Garage service caused engine to seize

Buckbeak75

Hi,
I had my car serviced last thursday, only drove it home afterwards (about 1 mile) until monday when I drove towards newcastle from ashton. Driving for 2 hours.
Got as far as Wolviston services and the red oil light came on.  Pulled over immediately.  Called AA, who found sump plug on the tray.
Car engine has seized as a result of dropping all its oil.
AA provided a report to say they thought sump plug hadn't been refitted correctly.
My AA didnt have national recovery. So car is still there whilst garage are messing about over getting it recovered.
Just wanting advice on how to proceed.  AA man kindly told me I should ask garage to purchase car at market value and walk away. As a rebuild or donor e gine will only have problems going forward.
Garage have said they can't afford to do that.  Suggesting an engine rebuild.
Also concerned, i have nothing but verbal acceptance of liability from garage.
Does anyone have a similar experence or legal advice on my rights?
Its a 61 plate golf.  Not worth more than 5k.  
Sorry, I dont know much about cars, so all advice gratefully received!
Thanks in advance.

macman

Your garage is talking nonsense: they surely have PLI to cover this kind of scenario. Unless this is a real back street bodge-shop operation?
Why not just hand it over to your insurers to deal with? They have already admitted liability: the only disagreement is the resolution.

Buckbeak75

My insurance (Aviva) say they will only get involved for claims relating to accidents not mechanical failure.  I hoped the legal cover might assist, but apparently not.
Garage is saying that no garage has insurance for things like this?  I think maybe I need to speak to a solicitor.

GrumpyDil

They definately should have insurance cover for this, otherwise they are directly liable. 

Given the value of the car youight want to research the county court claims process. 

Veteransaver

I'm not sure of the relevance of the sump plug, I'm assuming the engine lost its oil gradually and not all in one go, in which case I'd have thought the warning light would have come on intermittently a long while before the engine seized.
Or did the sump plug literally just drop out of the sump and drop oil the oil in one go?

Stubod

Veteransaver said:

I'm not sure of the relevance of the sump plug, I'm assuming the engine lost its oil gradually and not all in one go, in which case I'd have thought the warning light would have come on intermittently a long while before the engine seized.
Or did the sump plug literally just drop out of the sump and drop oil the oil in one go?

..well, considering the sump plug became lose and fell out causing all the oil to follow it I would consider it to be extremely relevant!!! 

Happened to me once, but luckily stopped straight away and got the car back to the garage to sort it. (Luckily no damage to the engine).

As far as the OP is concerned, 100% the garages fault and they "should" have insurance form that sort of thing.....unless they are a bit dodgy??

Agree that they should offer to buy the car off you at the current market value. If not you will have to go through the courts?

T.T.D

What car are we talking about?

The AA report stating they think the garage was negligent is key.

There is Insurance for Garages Public Liability usually has strict liability cover and covers the garage for legal action in court if you ever sued them for negligence.

A garage without it is not a business man but a reckless business owner.

Imagine if Kwik fit a tyre, left the lug nuts loose on a car the tyre departs from the car on a busy road at 60MPH the car spins out hits another vehicle he then bounces of that car and rolls through a wall of a garden, through a house wall and window and lands in the living room injuring miss daisy’s cat that sat on said windows sill at the time, then going on to smash a ming vase, a 100inch 8K LG TV, a 10k gaming PC and comes to rest upon her Louis Veton bag collection, disrupts her self employment of 5k a week for weeks on her only fans streams.

Mean while the loose tyre flying through the air Hits a a windscreen of a brand new scania articulated 200k truck and strikes the driver in the arm shoulder neck and head, he requires emergency surgery, a year of physio and cannot return to work until his treatment has finished. The company looses income stream from the vehicle while it requires a 7k windscreen and 4K worth of body work He has costs for an adapted vehicle. 

The car that he struck has 7 occupants being a MPV, 2 have life changing disfiguring injuries the rest minor injuries cuts bruises whiplash broken toe.the car is a write off, all occupants are TV stars on 100k a year and have lost 6 months income while 2 have retire due to their injuries and have lost 100k income stream pensions and perks and sponsorships. 
 

Police come along discover a receipt for the tyre replacement from a local kwik fit a tyre 3 miles away and it was just replaced. That tire is the offending one, the police write a report stating Kwik fit a tyre appears to not tightened the lug nuts up to specifications of the manufacturers required torque setting, they all came loose resulting in this crash.

The garage says not our fault we’re not insured, there’s no insurance in the world for this type of scenario too sad, so bad sorry we can’t help anyone now sounds a little stupid.   Which it is! 

With regards to rebuild or salvage engine being problematic and not worth doing.

I think you’re going to be hit with a reasonable test if you went to court. 

It would be reasonable to let the garage take on the costs of stripping the engine out sending it off to a engine rebuilder (I would get them to agree to sending it to a shop I request-huhum Barum Engines-) to get a report on it to see if the engine is repairable and if it is the garage sucks up the costs.

Allow them to get it done and refitted and handed back to you. If the engine can not be rebuilt I would get the garage to agree to buy the car for the market value so you can walk away and the deal with it at their time and leisure.

I think a judge in court would have trouble with you preventing them a change to remedy the problem via an engine report test and rebuild.

m0bov

Do you have legal cover with your home insurance or car insurance? Try them. Otherwise, I'd get the details of the insurance PL cover from the garage to send the claim to.

Get a quote for a refurb engine/repair, that's what your claiming for. Put that value in the claim.

Buckbeak75

m0bov said:

Do you have legal cover with your home insurance or car insurance? Try them. Otherwise, I'd get the details of the insurance PL cover from the garage to send the claim to.

Get a quote for a refurb engine/repair, that's what your claiming for. Put that value in the claim.

House insurance wont touch it because its a car.  Car insurance wont help because its not been in an accident.   Not very helpful.  
Garage I suspect does not have any insurance.
But im going to visit in person and ask to see their insurance documents.  They are today apprently.  Taking engine apart to assess the damage.

Buckbeak75

T.T.D said:

What car are we talking about?

The AA report stating they think the garage was negligent is key.

There is Insurance for Garages Public Liability usually has strict liability cover and covers the garage for legal action in court if you ever sued them for negligence.

A garage without it is not a business man but a reckless business owner.

Imagine if Kwik fit a tyre, left the lug nuts loose on a car the tyre departs from the car on a busy road at 60MPH the car spins out hits another vehicle he then bounces of that car and rolls through a wall of a garden, through a house wall and window and lands in the living room injuring miss daisy’s cat that sat on said windows sill at the time, then going on to smash a ming vase, a 100inch 8K LG TV, a 10k gaming PC and comes to rest upon her Louis Veton bag collection, disrupts her self employment of 5k a week for weeks on her only fans streams.

Mean while the loose tyre flying through the air Hits a a windscreen of a brand new scania articulated 200k truck and strikes the driver in the arm shoulder neck and head, he requires emergency surgery, a year of physio and cannot return to work until his treatment has finished. The company looses income stream from the vehicle while it requires a 7k windscreen and 4K worth of body work He has costs for an adapted vehicle. 

The car that he struck has 7 occupants being a MPV, 2 have life changing disfiguring injuries the rest minor injuries cuts bruises whiplash broken toe.the car is a write off, all occupants are TV stars on 100k a year and have lost 6 months income while 2 have retire due to their injuries and have lost 100k income stream pensions and perks and sponsorships. 
 

Police come along discover a receipt for the tyre replacement from a local kwik fit a tyre 3 miles away and it was just replaced. That tire is the offending one, the police write a report stating Kwik fit a tyre appears to not tightened the lug nuts up to specifications of the manufacturers required torque setting, they all came loose resulting in this crash.

The garage says not our fault we’re not insured, there’s no insurance in the world for this type of scenario too sad, so bad sorry we can’t help anyone now sounds a little stupid.   Which it is! 

With regards to rebuild or salvage engine being problematic and not worth doing.

I think you’re going to be hit with a reasonable test if you went to court. 

It would be reasonable to let the garage take on the costs of stripping the engine out sending it off to a engine rebuilder (I would get them to agree to sending it to a shop I request-huhum Barum Engines-) to get a report on it to see if the engine is repairable and if it is the garage sucks up the costs.

Allow them to get it done and refitted and handed back to you. If the engine can not be rebuilt I would get the garage to agree to buy the car for the market value so you can walk away and the deal with it at their time and leisure.

I think a judge in court would have trouble with you preventing them a change to remedy the problem via an engine report test and rebuild.

Can i reasonably insist at the very least that a third party inspects the damage?  They are suggesting they do the rebuild themselves.

macman

Buckbeak75 said:

My insurance (Aviva) say they will only get involved for claims relating to accidents not mechanical failure.  I hoped the legal cover might assist, but apparently not.
Garage is saying that no garage has insurance for things like this?  I think maybe I need to speak to a solicitor.

But it is not 'mechanical failure'. It is third party damage due to the garage's admitted negligence: no different to if they had taken the car on a test drive and crashed it. I suggest that you talk to your insurers again.
They are clearly liable. If not insured they will have to compensate you from their own resources. Even the most basic garage must have thousand of pounds in equipment. A garage that operates with PLI deserves no sympathy.
What sort of garage is this? One man working out of a lock-up?