Uneconomical to repair - potentially

[Deleted User]

Scenario is that my car was over 2 years old in the summer. Engine light came on, it turned out oil and coolant has mixed. Warranty repairs, 16 weeks, waiting for parts, hire car. I am sure the manufacturer covered 15k of costs at least. A lot of flushing etc, Engine was still good when I got it back.

3 months later coolant and oil have clearly mixed again in the interim period. Still under warranty. It will be next week when the technicians start on it so no new insight into diagnosis. I noticed this problem as early as possible, again Engine will have survived.

I appreciate that that is a very brief overview of complicated repairs without forensic detail and we still need to see what happens next.

However, I would appreciate your thoughts on what I should be trying to get out of this process, if I should be asking for anything.

I can see that the dealer sells the equivalent of my car for 25k so if the repairs could be projected to be the same again at 15k - could that be deemed uneconomical? 

Don't get me wrong, I am happy to run the hire car that they provide even for months. Repairs take a long time these days. And, I am ever so grateful that repairs are under warranty. Fine with all that. I don't want extra money as some sort of compensation.

Rather, I am just unnerved that such a serious problem seems to have not been fixed, despite mechanics best efforts 1st time round, and that my 3 year warranty is nearing the end. What if they "fix" it and the in future the same problem reoccurs? (Only 3rd party warranty available after 3 years).

Is it unrealistic that we might reach a scenario where I get market value for the car and call it quits!? Would it be reasonable for me to angle towards such an outcome,  or at least try by making sucha suggestion? Alternatively, I just sit back and no doubt this will be a repeat of the summer. 

Thanks to all.

chrisw

I'm surprised they faffed around fixing it, Volvo just stuck a new engine in mine which would have been £10k but only took a couple of days.

i was told at the time that if it was fixed completely under warranty then there would be no additional warranty. However, if I made a contribution of £10 towards it, then all the work and parts would be warranted for 12 months. Not sure if they were having me over but I paid the £10 and fortunately never needed to claim.

born_again

Which car?

[Deleted User]

chrisw said:

I'm surprised they faffed around fixing it, Volvo just stuck a new engine in mine which would have been £10k but only took a couple of days.

i was told at the time that if it was fixed completely under warranty then there would be no additional warranty. However, if I made a contribution of £10 towards it, then all the work and parts would be warranted for 12 months. Not sure if they were having me over but I paid the £10 and fortunately never needed to claim.

I think that when they started the repair they didn't at first realise how complicated it would be. The hire car alone was billed 7k to enterprise.

Its an Alfa Romeo Giuila. Generally it has been sound vs their reputation of old. But this is exceptional.

I don't think the last effort at repair would have taken so long but for a part having to be ordered from Italy. Clearly it is alarming that the previous repair has proved to be unsuccessful. Oil and coolant mixing. Its a nightmare really.

In general I wanted to keep this car. But I worry about being out of warranty after their next effort. And I imagine with this history of significant repairs selling it would be a financial hit. 

facade

chrisw said:

I'm surprised they faffed around fixing it, Volvo just stuck a new engine in mine which would have been £10k but only took a couple of days.

i was told at the time that if it was fixed completely under warranty then there would be no additional warranty. However, if I made a contribution of £10 towards it, then all the work and parts would be warranted for 12 months. Not sure if they were having me over but I paid the £10 and fortunately never needed to claim.

Correct. If your engine explodes after 2 years and 364 days you get a free replacement under warranty.

If the replacement explodes 2 days later it is now out of the warranty you paid for when you bought the car and is not covered.

If you pay for the replacement, the replacement engine (not the rest of the car) has the normal warranty that they put on any paid work, starting from when the work was done.

I suppose you have effectively paid for the work, but the manufacturer has made a contribution of the cost- £10.

Same with any consumer goods like a TV, having a new one for free under warranty doesn't extend the original warranty, otherwise you could get new TVs for the rest of your life if you are lucky enough to have each one fail a few days short of 3 years old and only pay for the first one.

Mildly_Miffed

There's a variety of ways for coolant to mix with oil.

The nice easy cheap ones are things like oil-to-water coolers.
The expensive hard ones are things like head gaskets or cracked or porous castings...

I suspect they initially assumed it was a cooler, and changed that. Now, it's either the new cooler, or something deeper.
If they pressure test the cooler and rule that out, they might remove the head to see if the gasket's gone.
If they start to suspect something internal, they're quite likely to simply put a complete engine in.

But either way, "uneconomic" and whether they repair or offer to buy the car back off you isn't really a question for you. It's a question for the warranty department at Stellantis UK.

[Deleted User]

Mildly_Miffed said:

There's a variety of ways for coolant to mix with oil.

The nice easy cheap ones are things like oil-to-water coolers.
The expensive hard ones are things like head gaskets or cracked or porous castings...

I suspect they initially assumed it was a cooler, and changed that. Now, it's either the new cooler, or something deeper.
If they pressure test the cooler and rule that out, they might remove the head to see if the gasket's gone.
If they start to suspect something internal, they're quite likely to simply put a complete engine in.

But either way, "uneconomic" and whether they repair or offer to buy the car back off you isn't really a question for you. It's a question for the warranty department at Stellantis UK.

That does really help. What I probably also want to do is then try to secure a stellantis backed extended warranty. I am awaiting to hear it such a product is available. I have already bought a 1 year warranty with Allianz, their top cover was a bargain price, but its 3rd party and that makes me nervous.