My story of a $4000 engine repair at the expense of my mechanic.. what can I do?

[Bassik]

So this story is something that has taken so many avenues/delays and as the plot thickened each day it stretched well over 2 months. It is actually an extension of another thread that didn't last so long http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/foru...do-117566.html
and turns out that the issue was not an exhaust valve but an oil baffle distributor which had fallen out and hit a cam shaft, damaging it and the rocker plus various engine seals. Which evidently mean't the cylinder head had to come off.

Putting aside the fact that I had been without a car for more than a month, I had to deal with warranty issue claims, car ownership errors and taking my car to 3 alternative places other than my mechanic to source what caused the issue and how to repair it. After taking some advice I finally took the leap and booked it in at Denlo VW. They, much like this thread Oil Baffle has fallen into my head supposedly!! diagnosis'ed the cause of the issue by "someone" pushing the oil distributor down and ultimately weakening the baffle until it fell into the head. This is this piece that fell in. I know nuts right...!



Now I know VW wouldn't own up to any sort of "bad manufacturing" but at least they actually submitted this repair to VWA for a "goodwill" claim and I was actually provided with some compensation. So kudos to VW for helping out.

Now to the point:
Prior to this my mechanic on the other hand is the only person that has handled my car since day one and couldn't find what the issue was, or at least claimed he couldn't. After a lengthy 2 weeks of his lack of communication, answering/returning my calls lead me to the point of frustration and getting nowhere I then took it to 2 other places for a diagnosis, both of which couldn't source the issue and said it would either cost a lot of money and labour to repair and advised taking it to VW. Which is what I had done.

Oblivious to my dissatisfaction, my mechanic has now cost me $4000 in damage . As VW claim this can only be done but not using the right tools to service my car. One out of the 3 places I took my car to actually said that if you fill the engine up with too much oil this can cause issues as well so they actually took some oil out. In addition VW also stated that this can cause the oil baffle to fall off. (I don't know how?)

For the moment my car is still at Denlo and should be repaired within the next few days. I've actually bought a new car whilst this was all happening and will be paying Denlo the $4000 in damage. My question is, do I have any means for raising a dispute to my mechanic in order to receive some sort of compensation? My guess is that he will deny everything and possibly blame VW for poor engineer or bad manufacturing. Basically this issue started whilst my car was in for a service and ever since that service the car got progressively worse. I don't know what leg I have to stand on as this was not caused by me at all and now has cost me $4000 to repair.

I know this is a long thread and let me tell you this is only the short version of it. I would appreciate if anyone has had any issues like this before and what experiences or dispute resolutions they've had like this?
Thanks