RedAvon
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| posted on 4/4/22 at 08:14 PM |
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What would you do or expect?
Hi folks,
Took tin top to the first service from new on Friday, one year old and 2600 miles on a service plan at the main dealer I bought it from. Drove it home
35 miles mostly motorway.
Next day I noticed oil spots all down the drive, thinking it might be my brother's car, our van or the delivery driver.
However, it was my car. They had left the oil filler cap on the wiper tray and closed the bonnet, denting the underneath. The whole engine bay is
covered in dripping fresh oil.
Rang garage and they're having it in tomorrow. I topped it up but it took nearly 2 litres out of a capacity of around 3.3 litres.
Service manager said they're very sorry and they will clean it up.
Should I ask for some type of particle test on the oil now in the sump? What's the potential for damage? Should they do a boroscope inspection?
How might this affect the warranty down the line?
I understand that people make mistakes. I'm just annoyed that I drove it so far, there were no warning lights.
Am I worrying too much or should I look for something more than an oil change and clean up - not financially - in terms of any potential damage.
Good to hear your thoughts.
Cheers
[Edited on 4/4/22 by RedAvon]
Bricoleur
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obfripper
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| posted on 4/4/22 at 08:57 PM |
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What car?
Some cars are alot more sensitive to low oil than others, you may have no consequential damage from this, but it is a bit of an unknown.
I would get paperwork stating what has occured, so if the worst happens, you can claim any required repairs from them/their insurance. It's
likely that the manufacturers warranty would not cover any resultant damage from oil starvation caused by a lack of oil, as it is designed to cover
material/design failures, not mantainance errors.
Dave
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RedAvon
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| posted on 4/4/22 at 09:04 PM |
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Thanks Dave it's a Suzuki Vitara 1.4 Boosterjet Hybrid SZ-T. With the K14D engine.
Good point about documenting the event, thanks.
Ian
Bricoleur
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ReMan
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| posted on 4/4/22 at 09:25 PM |
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Blimey thats not much oil. Realistically though unless you got lights I'd expect you got away with no damage. Did well not to smell it , I might
have done something similar myself before 
www.plusnine.co.uk
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perksy
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| posted on 4/4/22 at 10:12 PM |
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Hmmm, that's over half the designed oil capacity for the engine
I'd be getting something in writing from the dealer to protect you going forward if the need arises (fingers crossed all will be ok)
As Dave says above as far as the manufacturer would be concerned its run low on oil, so they wouldn't want to accept a warranty claim and it
wouldn't help trying to gain a goodwill gesture
*If* a modern engine oil warning light does comes on, its probably too late anyway, unless your very lucky
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nick205
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| posted on 5/4/22 at 08:23 AM |
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1. Ensure the main dealer documents this on the vehicles service history and in a seperate letter to you (as the vehicle owner).
2. Ensure the main dealer corrects financially and cosmetically any damage caused to the vehicle.
3. Request a detailed independent inspection of the vehicle (at the main dealers expense), documenting any ill effects caused by the event (If it was
a 20 year old, 200k mile car then it's a different story, but on what sounds to be a new car it's a more serious a recordable issue).
4. Monitor the vehicle carefully yourself and perhaps use a different main dealer (if you can move the service plan).
I asked a garage to replace a diesel fuel filter as part of a vehicle serice some years ago. They forgot to fit the new top rubber O ring when
reassembling the filter housing assembly.
Result - Diesel leaking in the engine bay!
Solution - Me ripping the garage off a strip, getting the part from them and fitting it myself and the garage refiunding the service cost.
Pay attention to what garages say they're doing and what they're actually doing!
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SJ
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| posted on 5/4/22 at 03:05 PM |
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That sounds bad. I was happy when our cars were out of warranty so I had a reason to service them myself.
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RedAvon
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| posted on 6/4/22 at 07:08 AM |
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Thanks for your replies, all very helpful.
Just to close this out, the service dept. apologised, cleaned up the mess and renewed oil etc.
They checked the engine pressures and other stuff I guess. On this basis they are confident there's no damage to the point that they have
confirmed in writing they will pay for any engine related issues whilst the car is in my ownership. The issue and actions are recorded in the service
history.
Also covered my expenses (fuel and oil).
Time will tell .......
Cheers
Ian
Bricoleur
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nick205
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| posted on 6/4/22 at 08:20 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by SJ
That sounds bad. I was happy when our cars were out of warranty so I had a reason to service them myself.
Fair comment!
SWMBO has currently has our newest (privately owned) car (2017). Bought 2nd hand and not under manufacturer's warranty. Given the cost,
complexity and newness of the car it's currently being serviced by garages (in particular the DSG gearbox service). Prior to this our privately
owned cars have been old enough that I've service them myself, bar a couple of services where I didn't have time. MOT's have to go
to test centres obviously. At least with servicing them yourself you get to know you're using the right parts and doing the work properly.
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nick205
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| posted on 6/4/22 at 08:21 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by RedAvon
Thanks for your replies, all very helpful.
Just to close this out, the service dept. apologised, cleaned up the mess and renewed oil etc.
They checked the engine pressures and other stuff I guess. On this basis they are confident there's no damage to the point that they have
confirmed in writing they will pay for any engine related issues whilst the car is in my ownership. The issue and actions are recorded in the service
history.
Also covered my expenses (fuel and oil).
Time will tell .......
Cheers
Ian
Seems a reasonable outcome from the main dealer to provide you assurance in writing.
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MikeR
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| posted on 6/4/22 at 10:24 PM |
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But late to this, my only thought is the oil that was left has done a lot more "work" than it's supposed to. I'm curious if
it's worth getting the oil changed. On the bright side, motorway driving is very constant and relatively low revs with little sideways motion.
Very little chance for the oil pickup to not have oil to pick up.
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 7/4/22 at 10:02 AM |
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Oil pressure senders only tend to trigger warnings at pretty much dead pressure (like 4psi when the operating minimum is 14, for example).
I don't think you can do much else, but I'd sure as hell be asking them to replace anything dented, flush the oil and replace the filter,
and run a particle analysis on it.
I have, however, run a 3S-GTE on zero oil for 2 miles including on-boost (and I mean zero, I emptied it and forgot to re-fill it before taking it out
a week or two later). The tols were so tight it didn't knock, and when I stripped the engine (20K miles) later for a cracked ring-land, there
was no excessive bearing wear.
[Edited on 7/4/22 by coyoteboy]
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SteveWalker
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| posted on 7/4/22 at 04:11 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by nick205
I asked a garage to replace a diesel fuel filter as part of a vehicle serice some years ago. They forgot to fit the new top rubber O ring when
reassembling the filter housing assembly.
Result - Diesel leaking in the engine bay!
Solution - Me ripping the garage off a strip, getting the part from them and fitting it myself and the garage refiunding the service cost.
Pay attention to what garages say they're doing and what they're actually doing!
I took a Nissan in to the dealer to get the turbo and the electrically times, but mechanically driven diesel pump replaced under warranty. To remove
the pump they had to remove the engine, which also involved them removing various ancillaries and the drive shafts. They were supposed to have it a
week, but kept cancelling pick up (after I'd booked unpaid time off), costing me a fortune. I eventually got it back after 2 weeks!
I had to drive home on a wet seat (they only finished valeting it while I was there, despite supposedly finishing the work on the car a day and a half
earlier. I found the driver's door mirror surround cracked; one of my mats missing and replaced with a non-matching one; the noise of the
exhaust banging the side of the tunnel (as they'd mis-assembled it); the power steering pump screaming (they told me it was air and it would
self-bleed, but it wasn't and they had to replace it); during valeting, they'd slammed the back seat back upright, caught the left
seatbelt in the catch and punched a hole through it - this was all stuff that I found and they'd either not noticed or tried to ignore.
The final straw was finding, while changing the brake pads a month later, that when replacing the drive shafts, they'd re-used the split pins
and one was just hanging on by one weakened leg (the other leg had dropped off and was loose in the cover), while the pin on the other side had failed
completely and dropped out into the cover - so I'd been driving for up to a month with no split pin at all in one hub nut!
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ReMan
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| posted on 9/5/22 at 08:02 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by SteveWalker
quote:
Originally posted by nick205
I asked a garage to replace a diesel fuel filter as part of a vehicle serice some years ago. They forgot to fit the new top rubber O ring when
reassembling the filter housing assembly.
Result - Diesel leaking in the engine bay!
Solution - Me ripping the garage off a strip, getting the part from them and fitting it myself and the garage refiunding the service cost.
Pay attention to what garages say they're doing and what they're actually doing!
I took a Nissan in to the dealer to get the turbo and the electrically times, but mechanically driven diesel pump replaced under warranty. To remove
the pump they had to remove the engine, which also involved them removing various ancillaries and the drive shafts. They were supposed to have it a
week, but kept cancelling pick up (after I'd booked unpaid time off), costing me a fortune. I eventually got it back after 2 weeks!
I had to drive home on a wet seat (they only finished valeting it while I was there, despite supposedly finishing the work on the car a day and a half
earlier. I found the driver's door mirror surround cracked; one of my mats missing and replaced with a non-matching one; the noise of the exhaust
banging the side of the tunnel (as they'd mis-assembled it); the power steering pump screaming (they told me it was air and it would self-bleed,
but it wasn't and they had to replace it); during valeting, they'd slammed the back seat back upright, caught the left seatbelt in the catch
and punched a hole through it - this was all stuff that I found and they'd either not noticed or tried to ignore.
The final straw was finding, while changing the brake pads a month later, that when replacing the drive shafts, they'd re-used the split pins and
one was just hanging on by one weakened leg (the other leg had dropped off and was loose in the cover), while the pin on the other side had failed
completely and dropped out into the cover - so I'd been driving for up to a month with no split pin at all in one hub nut!
This wasn't a Terrano was it?
www.plusnine.co.uk
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