Engine Failure!

[Ralph Wiggum]

Did you sign a waiver before it went on the dyno?

[ratter]

I know 1 dyno centre that if your engine/gearbox grenades on the dyno, you get slugged a clean up fee, not sure if he has ever had to enforce though or not

[The Jizard]

How is a hose blowing off the actuator his (the tuner) fault, I had mine come off the turbo side on a spirited run, nobodies fault sh*t happens basically, I'm sorry for ya because its a sh*t way to go but you have to man up and foot the bill yourself. Some of the posters here obviously blame someone else whenever their car f*cks up going by their responses to this thread.

Edited 02/08/12 11:33 AM by Foon

[Daneo001]

Cheers for your opinions guys. I din't sign a waiver, is this common practice? As of yet I have not discussed the possibility of them paying for the repairs, I wanted to put the info out and find out what usually happens. He is in the process of stripping the engine to assess the damage but from what I have heard from you guys and another workshop it is possible that I may have a case for him covering the repairs. As for not taking my car there in the first place I guess hindsight is 20/20 vision but as I live up here, he knows the car and I know he has done a number of turbo fords around here - I thought I would be safe enough with some new injectors and a tune!

[Bellato]

Hey mate, as Ralph said, unless you signed a contract of some sort saying that you accept any liability if something happens to the car whilst in the tuners possession, or if there's a clear sign in the workshop when you walk in (then this would be implied consent to this liability) then you'd have a good chance of getting your motor rebuilt for free.

This is so because as in any situation of where one party to a contract has extensively more knowledge than the other they 'generally' have a duty of care to the unknowledgeable party to provide adequate service. Basically like a doctor/patient relationship but they have laws to stop them from being sued from making stuff ups, I highly doubt tuners have similar legislation covering them.

What I would do is go see a solicitor and tell him that you didn't not accept that you would wear any liability if damage occurred during the tuning and see what they say, if they could prepare you a nice threatening letter to the tuner that will make him crap himself then he might just cough up and fix the motor or pay up to have it fixed. I think this is the best way to go and sounds like you would have a decent chance in a negligence action due tot he duty of care the tuner owes.

I'm sure spending a few hundred to see a good solicitor could save you a bit of money and stuffing around in the future

[The Jizard]

To the above post WTF????? Did you grow up in an American society where it's ok to sue anyone when you yourself f*ck up.

Here it is, there is an inherent risk when modifying or tuning your car, if your not willing to accept the consequences of whatever may happen on the road, on the track or on the dyno don't play, this is a big mans sport and it takes a big man to accept what is a sh*tty outcome on the dyno and file it under one of life's lessons.

Edited 02/08/12 12:11 PM by Foon

[ratter]

unless the tuner fitted this boost line, how is it his fault?

So if a car is presented in a condition that is not appropriate, it's the tuners fault???

[Impellor]

But surely a professional tuner would do prechecks, Akin to a pilot before takeoff. I know Craig at Torque and Tune takes responsibility for any damage that occurs on this dyno. Cheers

[ratter]

A pilot has people lives at risk

[Bellato]

Firstly Ratter I'm not saying it is the tuner's fault, just giving the guy an option, something which he clearly asked for.

Secondly, yes a tuner could be negligent by not being aware of any possible issues with the car, if this is one I'm not sure, I'm not a mechanic or tuner so can't say. But if it was a noticeable fault he should have addressed the issue before tuning, just as you probably wouldn't work on a car if you knew something was wrong. But like I said we don't know the full situation.

As for Foon, yea clearly the OP knows the liability of working one of these cars, hence why he has looked at the cost of a rebuild to see whats the best option for me, given he has probably well aware that the costs could be worn by him.

As for your first comment, I'm well aware of the country I live in thanks. But when you are unknowledgeable party you trust the knowledgeable party in any transaction. When you go to a doctor don't you expect them to correctly diagnose what's wrong and apply the correct treatment and if they misdiagnose and cost you an arm and a leg (or in worse cases a life) wouldn't you expect them to have some responsibility because you trusted their judgement because of their skill and knowledge. Just like there was a case recently in the media of a young Australian girl who ate at KFC and suffered from severe food poisoning which resulted in a brain injury which left her mentally and physically impaired and the courts just awarded her compensation (not that money is any compensation for a tragedy like that). My point being is we put our trust in people when we buy things in every aspect of life - food, clothes, cars! If people aren't ever held liable for negligence then we would all have to be experts in everything and do everything ourselves because it wouldn't be worth the risk of getting other people to do it. And if you don't want to be liable for things then you make your clients sign a disclaimer, as so many retailers do and then its on us as customers

Rant over