Customer Service & Advise

Technical assistance and advice on any API product is available free of charge from the sales office or in cases of extreme difficulty directly from the specialist at Banbury. The first query should be made directly to the sales office as they will have the original information.
CALL 01926 614181 ONLY for Technical assistance.
Alternatively click here to email your enquiry to us at info@apiengines.com

Buying A Replacement Engine
Replacement engines' are not always quite what they seem. The rule of buyer beware is paramount here. The important rule; shop around, get a feel for the range of products, warranties and prices.

A popular starting point is often Exchange & Mart or Auto Trader. Here problems may begin. The Spares section has many offers of `Reconditioned', `Exchange', `Replacement', `Imported' engines, and `Free fitting', 5 year warranties, and even 8 year warranties.

• A reconditioned engine, by definition, is an engine that has received major repairs, including; re-boring the block, regrinding the crankshaft, re-facing the valves, in short, all areas have received attention and brought to `as new' condition. It cannot be done cheaply.

• An exchange or replacement engine, may be a reconditioned engine, but equally, it may just have had a minor repair, it could be a used engine taken from another car and simply painted, or it could even be your old engine just tinkered with. Ask for specification, read the small print!

• An imported engine is API's speciality and you should question any other potential supplier about their claims. Imported engines are sometimes offered `with all accessories', in practice the accessories are worthless as there is no guarantee they will work on your car or that they will work at all.

• Free fitting almost never is, the labour cost will be hidden in surcharges or extra work required or `faulty components' that must be replaced or the replacement engine cannot be warranted.

Engines advertised under `free fitting' banners are invariably very cheaply priced. A thorough read of the disclaimers in the advert will alert the wary. Such as: `the exchange unit must be re-serviceable' who decides if it is re-serviceable? It won't be you! And their decision will be binding.

Statements such as `no work will be carried out without permission' are also ambiguous, the work won't be carried out, but unless it is, according to the particular company's charter, there will be no guarantee that the engine will work properly and thus no warranty can be offered.

If you decide not to proceed because of escalating cost, the labour charge for `investigation' will bear no relation to the original quote and will become a deciding factor. It will cost too much to back out and your car will still be in pieces, thus ensuring you have little choice but to proceed. Will all the parts be there if you decide not to proceed and take the car away?

5 year and longer warranties are entirely dependent upon you having the car serviced by the engine supplier, thereby tying you to his business practices for the duration of the warranty. Miss out a service and all that has been spent before is wasted. Many extended warranty engine supply companies don't stay in business for as long a their warranties!!

Even car manufacturers do not offer warranties longer than 3 years on a new car!

Finally, do not make a decision on the spot – take a day or two to consider, ask for written quotations, Do Not Fall For: `We can start on it now, bring it around straight away and it will be ready by xxxxxxx'.

And, contact the prospective supplier's local Trading Standards Office for an opinion or contact your motoring organisation – you may be surprised by what you hear.

Remember the reputation of the magazine and the size of the Advertisement are not a recommendation of quality or fair business practice.......