UK Car Repair: corsa van, skilled mechanic, professional negligence

Question
i have just had my corsa diesel vasn in for mot and whilst it was in i asked them to change timing belt done 70000 since last change .on way home timing belt snapped taking out the oil pump pulley and belt when i said something to them they said i should have changed oilpump belt as well as a new timing belt has put to much pressure on the oil pump belt is this correct

Answer
Answering Your original question though, the belts do not in any way interact, one breaking will not cause the other to fail also they are kept separate by a plastic cover - this is a blatant lie to save the garage £1500 repair bill for the damage they caused to your car, the cambelt was not fitted properly! they haven't a leg to stand on and they know it, that's why they've given you some "mistruths aimed at costing you £1500" about "oh, it's your fault" "don't blame me it was like that when I got here"
- how would you know the belt was ready to fail? , he's the mechanic, that's why you took the car to him for repair.

They had the bonnet open, they could see the condition of the belts and being experienced mechanics should have pointed out the other belt was worn, if it was likely to snap and lock up the engine, possibly causing a crash why did they not tell you - don't they have a professional responsibility to tell you of a dangerous failure that is likely to occur, what if it happened at 70 miles an hour on the motorway, you lost control and crashed?  The answer is they ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SAFETY and they let you drive a dangerous vehicle with a fault any reasonably skilled mechanic would have noticed - that's 2 counts of professional negligence so far. Letting you drive with a defective drivebelt! and fitting the cambelt in a way that caused it to snap after a few miles!


Fatal accidents have been caused my much less.


If this happened to a car I'd repaired I would fix it as a matter course for free, out of pure embarrassment, and quickly to prevent prosecution for negligence.


---

I expect they overtightened the belt, making the oil pump bearings wear out and fail -
Or undertightened the belt making the belt ride up on the oil pulley and rip it off.

--- have that inspection done, RAC, AA whoever, see who's got the best deal on at the moment, the inspection paves the way for a civil claim, and in the case of negligence a criminal claim.



Really this should not have happened if the belt was properly fitted, the other belt can snap all it wants and wont interfere with the cambelt, it does share a shaft with the same belt but they are on 2 different pulleys and they just don't interact at all.


Nomination for volunteer of the month? I saved you at least £1000