Garage ruined engine when car took in for MOT

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Comments

  • sartois
    sartois Posts: 162 Forumite
    Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »
    Diesel engine, 8 years old, 55,000 miles. Perhaps it's had a lot of tootling about on short trips which has led to an unusually high level of wear on the engine and its components? Has its service schedule been adapted to match the pattern of driving?

    As others have said, until you speak to the garage you don't know what's failed and it does sound as if they may make some sort of proposal - offering to "sort it out"? I'd agree that an innocent charm offensive should be the stance you take and then assess your options once you know what the failure was and what, if anything, the garage are offering by way of assistance.

    Well, we live in London so it's probably had a life of short trips pretty much taking the dog to the park, trips to tescos etc... I doubt she has even ever taken it on a motorway. I think she just gets it serviced once a year along with the MOT.

    I think charm is the way forward here. I've had a look at the reviews of the garage and the owner has responded to the few negative reviews they have had (they have mostly positive reviews on google) so it doesn't sound like they are in the business of ripping people off.

    Thanks again
  • Inner_Zone
    Inner_Zone Posts: 2,853 Forumite
    welfayre wrote: »
    Think the diesel 500s have a chain.

    Chains still snap, BMW and Vauxhall (petrol) two examples.
  • EdGasketTheSecond
    EdGasketTheSecond Posts: 2,558 Forumite
    First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    Sounds like diesel runaway; see here:

    https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/50998/what-has-caused-a-major-engine-failure-in-my-fiat-500-multijet-diesel-

    and

    https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/49422/why-is-my-diesel-fiat-500-suffering-repeated-engine-failures-
  • Aylesbury_Duck
    Aylesbury_Duck Posts: 13,965 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper
    sartois wrote: »
    Well, we live in London so it's probably had a life of short trips pretty much taking the dog to the park, trips to tescos etc... I doubt she has even ever taken it on a motorway. I think she just gets it serviced once a year along with the MOT.
    This could very well be a contributing factor to whatever's gone wrong. Engines, particularly diesel engines, don't respond well to mileage made up of frequent short trips where the engine perhaps doesn't get up to optimal working temperature. Also, town and city driving places a disproportionate level of wear on the engine, gearbox and clutch because of all the stopping, starting and gear changes.

    If your friend's driving patterns are going to remain the same, she should ask for advice on a suitable service schedule. More frequent servicing may be appropriate rather than waiting for the 12 months to elapse. If she ends up changing cars (through choice or because the current one is beyond economical repair), she should look for a vehicle more suited to her driving pattern. A small petrol engined car would be more forgiving of her driving pattern but the advice on a suitable service schedule would still apply.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
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    sartois wrote: »
    I think she just gets it serviced once a year along with the MOT.
    But, this year, she was just taking it in for the MOT?

    What's being meant by "serviced with the MOT"? Does she mean just a nice cheap oil and filter, or proper by-the-book intervals and maintenance list?

    At the end of the day, the maintenance and condition of her car is her responsibility 100%. The MOT does not place particularly great mechanical demands on a car - the engine is basically only run to ensure that the emissions are to spec, the exhaust isn't leaking, and the brake assistance is working. The way everything is tested is specified by the government. The emissions is as simple as tell the computer what age/fuel the car is, plug the sensor into the exhaust, and follow the instructions on the screen.

    If her car did not survive that, then that's not really the tester's fault.

    OTOH, if the car had "been serviced" before the test, and they'd forgotten to put the new oil in...
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,473 Forumite
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    welfayre wrote: »
    Think the diesel 500s have a chain.

    Yes, thats correct.

    When i posed the question, the O/P hadnt told us yet....
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,088 Forumite
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    OP, you say it has a full service history, so has it been serviced annually? With an annual mileage of only 7K, a lot of people are tempted to stretch 12 months to rather longer.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • Glover1862
    Glover1862 Posts: 410 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    I think the OP has a good case, if you pay for a service and MOT it's reasonable to expect the service to be done before it goes in for MOT (obvious reasons). I would bet that the garage did something while servicing, ie ran the car with no oil or something similar. A car with only 55k miles in good working order, good service history suddenly dies in the few hours the garage has it while they happen to be tinkering with the very parts that have failed... big coincidence I'd say. Ask nicely first but don't take any rubbish, I'd also bet that they are buying time, hopefully trying to fix it or changing the circumstances to suit them.

    Long and short, perfectly good car goes in, they mess about with it and now it's dead. If the service was not carried out then they have a much better case.
  • bugslet
    bugslet Posts: 6,874 Forumite
    welfayre wrote: »
    Few scenarios I could see happening.

    Scenario 1.
    Your friend hasn't been checking their levels regularly and the oil level has dropped. Friend then presents car for Service and MOT, garage decide to do MOT first and engine blows during the test /driving into the garage = not the garages fault.

    Scenario 2.
    Engine was on it's way out anyway and it just happened to have blown when the garage have had it = not the garages fault

    Scenario 3.
    Garage carry our service first and forget to put in oil/put to little oil in/don't recheck oil level after service. Garage then carry out MOT/road test and engine blows = garages fault.

    How you figure out/prove which it is I don't know.

    If you really thought that it was the garage had been negligent in some way arther than your friend being unlucky, you could have it independently assessed by an automative engineer. However that would be costly.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
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    Glover1862 wrote: »
    I think the OP has a good case, if you pay for a service and MOT it's reasonable to expect the service to be done before it goes in for MOT (obvious reasons).
    Actually, it's normally the other way around. MOT first.

    That way, if something's noticed in the MOT bay, it can be flagged as PRS (Pass, with Rectification at Station), and sorted when the car's in the service bay, saving chargeable time. Also, if the car fails the MOT badly, it allows the customer the chance to not actually pay for a service on a car they're about to bin...
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