Car engine blown after 9 months ownership

manflu

Hi all

I have been reading various forums but unable to find the answer.

Last May i bought a car from an Arnold Clark dealership in Glasgow. A week later i received a call from the manager telling me the car has a replaced engine. The original engine "blew" and they had sourced an engine with 16k miles and fitted it to the car. The car is a 2010 Mazda 3 2.2d. Cutting a long story short we were offered either to return the car or a 2 year warranty and £500 back to keep it. My wife really liked the car so we decided to keep it.

Last weekend i was driving down the motorway and heard a loud noise coming from the engine. Pulled over and called the RAC who had a look and told me this one has also blown.

Luckily it is covered by the warranty and Arnold Clark have confirmed they will source another engine (either used or reconditioned) and get the car back on the road.

To be honest i don't really want to keep a car that in less than 4 years is about to have its third engine and i made that clear to AC. Bought the car for £10,250 and today the General Manager called offered £6,750 if i wanted to trade it in. Financially that's quite a big hit that i am not happy with.

I wanted to know where i stand with this. Am i doomed to keep this because they did make me aware of the engine (be it a week after being sold the car) and i accepted or can i reject the car. As mentioned AC have offered to put the car right but all i can think is my wife and kids could have been in the car travelling in the rain when the engine went. Have i been sold a faulty car if this has happened twice now.

What i would like, even if this is being quite hopeful is to give the car back and choose another car for the price i paid back in May last year.

Any help/advice of where i stand is really appreciated

colin79666

Given that you have had the car for some time and they are offering to repair it FOC I don't think you have much of an option. You would of course be free to sell it or trade it in elsewhere, especially after it has been repaired.

What caused the engine to blow? It has to be pretty catastrophic for an entire replacement to be required. Usually only the actual failed part is replaced.

manflu

Thanks Colin. There's a big hole in the engine. Some sort of rod inside the engine came through it.

I was hoping that i could "reject" the car on the basis of the number of failed engines in a short space of time

Netwizard

Doubt you would be able to reject the car now, especially after saying you would keep it the first time round.

Let them fix it free of charge and then sell it on if you don't want to keep it. This will certainly be the most hassle free option

System

manflu wrote: »

I was hoping that i could "reject" the car on the basis of the number of failed engines in a short space of time

I would think that

we were offered either to return the car or a 2 year warranty and £500 back to keep it. My wife really liked the car so we decided to keep it.

scuppers that idea.

colin79666

Ah probably the connecting rod then. If it goes through the block then it probably does indeed write off the engine.

victor2

Sounds like the dealer have gone out of their way to provide good customer service. As others have said, I would go with the replacement engine, then sell the car after that if you're still unhappy with it. You can ask AC what caused the two engines to fail, and what guarantee they can give that the same problem(s) won't happen again.
You can't expect to have had 9 months free motoring, so will take some sort of financial hit if you decide to change the car.

forgotmyname

How often do you check the oil level?

Joe_Horner

With a rod out the block I'm surprised they're not washing their hands on the basis that either (a) you've run it dry of oil or (b) you've been driving it round with a nasty knock developing that's allowed a problem to get (significantly) worse.

Grab the repair before they change their mind!

timbo58

I would have to agree with the above to be honest: a con rod doesn't 'let go' all of a sudden with no warning in modern cars unless it's a freak accident.

flashg67

timbo58 wrote: »

I would have to agree with the above to be honest: a con rod doesn't 'let go' all of a sudden with no warning in modern cars unless it's a freak accident.

there are a few examples of modern engines with this issue -eg. such as the VW BXE engine are fairly well documented.

Also, modern diesels with DPFs have been known to suffer oil dilution reducing effective lubrication. Appears this may have been a problem on this engine in the past.