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

MattMattMattUK

lfc-rule said:

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.

Has anyone downloaded the logs from the ECU? That should be able to give a pretty comprehensive timeline. 

lfc-rule said:

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.

All that would show is that they have at some point bought a certain type of oil. They are required to retain the records for accounting purposes, they are not required to share them with you.

lfc-rule said:

They sell loads of this vehicle how hard will it be to ask the mechanic what they use on this model?

They could, but in all fairness the mechanic, who probably deals with hundreds of vehicles a year is not going to be able to tell you what oil he used in a specific vehicle, though he may well be able to say what vehicle should be used, that does not mean that he could be sure and I strongly suspect neither he nor the garage would be willing to agree to make any sort of statement on what oil was used. 

lfc-rule said:

No, in all honesty, I don't get it checked every week.

Which is essentially their get out of jail free card. Oil leaks are rarely the fault of a garage, they can be caused by a part failure or damage to a part, which is the root cause that causes the oil loss, or oil pressure loss.

lfc-rule said:

I thought modern cars were a bit more sophisticated these days and the warning lights could be trusted as well as being properly serviced. 

They are, the low oil pressure light is an "engine off NOW" type warning light. Loss of lubrication can cause an engine to seize in seconds. I remember being taught to drive and I was told if it comes on put the car in neutral, stop, engine off, do not leave the engine in gear, especially on a motorway as the engine could seize and lock the wheels.

lfc-rule said:

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?

Whilst issues do occur they are usually fixable, the injector replacement for a VW Caddy is £200-500, they generally last 60-100k depending on how the car is driven anyway. Wet belts are generally reliable when used with the correct oil, when that oil is changed according to the service schedule and there have been some known issues with the Ecoboost engines and some others, but the reality is that the failure rate is very low amongst engines that follow the oil changes and belt checks. If the oil is changed according to the schedule then any breakdown in the belt leaves bits in the oil, which are obvious at the change and the belt can be changed before it fails. 

However sometimes things are just bad luck, there is not anyone to blame, there is not someone else to pick up the bill, it just happens. I had the timing chain slip on my Golf 20k before it was due to be replaced, I pulled over and turned the engine off as soon as the warning light came on, plugged in the OBDII dongle, then got it taken to a garage I trust to be fixed, luckily no damage, but still the cost of it being changed. The garage said if I had tried to drive more than a minute or two longer it would have likely destroyed the engine which would have written off the car. No one was to blame for the chain failing before it's recommended service interval, it just happened. 

daveyjp

Mildly_Miffed said:

Goudy said:

This sounds like another wet belt issue.

But even without pulling the dipstick, I'd presume a vehicle of this age has dashboard oil level notifications...

That is far from a common feature.  I've never had it on any vehicle I've owned in tha last 20 years, all of which were no more than a year old when I bought them and that includes some premium marques.

lfc-rule

So no chance then, but I learned a lot so thanks everyone, just to say I wasn't requesting the type of oil used, Ford was, it was not lost on me the madness of identifying the oil used when two further services had taken place with different oil however, I guess that could've done some damage which contributed to the damage further down the line.
Secondly at one point if I could prove they had used the correct oil, they were going to pay for the entire repair without it, They are now paying 42%, which is better than nothing. My request from the garage was not difficult if they were being honest and are competent in the way they run their business. Third point I kind of got bored with paying out loads of money for fuel injectors at about £350 a pop, it's unlucky surely for one or 2 to go but not 3 on another well-maintained and fully serviced vehicle. It's rather galling that different breakdown RAC men have turned up twice and said Volkswagen caddy, probably fuel injector. Not to mention the cash, must be great to have so much disposable income. Anyway, time to move on thanks all for your input.