit certain parts rather than option a), then your decision not to follow the correct regime is responsible not the dealer. However Volvo main agent shouldnt offer anything other than full timing & aux belts and tensioners as it goes against their maintenance schedule and procedure...

They still don't know what caused the slip and are investigating

I have a Volvo maintenance plan and was given only the cost for cam belt which is a complete kit as per the maintenance plan/ schedule. Volvo has admitted blame for the failure and have looked at either fitting a reconditioned engine but can't source one as it's a D5 or are going to offer an alternative car, details yet to be confirmed 😳