Hi All, I have been a regular reader of the forums in recent years and have now decided to sign up as I am in the early stages of what I feel is going to be a long, drawn-out process with Nissan regarding my Qashqai. I purchased a 2010 Nissan Qashqai 1.5dci Acenta from CarGiant in June 2013 with 32K Miles on the clock. The car came with 2 Nissan Main Dealer service stamps in the book, plus an additional service/check from CG. I have had the car serviced at the recommended intervals set out by Nissan albeit by my local garage (with receipts/history provided). The car has given me 2 years trouble-free motoring up to June 2015 when it needed a new clutch, in my opinion prematurely but c'est la vie! Anyway, whilst driving to visit family this past Thursday (February 18th), the car suddenly lost power and I managed to get it off the road and call a recovery service. The recovery driver suspected cam belt failure and so I opted to have the car recovered to my local Nissan main dealer as I felt that the cam belt has snapped prematurely. The dealer confirmed that the belt had indeed failed and it would cost me £114 for the diagnosis, but if I wanted them to strip the engine down to inspect further damage this would cost another £450+ in labour. At this point I explained that I would expect Nissan to accept some kind of ownership of the problem as the stated cam belt change intervals of '100k miles or 72 months' (quoted by initial service clerk) had not been met. The clerk told me that he would speak with the service manager and get back to me today. He called me this morning to explain that the dealership would offer no gesture of goodwill as the car was not known to them. I explained that it was known to Nissan though and if they were trading under the Nissan badge then it should not matter. Anyway, he was polite enough and was just acting as the mouthpiece for his manager who obviously did not have the tacks to call me and explain himself, so I thanked him but then asked again what the cam belt change intervals were for my vehicle. He then went off to speak to a technician and eventually came back and said "76K miles or 6 years". This contradicts his colleague and also he kept referring to a timing 'chain'. I know from research that my particular engine is belt driven, not chain like all other Nissan engines. So, my next option was to call Nissan Customer Care to raise a case, which I have done today and have been given a 48-hour timeframe for a case manager to contact me. I have read various stories of the same issue, Nissan apparently issued a recall for due to the timing belt rubbing against the water pump but I can't seem to find the recall on the VOSA website. I've also read on various other forums that the cars that were recalled were inspected only for the belt to fail a short time after. The results seem to be mixed, some people receiving no gesture of goodwill at all, some receiving an offer of Nissan to cover the cost of parts and some actually getting the full repair done free of charge. The concern for me is simple - I can't afford the estimated £6k cost to replace the engine which is inevitable as I was travelling at around 50mph when the fault occurred and I've not read of a similar story that hasn't required a replacement engine. My other concern is that Nissan do not seem to be able to give me a conclusive schedule for having the cam belt changed! Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

The cambelt on my 2004 Citroen C8 recently broke due to water damage. After 8 weeks in the garage and a large repair bill, I am now starting the process of contacting citroen to try to claim some of my money back. It appears that they are fully aware of the problem but have not recalled the model. The cambelt broken long before it should have. I have been told that other people have succesfully claimed their costs from citroen in the past for the same problem. I am interested in hearing from anyone who has done this. Or if anyone has any advice that would be useful. many thanks Alex

Hello, I have a Skoda Octavia TDI and at 60000 miles I asked my mechanic to change the cambelt (as indicated in the manual). The car was in perfectly working order and never had any problems with it, so only had the camblet changed because the manual recommends this to be done at 60000 miles. In November 2010 the mechanic changed the camblet and the car worked fine until last week (so three months later) when it just stopped in traffic. I called the AA and their guy said the camblet jumped timing; the mechanic who changed the cambelt confirmed this today after failing to start the car. He will come back on Monday and try to reposition the belt but there is a very high chance that the belt has already damaged the engine valves, which means that the engine (and therefore the car) is unusable. Given that the camblet was supposed to last at least another 60000 miles and it broke after only a few hundred I wander what are my rights and what can I ask the mechanic to do about this. Many thanks for your help.