Engine Seized

dmarshall931

Looking for some advice on where to go next.

• Car purchased March 2024 (HP) (car over 3 years old/ 2020 plate)
• Mid september car went to a local garage for a service.
• 9 days later car stopped at traffic lights, Auto stop start kicked in and engine wouldnt restart.
• RAC towed home and advised engine failure and to contact dealership.
• Contacted dealership to inform them car wouldnt start, they took car into their servicing department (i had to pay to transport it to them) and they checked it under warranty, They advised they found a paper towel wrapped around the oil filter and put that as cause of seizing. 
• Phoned insurance and finance company to inform them of what was happening. Insurance picked car up from dealership and used a 3rd party company to inspect car. Inspection results were no oil and no coolant in car (which we knew already as filter had been removed) but no further checks done.
• Let service garage know whats happened (mechanic informed us they dont use paper towels in this garage and no way it could have been them. they also disputed the fact It would have taken 9 days to seize being used every day)
• Insurance have said that no claim can be made due to mechanical damage and not an actual collision etc.
• Finance company have now said they beleive the dealerships reason for failure and that they cant do anything either.

TadleyBaggie

Unless you can prove who introduced the paper towel into the system, you might be out of luck. Insurance was never going to cover an engine failure, whatever the reason.

Mark_d

You don't have an insurance claim.  Your insurance policy only covers certain events, under certain circumstances.

If there was a paper towel wrapped around the oil filter from when you bought the car, would the car work fine for 8 days and then randomly stop on the 9th?Maybe someone has played a prank on you.  In any case, I don't think you have much of a case against the settler or the finance company.

dmarshall931

So the oil filter was changed at the service (9 days before the failure)

Ectophile

There is a garage that doesn't use paper towels?  Pretty much everywhere has a big roll of blue paper towel.

tacpot12

While the OP wrote that the paper towel was wrapped around the oil filter, I interpreted this as meaning a paper towel was found inside the oil filter (or more correctly) a lot of what used to be a sheet or two of paper towel was found inside the oil filter!

I think this does point to the service that was carried out. (I use paper towel to wipe up oil and brake fluid spills in the engine bay). Proving that the service garage allowed the towel to be ingested into the engine will be very difficult, but in civil cases, the standard of proof is "on the balance of probabilities". 

It will help if the towel recovered from filter is available for examination, and if the service garage is the only one that have been servicing the car since you bought it.  

If it can be shown that the service garage does use paper towels and the type of towel is the same as that found inside the filter, I think you could win the case against the service garage.

I think that you may be able to gather the information to show that the service garage does use paper towels and the type is the same as that found inside your engine. It might take some resoucefulness to do so, and might even need the services of a private investigator, but the cost of a new engine needs to be weighed against this. I would also be looking to recover the costs of investigation from the service garage as they have forced you into needing professional help because they were not openminded about them being the potential cause. 

dmarshall931

Icloud.com/photos/#0d450ysthbET2jiYPyJzbw4iA

This is the video the dealership sent me

Baldytyke88

dmarshall931 said:

• They advised they found a paper towel wrapped around the oil filter and put that as cause of seizing. 
• Phoned insurance and finance company to inform them of what was happening. Insurance picked car up from dealership and used a 3rd party company to inspect car. Inspection results were no oil and no coolant in car (which we knew already as filter had been removed) but no further checks done.

No water, why was that?

Surely they would have put the oil filter back, because oil would still be in the engine and it would spill out?

You need to get someone to diagnose what has happened, because it's not making sense.

ThorOdinson

That seems pretty clear cut. If the towel was inside the filter and the garage replaced the filter, they must be responsible for it.

Do you have legal cover on your car insurance?

dmarshall931

Baldytyke88 said:

dmarshall931 said:

• They advised they found a paper towel wrapped around the oil filter and put that as cause of seizing. 
• Phoned insurance and finance company to inform them of what was happening. Insurance picked car up from dealership and used a 3rd party company to inspect car. Inspection results were no oil and no coolant in car (which we knew already as filter had been removed) but no further checks done.

No water, why was that?

Surely they would have put the oil filter back, because oil would still be in the engine and it would spill out?

You need to get someone to diagnose what has happened, because it's not making sense.

Dealership are saying that oil couldnt get through engine and coolant has evaporated trying to cool it?

facade

I think the dealership are making up stories.

The icloud video shows metal shavings in the oil. There was a new paper towel under the filter cartridge, it wouldn't have blocked the flow through it. 

(I'm suspicious that he seemed to already know the towel was there before he found it, seems like one of those youtube videos where they have rehearsed it beforehand)

I've no idea what car it is, but conventionally the flow through an oil filter is from the outside to the centre, so that paper towel couldn't have gone through the filter and blocked any oilways. I'm not sure how metal shavings can get inside the filter either, they shouldn't be able to get through the filter.

I'd like to know why there was no oil or coolant in it, taking the oil filter out won't drain the oil from the sump.

I'd suggest that you have been stitched up and the actual cause of the problem has been hidden, and now the waters are muddied it will be very difficult to prove what it actually was.