Just had a service and MOT...now engine seized!

[Deleted User]

What did you do for transport between the 14th Sept when the MOT expired and the 18th Oct? 

If you can last over a month with it off the road I can't see how it is vital for you. 

Anyway, it passed the MOT the first time so not sure why it would need £1400 of work?

Anything can fail on a car between MOT and service, whether it is a month after or 11 months doesn't make any difference, MOT says the car is ok on that day without any guarantees about tomorrow.

Norman_Castle

rachellelouise said:

Correct he got a stop message, pulled over immediately into the hard shoulder and took the key out. He put the key back in 5/10 mins later but when he turned it on there was nothing, no lights on the dash, no noise, so it never even attempted to start. Then the tow truck took it to the garage.

I was a passenger in a friends Astra on the motorway. Pinging noise and a stop light. She pulled over immediately and stopped but the head gasket was leaking and the head warped. We'd done 200 miles without a problem or warnings. With a sudden loss of coolant you need to be both quick and lucky to avoid serious engine damage.

To hold the servicing garage liable you need to find out if the coolant was at the correct level after the work was done, presumably it was or there would have been warnings in the previous month or that they failed to fit or connect something properly.

macman

OP, why can't you just post up the garage invoice (redact the name of the garage obviously) so we can see what you've been charged an extra £800 or so for? Otherwise this is all speculation.
Nothing done during an MOT would result in loss of coolant 500 miles later, it's a safety inspection that is primarily visual.

rachellelouise

[Deleted User] said:

What did you do for transport between the 14th Sept when the MOT expired and the 18th Oct? 

If you can last over a month with it off the road I can't see how it is vital for you. 

Anyway, it passed the MOT the first time so not sure why it would need £1400 of work?

Anything can fail on a car between MOT and service, whether it is a month after or 11 months doesn't make any difference, MOT says the car is ok on that day without any guarantees about tomorrow.

The garage didn’t do the MOT til after the work was undertaken, they explained it would not pass without the work.

The car was late going in for its MOT between September and October.

The car is vital for us, it wasn’t off the road during that time period. We did not realise we missed it, and quickly booked it in with the garage when we did. Hence, not going to our usual garage as they were fully booked.

The reality is we juggle the car between both of us working full time shifts and having three children, one of which is disabled and goes to school 25 miles away…the car is absolutely essential to us, but being busy and juggling things caused it to slip our mind.

MikeJXE

I don't get this brake discs etc replacement unless it's a rip off.

The car had an MOT 19th October or possibly 2 weeks before, passed with no advisory so pads and discs were ok then yet 2 weeks later that needed changing ?

Regarding the engine did you have it serviced around 70,000 miles and have the cam belt changed as recommended because it could be that shattered. 

Grey_Critic

MikeJXE said:

I don't get this brake discs etc replacement unless it's a rip off.

The car had an MOT 19th October or possibly 2 weeks before, passed with no advisory so pads and discs were ok then yet 2 weeks later that needed changing ?

Regarding the engine did you have it serviced around 70,000 miles and have the cam belt changed as recommended because it could be that shattered. 

The MOT should have been carried out prior to servicing - no good spending money only to have a serious fail.

I came across a case about 20 years years ago where the customer was charged over £1,000 for work only for it to fail and be uneconomic for it to be repaired. The garage finished up paying out substantial compensation to the customer.

SergeantBaker

rachellelouise said:

[Deleted User] said:

What did you do for transport between the 14th Sept when the MOT expired and the 18th Oct? 

If you can last over a month with it off the road I can't see how it is vital for you. 

Anyway, it passed the MOT the first time so not sure why it would need £1400 of work?

Anything can fail on a car between MOT and service, whether it is a month after or 11 months doesn't make any difference, MOT says the car is ok on that day without any guarantees about tomorrow.

The garage didn’t do the MOT til after the work was undertaken, they explained it would not pass without the work.

The car was late going in for its MOT between September and October.

The car is vital for us, it wasn’t off the road during that time period. We did not realise we missed it, and quickly booked it in with the garage when we did. Hence, not going to our usual garage as they were fully booked.

The reality is we juggle the car between both of us working full time shifts and having three children, one of which is disabled and goes to school 25 miles away…the car is absolutely essential to us, but being busy and juggling things caused it to slip our mind.

But that wasn't the first time, there's also a 3 month gap in the history. 

Grumpy_chap

rachellelouise said:

I spoke to my husband, he thinks the receipt for the work is in the glove box at the garage, but he thinks it was also an anti roll bar and a spring or something like that. 

These other items are parts of the suspension system so not going to be linked to a fault in the coolant system.

Mutton_Geoff

My apologies to the OP. Of course they are concerned and I shouldn't be picking up on people's spelling, particularly since mine isn't perfect ;-) I'll edit my post!

It is not defence but some posts just get my goat when I read between the lines and I thought this was one of them, but clearly not.

Goudy

It could be the head gasket let go.
Diesels are compression ignition engines, so there is no spark to ignite the fuel, the air in the cylinders is forced in by the turbo, compressed under high pressure by the pistons, fuel is then injected and the whole lot auto ignites and goes bang.

This compression is far higher than a petrol engined car, so when a head gasket fails the results tend to be quite different.

When a diesel head gasket fails, this high compression in the cylinders tends to blow out into the engine cooling system as the cylinders are wrapped in a water jacket.

All that air the turbo has squeezed into the cylinders that the pistons have then compression explodes out into the cooling system, forcing the coolant out where ever there is a weak spot.
It's often instant.

Now you have no coolant, no compression and a mad hot engine that usually ruined. 
You usually see the results of this around the engine, oily, fuely coolant splattered about the engine bay from where ever the coolant system let go.

There is some evidence that certain Peugeot diesel engines do have head gasket problems.