Engine blown on new car

The message from "David Speir" contains these words:

200 miles and you hadn't checked the oil? Disgusting. Can tell you never had an old banger - why, in my day you'd have been lucky to get 50 miles on a sumpful.

Lesson number 1 - ALWAYS check the oil before you take a company vehicle out - especially if its a one-off or infrequent use.

In the place where I used to work, if the vehicle you were driving "ran out" of oil, then you were responsible because that was part of a mandatory vehicle safety check.

You were the one that received the disciplinary b*****ing and sometimes the sack.

There were absolutely NO excuses for plain old "running out" of oil.

Brian

The message from "Brian G" contains these words:

Though with only 200 miles on the clock you might expect not to have to check it just yet.

Yes, even the most oil thirsty cars wouldn't use a sump full in this time. It's obvious there was a defect with that engine from the start.

It amazes me how "modern cars" are loaded with creature comforts and safety aids ... air-bags, air-con, abs, etc. Yet stuff which would only add a few pounds to the build cost of cars, is missing.

I take it the ultra modern fords still don't have a audio sounder on the dash coupled with a fault readout??

"Bong" #LOW OIL#

No?? Ok ... i'll stick to 15 year old german cars which do have.

Mine doesn't and the lamp is hidden by the steering wheel when driving.

First thing I did was take the instrument cluster out and sticky a 49p buzzer in parallel with the bulb!

If it's reasonably likely that it had absolutely no oil in it when it left the showroom, then I'd blame the f****it who took delivery of it for not noticing that it sounded like a bag of nails. I mean, how can anyone *not* notice the different sound an engine might make without any oil in. It was lucky to make it 200 miles. That'd be the lubricative (is that a word??) properties of diesel.

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

Or the dealer didn't put any oil in it, or failed to check it on delivery. Add to that the owner/fleet manager not checking such a basic thing on delivery. Clueless muppets, the lot of 'em.

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

It's highly likely that it just went ignored.....

I don't know if my 8 year old German car does have an audible sensor that tells me when I'm low on oil, as it's never come on as I've never ran low on oil. I check it regularly (every other day, it's boringly predictable and barely uses a drop), so if it was to use any I'd know before it reached the "urgent" stage.

What it has got, is a button on the dash (in the left hand side of the instrument panel), that when pressed, displays "MPH" on the dot matrix bit of the instrument panel. From then on, if I either accelerate quickly, or approach 100mph, it kindly reminds me that the speedo is in MPH :-)

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

Spot on. In one of the fleets that I worked in, you could drive into a house and get away with, "it's just one of those things," but if you killed the engine through not checking something - oil or coolant - then you were in the s**t.

Yup; but I don't expect to see anybody driving from the left along the very quiet street I live in, but I always check...

no oil from new then. Stupid manufacturer, stupid dealer, stupid fleet manager.

Always check lube and coolant, they're one of the first signs of things going wrong - I always check when picking up from service (look on Dixons service managers face when picking up Zafira and showing him the black oil on the dipstick....)

Mate of mine didn't take the precaution, and didn't get home from the garage.

The message from "DervMan" contains these words:

Ah, like the woman who drove into my learner as we waited to emerge from a side road. She turned in on the wrong side of the road, oblivious to our presence.

"No one's ever come out of there before" she claimed.

Not necessarily. I saw a Scorpio once where they'd left a retaining clip on the top hose clip, which was well obscured under the manifold. It was enough to hold coolant in for a while, but it popped off after about 150 miles, which is all the car made after delivery.

That same August we also had a Mondeo back, they'd missed a mounting clip for the bypass hose, which ran near to the power steering pulley, that cut through after 300 miles.

Also that same August, the bosses brand new Galaxy V6 made a whole 400 miles before that expired. I believe it was a similar trick there too.

You have no idea.

I once took a call from an Alfa driver (wasn't *his* car), went something like this:

Customer: 'My Alfa has just blown up on the A1, looks like bits of engine everywhere'.

Me: 'were there any symptoms before hand?'

Customer: 'yes, the oil light came on when I first drove off, but went out after a few miles. Then I heard this funny noise, and then it blew up'.

Me: 'didn't you check the oil when the light stayed on?'

Customer: 'I did when it stopped!!!!!'

Pause:

Customer: 'will this be covered by warranty?'

What can one say to that lot?

Well, If I took delivery of a new car and found out it had no oil, then I would be very tempted to drive it about until it went bang. No way am I going to give the dealer the opportunity of just filling it up and saying "sorry sir, it'll be fine now".

Cheers,

Colin.

Picked up Dads brand spanking new Granada 2.8i Ghie at 12 noon ish.

At lights 200 yards away, a large merc van drove straigh in the back. Was written off. Was in papaers and everything.

I'm guessing that wasn't today.

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

And not a manufacture defect either ;-)