Engine damage on a car bought 4 months ago.

Jaywood89

Hi looking for some advice.

I bought a hyundai i800 in August

On New Year’s Day we are driving in the car when it suddenly started making a rattling noise from the engine then bam! The whole thing just died on us.

We managed to get it going again and got it home but it rattled all the way,

We called Hyundai as the car is within warranty and they sent out the AA who inspected the car and found an oil leak under the car. He asked if we had seen the oil on the road and pointed out the oil slick. As it was raining it wasn’t hard to see in the gutter but was by no means obvious.
Hyundai collected the car and took it to a local garage

2 days later I got a call to say it wasn’t good news. There was a major oil leak in the engine and the car needed a whole new engine. But the damage was coming from a cracked oil filter so was no covered under warranty, the garage said it was likely broken at its last service (the one done the day we bought it) he assured me we couldn’t of done this ourselves as it was deep inside the engine....I got straight on the phone to the dealer who agreed to collect the car once they had received the report from the dealership which took only a few hours....



After ten minutes the conversation was going nowhere and all I learnt was that the agent didn’t even know where my car was anymore! It was at a garage but he wasn’t sure which one.

So my question to you all is. Are they required to repair this damage? I’m worried I’m going to be left with a car that needs £10000 worth of work doing to it which just isn’t going to happen! I’ve read that a car bought within 6 months is the dealerships responsibility to Prove they didn’t damage not mine but how do u prove a fault like this?
I don’t want my money back for the car I just want it back on road again.

Any advice would be appreciated also excuse any spelling or grammar errors I have a toddler in hand

arcon5

Problem you have is it looks like they are heading to tell you that it was preventable but you allowed it to run low on oil causing failure. And they have a point, if there was a leak regular checks on oil level would flag an issue up. Also the report about the leak could be interpreted as supporting this.

As for oil warning lamp, these are pretty much a complete joke. They ignore the light when pressure is nearly non existent. So you can be driving with very little pressure but still just enough to turn l pressure light off.

marlot

The other issue is that they could say you were being negligent when you drove it home despite a poorly engine.

On the positive side, it seems that motorpoint fitted a duff filter (or damaged it in the fitting), so you can reasonably point to that as the primary cause.

Jaywood89

Thanks for the reply.

My argument to them if that were the case would be that we had no idea about the oil leak until the tow man came to take it away. yes everything is preventable but surely the fault lies with the initial damage not the customer just using their new car as you would expect?

Thirdly we had to drive it home as when I called them on New Year’s Day to say it had broken down they advised it was under warranty so isn’t their issue. Hyundai was closed and the car started back up as if nothing had happened. Had it not started we would of called for a tow but with 4 small children and two dogs and being miles from
Home we couldn’t just abandon it and walk

But thanks for the feedback

EdGasketTheSecond

You hadn't checked the oil for a few months :eek: I check it daily on any new car purchased until I'm comfortable with how much its using and then at least once a month regardless.

Jaywood89

Well your the first person I know who does.

Jaywood89

But regardless a new car shouldn’t have an oil leak. And there is proof this leak was caused by a badly fitted filter.

ohreally

Jaywood89 wrote: »

Well your the first person I know who does.

The i800 handbook states...

Owner maintenance schedule
G030101AUN-UK
When you stop for fuel:
• Check the engine oil level.

Jaywood89

So your saying the damage to the engine was caused by me not maintaining the car and has nothing to do with the cracked like filter leaking oil into the engine

I’m not trying to be argumentative or rude I’m just trying to play it from all sides so I know how to respond to the dealership. appreciate all opinions and feedback

Aylesbury_Duck

Jaywood89 wrote: »

Well your the first person I know who does.

Collective behaviour isn’t a defence in your case. I try and check the basics on my two cars every Sunday morning. It takes no more than 10 minutes for both of them; oil level, tyre pressures, quick visual check around the engine bay, washer fluid level, etc. I don’t always get round to it I admit, but I don’t think I’ve left it more than two weeks, and I only do about 300 miles a week in both cars combined.

The problem you’ll have is that although it looks unlikely that you’ve done anything to cause the leak that caused the damage, their argument will be that your failure to check the oil level at least in accordance with the handbook led to what was a catastrophically low oil level. Had you done the regular checks, it’s reasonable to assume that you would have detected falling oil level, taken it into the garage to check and the cracked oil filter would have been discovered and replaced.

Jaywood89

Thanks for the reply.

I’m trying to put myself in the place where I check and fill my oil every week and I can honestly say I wouldn’t know there was an oil leak even if I was forever topping it up. So I’m not sure if I would of ever got it rectified before this situation occurred. I know that may not help my case but it is the honest truth.

But I just keep coming back to the whole non of this would of ever happened if the oil filter was not cracked and leaking. All following events are because of this fact.

But again thanks for honest reply. It’s good to hear people’s views so I’m
Not blind sided when they call on Monday.