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Last month, X-Ray viewer Lianne Roberts was furious to receive a letter from Vauxhall recalling her car, especially as she had just forked out almost £700 to get the repairs done herself.

Lianne's story starts back in November last year when she was driving from Neath to Cardiff: "I'd just come off the motorway and a warning light came on. So I pulled over and just called the breakdown service who came out and towed me home."

She took her Vauxhall Meriva to a local garage in Neath. They took it apart and after days of searching, found out two of her camshaft bolts had come loose and had to be replaced - all in all it cost her £662.01.

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But she wasn't happy, the mechanic told her it was an unusual problem, one they had "never" seen before. So Lianne went home to do her own research: "I went onto the internet and found quite a lot of other Meriva users had had the same problem.

"I contacted Vauxhall and they told me that the car had actually been recalled for this problem. I said well I haven't had any recall letter and they said they'd gone out that week."

Finally in January the letter dropped onto her doormat. It was entitled "Customer Satisfaction Programme" but Lianne wasn't too satisfied.

Particularly as it went on to say: "it has been established that a number of Meriva models could be affected by the camshaft bearing bolts not being tightened to specification. Therefore in line with our commitment to our customers, we have decided to call in a number of these vehicles to have the camshaft bearing bolts checked and retightened if necessary... The work will of course be carried out free of charge."

A fuming Lianne could be forgiven for feeling she wasn't experiencing their commitment to customers: "I wanted them to reimburse me... basically they turned around and said that because the car didn't have a full service history that they won't pay out for it."

So where did she stand? Lianne had bought her car second hand and it had a part service history with a low mileage.

X-Ray spoke to Gareth Rees, an independent expert witness for the motor industry: "Basically, the servicing, or lack of servicing as Vauxhall claims, wouldn't have caused this defect to arise, neither would it have prevented it. For Vauxhall to argue the fact that her servicing record wasn't correct is not really a reasonable argument."

Mr Rees explained that the camshaft bolts wouldn't be checked during a typical service so the problem wouldn't have been identified, and anyway, it was an inherent manufacturing default from the factory and nothing Lianne could have done would have prevented it.

When we put this to Vauxhall they caved, admitting: "Following a review of Miss Lianne Roberts' case we are pleased to confirm that we will be refunding the full cost of repair. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Miss Roberts for any inconvenience caused and hope that this brings a satisfactory conclusion to the matter."

But what should you do if you get a recall letter through the post or hear rumours of one from other drivers?

Chris Mason is the Managing Director of Motorcodes: "It's important to do two things. First of all don't panic, but secondly don't ignore it. The letter will tell you what the recall is regarding and it should direct you to contact your local franchise dealer.

"If you have already paid for the work, best advice is to contact your vehicle manufacturer's customer services department and this will be assessed on a case by case basis.

"If you hear rumours [about a recall] have a search on VOSA's website and that will tell you whether your vehicle is actually subject to a safety recall campaign or not."

is a self regulatory body for the motor industry where consumers can get help with complaints against a manufacturer or garage.

The details current and past safety recalls on cars.