Legal action Against Volvo Part 2

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farmerdave

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Hi guys

without prejudice

An update for you and a word of warning. Volvo have now said the reason my 200 hr engine melted is due to an overheat, They say, had my mechanic checked the old impeller when it was changed at 100 hrs he would have seen a problem and then gone on to check the injectors and found the fault which would have saved my engine from melting.

They have confirmed it was not water in the fuel

Any volvo trained people heard of this??

Volvo Solictors are bullying me to drop the case or they will claim costs against me.

Anyway having been contacted by a marine Legal team who were great, im told I now have a weak case on warranty issues but as my mechanic was sent all over the place by them to take engine parts here and there I can claim this back, so I will get something for my troubles.

So now its time to go to court

Will update on how it goes
 
This all sounds very weird, if the engine had overheated you would have got an alarm or seen the temp gauge and as a responsible owner turned it off instead of driving it to destruction, right?
Impellors don't cause injectors to fail, not initially, the expansion tank boils over first, usually in clouds of steam and sweet smelling coolant.
I think Volvo are taking the p**s here as a Volvo car or truck is expected to complete more than 200 hrs while it is still in warranty, crumbs, a new truck will achieve that in its first month! So not honouring the warranty after 200 hrs is ridiculous.
If your mechanic had checked the impellor at 100 hrs, assuming it was OK he would have reused it depending on which engine you have, if it showed signs of wear he would replace it, if it was damaged in an unusual way he would investigate why before putting in a new one.
I have experienced numerous engine overheats on Volvos because of blocked coolers, worn impellors, plastic bags round the drive, and never had anything more than the expansion tank blow out water, the injectors were just fine.
It takes running with low coolant i.e. non in the cyl head to do the kind of damage they are talking about, but you will get the overheat alarm long before that.
 
I thought you said it was out of warranty (time expired) in your previous post? In which case you simply have no contract with Volvo (iirc you bought the boat second hand, right?). Volvo will therefore be awarded costs if you take legal action, becuase you'll lose. So beware! I wish you well but I do think you are potentially running up a big bill for Volvo's costs here...

I'm not at all disagreeing with Spannerman nor saying the engine bust is your fault and not Volvo's, but it takes more than that to win in court unfortunately. When you buy something secondhand you have no contract except the purchase contract from whoever sold you the boat (which, I guess, is a "sold as seen" job?), and the volvo warranty (which is a contract dfirectly with Volvo) but that has time expired. Without a contract, and absent a tort (which this isn't), you can't win in court.
 
Without Prejudice

Thank you Spannerman.

This is what everyone says apart from Volvo. I dont supose you fancy putting that in writing and PM it to me do you?? the more I have on my side the better.

I am aware the warranty is out Im not disputing this, I am saying that they make good engines and I had one that slipped the net and got the bad parts. These things do happen and Volvo told me they offer a goodwill on case by case basis, it was this good will I was after and asked for a discount in the £3,500 parts bill,, If they were not prepared to do anything they should have said this from the start, they should not have sent me round the houses getting reports and injectors checked and double checked. Then they asked to see the engine, so it was taken to their dealers, I did all this and then they didnt even reply anymore I had to chase them after I threatened legal action.

I am aware of the costs action but if a judge says they should pay the running round costs I will get something and they cant get costs in the fast route of small claims court
 
As I have said before my theory to add to spannermans post/reply, I totally agree with him.

To add , I think the injector seized solid spraying neat unatomised fuel into the cylinder causing all the oil lubricating the upper side of the piston not to do its job, hence the piston fails due to overheat and expansion within the bore and melts due to high temperature.

This then causing the valves to break up and fragments of metal to be blown round the cylinder and out through the manifold and turbo etc.

Its a very fine line with volvo on this matter, however there should be a fair wear and tear policy, clearly volvo are ignoring this and pushing you aside.

As for the impeller story, thats rubbish ive seen impellers still cool and engine to max rpm with one or more blades missing on a service and raised the question with the owner after my findings as to any overheats when cruising.

This is my opinion of the kad44/300 range.

This base unit from the tamd41 series was a great engine at 200hp, when they created the kad series it all went wrong from then on, there is no substitute for cubic capacty in trying to raise reliable hp from a stock engine.

The crank and rods are the same as a 41 and yet nearly 90hp extra is put through them, the duty cycle therefore and longevity of the engine has to be more stressed, the seawater pump is the same size, as is the heat exchanger .

HP = kw=heat produced so something has to work harder, the oil cooler is the same size, maybe this piston cooling jets are larger, im not sure without checking so more lower cylinder heat is produced because the oil capacity is the same as 41 series, maybe it was a lower cylinder overheat that caused the piston to break up, thats another of my theories ive thought of since our last conversation. I also think volvo just upped the power without too much testing, just to compete in the market and be the leader, on paper for big diesel hp from a relative small block engine.

Good luck but as jfm says beware as there army is bigger than yours!.
 
Volvo Paul would you PM that to me to be used as well Please?

S28 you are right Im not saying all are bad I had one that was not as good it happens
 
They dont.

They say that a Volvo mechanic would have noticed something wrong with it.

It was changed at 100 hrs as a matter of routine and it had no wear on it just it sat doing nothing so was changed but checked first.
 
I'm sure the sale of goods act would be on your side. Any reasonable person would expect an £8000 marine leisure engine to last more than 200 hrs and I would hope the courts would feel the same.
 
Piers, he has no warranty contract becuase it has expired. That's the only contract he could have considered enforcing in sweden.

His claim as far as I can make out is (i) Volvo UK promised him goodwill (ii) he then incurred cost running around in order to get that goodwill (iii) Volvo UK then offered him much less goodwill than he hoped for (iv) he therefore claims from Volvo his running-around expenses.

There isn't a cat-in-hell's chance that a Swedish court will hear that dispute. It's entirely UK jusrisdiction. I also think he'll lose in UK, based on the info in these threads. I agree the engine bust could be Volvo's fault, and that he might have been unfairly treated in terms of goodwill quasi-promises but I just dont think that he will win the (i)-(iv) dispute above in a UK court. (The very first thing the defence will ask is "where's the contract you say we breached" and there wont be one...). Discretion better part of valour and all that!
 
Know of a Broom three years plus old on Hamble last year,

Droped a valve, so much damage enginge needed replacing.

Yamar give him one free! yea FREE of charge, just had to pay to have fitted.

So I know what engine I will want in the future.
 
I really do think your only real leverage is perception and publicity, use it and find the middle ground.
There is just no way Volvo would take full responsibility, particularly in court.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I really do think your only real leverage is perception and publicity, use it and find the middle ground.
There is just no way Volvo would take full responsibility, particularly in court.

[/ QUOTE ]

Im not asking them to take full responsibility a 20% discount on parts for goodwill would have kept me happy.

As I have said before although things change, if they are not interested an email saying so would have shut me up, dont send me round the houses with lame excuses then dont reply.

if your going to do that I will bill you for my time does that not seem fair, I even said any payment would be seen as an act of goodwill not an admission of guilt, there will be a lot of people watching this case and should I win the gates will be open,

They have told me they are looking forward to a fight, how much will their legal team charge? my 20% discount for goodwill will be a third of that..
 
I get 20% off retail all day from volvo they make loads on parts.

The broom was a 415 with 420 yanmars it was well out of warranty and yet he got new engine FOC no questions asked, the boat used to belong to a friend of mine.
 
I had problems with a new D6 a few years ago. Volvo were completely impervious to my complaints and I vowed I would never have another Volvo Marine Engine. (A vow that I broke with current boat!!)

However, I asked the importer (Chris Harridge at Offshore Powerboats) and the Manufacturer (Nimbus) to back me up.

Both were happy to do so and I got suitable recompense from Volvo pretty much straight away.

It seems to me that Farmerdave should ask for assistance from these people in his case - it just may help. He may not have purchased from them, but its their range of boats that is in question.

- Cant help but think that the Broom which had new engines may well also have been an Offshore Powerboat sale, and perhaps they helped that owner as well?
 
Maybe i did not read your posts well enough, I thought you were taking volvo to court for defective parts or something similar.

Anyway, I (without any proffesional association to the boating industri) get 10% almost without asking and sometimes get around 15% so it seems that you really have got the dark end of the volvo stick.
 
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