No consumer protection with low mileage car engine failure after six months?

lfc-rule

Purchased a vehicle two years ago a Ford Toureno Connect Grand Titanium TDCI 1.5 cc.

It's been adapted into a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle purchased from a dealer selling only WAV's

I purchased it in 2022 I was the second owner with 1000 miles on the clock at purchase, at the point of the engine failure it had done 4600 miles. The low oil pressure light came on before the engine seized up and snapped the block in two places.

It's out of warranty in terms of Ford the manufacturer although they have bunged me £2200 towards the repair as a good will gesture after a lot of harassing them. So I'm left with £4.600 remaining to pay, (because of my disability (quadriplegic) the repair is VAT exempt on the repair cost.)

I approached the dealer asking for repair or financial compensation citing Consumer Protection Law 2015.

They immediately responded, "As it's over six months since you purchased it from us you have to prove it was faulty when we sold it to you to be liable in any way.

I cannot prove that and it would probably cost a fortune to get an independent specialist to look at it.

Can someone confirm I was wrong to think that an engine failure on a car purchased in 2022 with extremely low mileage would have been covered under the 2015 Consumer Rights Act? If failure beyond 6 months after purchase 

4600 miles before engine failure for a £30,000 purchase seems a little unfair! 

Would it be pointless to go to the Small Claims Court?

There is some questionable behavior from the dealer to report in as much as Ford asked what oil products were used in the vehicle history, which I could show from all my post-purchase service history however the dealer refused to tell me what specific oil they used in the presale service they carried out other than to state they used Ford approved products.

Ford had asked for receipts of the Oil purchase order, I found the refusal weird particularly as they cited data protection law which is absolute BS.

So really what I want to know is am I realistically at the end of the road, I've been pretty much housebound since the breakdown on 11 December 2024 and need to get it fixed which should happen within two weeks through Trust Ford Bristol garage.

Have to say that it sticks in my claw that the dealer has no financial contribution to make to the repair.
A fairly scathing review coming their way hardly seems adequate 

DullGreyGuy

After 6 months its the buyers responsibility to prove there is a problem rather than the seller to disprove it. An independent engineer won't provide you a report for free but it will be modest -v- the £6,800 repair bill. 

With no report to back up your case it would be a very big roll of the dice to go to court and you only get one bite of the cherry. That assumes you are trying to claim the £4,600 outstanding repair cost, were you try to rescind the contract of sale then the £30k for the car pushes you out of small claims and even above fast track meaning the loser has to pay the winners legal costs on a fixed cost basis. 

MattMattMattUK

lfc-rule said:

Purchased a vehicle two years ago a Ford Toureno Connect Grand Titanium TDCI 1.5 cc.

It's been adapted into a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle purchased from a dealer selling only WAV's

I purchased it in 2022 I was the second owner with 1000 miles on the clock at purchase, at the point of the engine failure it had done 4600 miles. The low oil pressure light came on before the engine seized up and snapped the block in two places.

It's out of warranty in terms of Ford the manufacturer although they have bunged me £2200 towards the repair as a good will gesture after a lot of harassing them. So I'm left with £4.600 remaining to pay, (because of my disability (quadriplegic) the repair is VAT exempt on the repair cost.)

I approached the dealer asking for repair or financial compensation citing Consumer Protection Law 2015.

They immediately responded, "As it's over six months since you purchased it from us you have to prove it was faulty when we sold it to you to be liable in any way.

I cannot prove that and it would probably cost a fortune to get an independent specialist to look at it.

Can someone confirm I was wrong to think that an engine failure on a car purchased in 2022 with extremely low mileage would have been covered under the 2015 Consumer Rights Act? If failure beyond 6 months after purchase 

4600 miles before engine failure for a £30,000 purchase seems a little unfair! 

Would it be pointless to go to the Small Claims Court?

There is some questionable behavior from the dealer to report in as much as Ford asked what oil products were used in the vehicle history, which I could show from all my post-purchase service history however the dealer refused to tell me what specific oil they used in the presale service they carried out other than to state they used Ford approved products.

Ford had asked for receipts of the Oil purchase order, I found the refusal weird particularly as they cited data protection law which is absolute BS.

So really what I want to know is am I realistically at the end of the road, I've been pretty much housebound since the breakdown on 11 December 2024 and need to get it fixed which should happen within two weeks through Trust Ford Bristol garage.

Have to say that it sticks in my claw that the dealer has no financial contribution to make to the repair.
A fairly scathing review coming their way hardly seems adequate 

Just checking on this part, did you pull over and turn the engine off when the warning light came on or keep driving? If you kept driving then that may well give them cover. An engine can have low oil pressure for many reasons, some could be manufacturing faults, others could be bad luck, some could be poor maintenance or incompetent maintenance. However even catastrophic loss of oil pressure should not cause an engine to sieze if the driver pulls over and turns off the engine when the warning light comes on. Have you had a full report on the engine?

daveyjp

Can you categorically state that the engine oil level was checked on a regular basis and topped up as required?  With vehicles doing low miles it can often be neglected.

If the engine has done half of those miles on oil level at minimum and getting lower engine failure isn't a surprise.

lfc-rule

In the period of ownership, it had one mini Service to check the vehicle over after purchase then two full services. The vehicle was well-maintained and had no warning lights indicating a problem before the failure. I just find it very strange that they were not willing to tell me what oil product they put in the vehicle, as that might have been a factor in the failure?

MattMattMattUK

lfc-rule said:

In the period of ownership, it had one mini Service to check the vehicle over after purchase then two full services. The vehicle was well-maintained and had no warning lights indicating a problem before the failure.

Did you pull over immediately and turn off the engine when the warning light came on, or did you continue driving? How soon after the warning light coming on did the engine seize?

lfc-rule said:

I just find it very strange that they were not willing to tell me what oil product they put in the vehicle, as that might have been a factor in the failure?

They probably do not have specific records, their records probably just show "Oil change" and work on the basis of the mechanic using the correct oil for the vehicle, which gets restocked to their garage in bulk.

photome

lfc-rule said:

In the period of ownership, it had one mini Service to check the vehicle over after purchase then two full services. The vehicle was well-maintained and had no warning lights indicating a problem before the failure. I just find it very strange that they were not willing to tell me what oil product they put in the vehicle, as that might have been a factor in the failure?

Was the oil level checked  on a regular basis ?  ie weekly and did the driver pull over as soon as the warning light came on?

Goudy

This sounds like another wet belt issue.
I'm not sure if the cam belt is wet or dry on these engines (wet as in inside the engine in an oil bath) but I seem to think the oil pump is driven by a smaller belt in the oil and there have been reports of these failing on some 1.5 EcoBlue models.

Ford blame the owners as far as they can, they point to using the wrong oil causing the belt to weaken and degrade and obviously no oil pump and no oil gets pumped around the engine.

The knock on effect is no one wants to admit what oil was in there.
Ford are happy to point the finger at the oil but your dealer isn't happy to reveal what they put in as this may make them liable.

You are at a impasse, you need and they need to be certain the right oil was used.

lfc-rule

We stopped as soon as we could, within a minute on a busy A road. However, the low oil pressure light warning and the engine smashing itself into the pieces pretty much happened in that time period. Ford accepted that the invoice for the oil purchase may be part of a bulk order. As a business, they have a legal obligation to keep all their receipts for purchase orders for 6 years in case of an audit. It would not be difficult to find. They sell loads of this vehicle how hard will it be to ask the mechanic what they use on this model? No, in all honesty, I don't get it checked every week. I thought modern cars were a bit more sophisticated these days and the warning lights could be trusted as well as being properly serviced. You have to love the car industry I got this vehicle to replace a Volkswagen caddy with a common fuel injector fault. Only to replace it with a Ford with a common wet belt problem. How is this industry allowed to make such junk and get away with it?

knightstyle

Have you thought about going to the press about this?  I am sure the DM and your local paper would take it up.

Mildly_Miffed

Goudy said:

This sounds like another wet belt issue.

It doesn't, because it's not a wet belt engine.

The 2021-on third-generation Transit Connect (the VW one) doesn't come with a 1.5 diesel, so this must be the old second-generation one.

That did come with a 1.5 diesel, the PSA-Ford DLD-415/DV5, which is chain driven.

The "no oil pressure" warning light is not a "stop when convenient" light on any car, it's always a "stop the engine NOW" light, as in "neutral, engine off, roll to a stop" - or risk very serious engine damage. Yes, continuing to drive could VERY well do the damage you describe.

The question is why the light came on in the first place. I can see several questions about how often you check oil level, and no answers. This is always the most likely cause for no oil pressure - because there's no oil to be pumped around the engine, it's just sucking air.

I'm not quite sure why you're trying to prove that the service three years ago, pre-purchase, is the issue when the oil has been changed twice since.

You don't say when it was most recently serviced, but I would presume that if the drain plug had not been properly refitted, and fallen out, that would have been noticed.

Honestly, I don't see any way in which you've got comeback on the company that sold you the van. And, yes, CRA15 does require you to prove that the fault was present at the time of purchase once six months have passed.

My first suspicion would fall on the very low mileage. It's entirely feasible that the emissions kit is suffering from that, and that's led to rapid oil consumption, which has not been noticed through regular checks. But even without pulling the dipstick, I'd presume a vehicle of this age has dashboard oil level notifications...