R53 - advice required on getting compensation from garage

[IH1]

Hi All

I'm new to here and heard it's a great place to get advice from knowledgeable folk

A bit of background....I've owned my R53 for 8 years, up until 2 years ago I used to take my car to an independent garage to be serviced, since last year I now take it to a dealer as their prices are very close to the independent and the service is excellent.

I just had the oil service done on it. I had a huge shock when he said the garage who serviced it last has broken the pressure relief and this needs to be replaced as they aren't happy to fix the oil filter onto this which was broken and could get worse. This was on Saturday so he gave me a loan car (the new Cooper which is lovely to drive! ), fixed my car and I got it back today.

On Saturday I asked if there was any chance it could've been caused by wear and tear or anything else and he said 'no, you're fortunate it didn't break any further as it could've affected the engine', very true!

So I have the broken part and they have put on the invoice 'replace full flow filter due to finding pressure relief broken from last oil filter change'. I want to go to my last garage and get them to pay for this as I am shocked how they can break a part, however do I have a leg to stand on? Will they just say 'how do you know the dealer didn't break it?' 'We replaced that 2 years ago, we aren't paying for it as you have no proof'. Any advice at all on the best way to deal with this and try and get them to pay for the part that they broke as I'm nearly £270 out of pocket because of them

Thanks for your help

Inga

[IH1]

Thanks for your comments.

I went back to the independent garage. They looked at the part and showed me the spring had broken under where the oil filter goes. So basically its impossible to know if it was broken when the last filter was put in or when MINI had taken the old filter out to put a new one in. However the MINI garage should never have said it was definitely the other garage who broke it. When I called him back to tell him what the independent garage said and I asked how did he know it was definitely the other garage and you could've done it by mistake, he said 'well I suppose there is no way of knowing'. My point exactly so don't blame someone else, just say the truth that you don't know how it broke.

So I'm £300 out of pocket, its unfortunately one of those things but I don't trust the MINI garage anymore.