Catastrophic engine Failure 4 days out of warranty please help:(

davidwood681

You could have it something and damaged the sump......nobody knows unless you ask.

eschaton

Sounds more like catastrophic lack of information.

AdrianC

Even if the warranty had not expired, I bet it would not have paid out in full for the repairs.


If you want to have a hope in hell of any kind of consumer right claim against the supplier, then you are going to need the engine stripping and the cause diagnosing in full.


It will need to show that there was nothing you, as driver, could have done to prevent the damage following the original failure - for example, would you have had chance to switch the engine off when the oil pressure light came on? Would there have been symptoms, such as dropping oil level, that a reasonable driver following the standard recommendations for a weekly oil level check could have been expected to spot?



It will also need to show that the root cause was something that was present three months ago, at the time of sale, and not exacerbated or caused by any work done in the three months.


It will also need to show that the cause was not something that would be reasonable to expect of a vehicle of that age/type/mileage/apparent condition.


Basically, save your time/effort/money, and put it to another car.

Arklight

Don't just roll over. Within the first 6 months the dealer has to prove that the fault wasn't there at the time of purchase, after that the customer has to prove it was.

Get an independent report, and if it genuinely shows it wasn't your fault, then ask them to repair the problem or provide a refund.

If they dig in then you can decide whether you want to pay the £410 to go through the small claims court.

Be prepared to give a lot more information, and much more clearly, than you have here though.

AdrianC

Arklight wrote: »

Don't just roll over. Within the first 6 months the dealer has to prove that the fault wasn't there at the time of purchase

Easy enough. He was driving it around happily for three months. Now the engine is seized solid. That definitely wasn't like that at the time of purchase...

Mercdriver

Arklight wrote: »

Don't just roll over. Within the first 6 months the dealer has to prove that the fault wasn't there at the time of purchase, after that the customer has to prove it was.

Get an independent report, and if it genuinely shows it wasn't your fault, then ask them to repair the problem or provide a refund.

If they dig in then you can decide whether you want to pay the £410 to go through the small claims court.

Be prepared to give a lot more information, and much more clearly, than you have here though.

The engine seizing won't be enough as AdrianC suggests above. You would need to try and find the root cause and find a way of proving that wasn't down to the OP's negligence. How often did the OP check oil levels? I'll be the first to say I don't check mine often enough, but if the OP hasn't checked his levels how would he be able to prove that he could not have seen a problem coming, and by continuing to drive, exacerbating it.

Arklight

It's a shame he hasn't said what car it is. If this is a Ford Ecoboost then it's almost certainly not his fault.

Arklight

Mercdriver wrote: »

The engine seizing won't be enough as AdrianC suggests above. You would need to try and find the root cause and find a way of proving that wasn't down to the OP's negligence. How often did the OP check oil levels? I'll be the first to say I don't check mine often enough, but if the OP hasn't checked his levels how would he be able to prove that he could not have seen a problem coming, and by continuing to drive, exacerbating it.

In ten years and 90,000 miles of owning my Nissan Almera I only changed the oil about 3 times.

It having no oil is not a good enough reason to not work.

facade

Arklight wrote: »

It having no oil is not a good enough reason to not work.

Probably one of those badly designed engines with plain bearings that need an oil film to lubricate them, as well as carry away some of the heat.

forgotmyname

Driving 30 seconds after the oil light came on....