Bad luck or bad management?

Amazing co-incidence, what are the odds?

You may or may not recall my Subaru snapped a cam belt at 100kph. After the said cam belt was supposedly replaced by a supposedly reputable mechanic. Part one and ongoing parts of the broken car story There were some very large fallouts, the car in the end cost us thousands to repair, the so called repair was a shocking job with some appalling corners cut which cost thousands more to put right - it was probably a year before the car ran with any reliability again (not good in a five year old car) it ended in the disputes tribunal with us feeling we didn't get justice and that their view of reality was flawed (that's a polite way of saying they failed to tell the truth) and the mechanic making another 'mistake' the next day by providing a very second hand part when the tribunal directed him to supply a new one in return for our court ordered payment (which was admittedly only a very small portion of the thousands they wanted) The second hand part was "just a mistake" of course - they'd accidently had two out on the bench and packed the wrong one back into the box (yeah... okay).

Anyway we were almost (but not quite) over it, because these things will give you ulcers if you dwell on them. (and anyway we've had a bit of revenge here and there)

Until last night, when a friend rang to report that the Legacy that they had had the cambelt replaced at the same workshop had snapped the cambelt 30,000 km after it had been changed. (It was changed before our debacle obviously).

Now millions of cambelts are no doubt replaced every year. I am sure a few are defective. But the vast majority of them probably continue to the next cambelt change without any problems. As coincidences go this is a very large one...


The company was Auto Repair Co in Judea in Tauranga. I can only recommend that you take your Subaru to the nice (and very knowledgable) guys at PF Auto next door, just for your own peace of mind.

You should also know when buying a second hand car in Tauranga that some cardealers use this company. Might pay to ask before buying, if the cambelt has been done, just who replaced it.