Many thanks for your response. And apologies for the misprint in my timeline. That date should read 21st December, not 21st September!

If the unservicing dealer intends to fight any claim, they've already made it difficult for the independant engineer that you would need to write a report by dismantling the engine, i have no doubt the offending oil filter is now correctly positioned or removed.

You could make contact with the breakdown company and the initial inpecting garage to see if they would be prepared to put in writing their discoveries and/or appear as witness, then i'd be inclined to contact a solicitor to see what a pro thinks about your chances of a successful claim, bearing in mind how much such a claim might cost should you lose.

If we assume the servicing dealer is not going to play nice ball, the choice of whether to pursue a claim is the one you have to make.

The alternative is to pull the vehicle from their clutches and to either get a good indy to rebuild your present engine (might not be as bad you think if you stopped immediately the low oil pressure light came on) or chuck a used good engine straight in.

Edited by gordonbennet on 21/01/2016 at 21:25

Thats good, but unless the OP can get some credible convincing support from the breakdown chap and the intial mechanic, hopefully skilled time served people, then the dealer will simply say it was run low on oil and seized.

Not trying to put OP off, i hope he gets some justice here.

75% of what?, new full engine? you get a new engine fitted for labour charges only, which might be 20 hours @ what? up to £100 an hour plus your 25% of an estimated £7000, so your bill could be about £3500ish...hopefully less if you can come to some agreement about either a fixed labour quote or a better hourly rate with a firm quote for hours.

What if its a new crank and bearings, or a short engine (i reckon thats what they have in mind), you might end up with 30 hours labour by the time rebuild is complete, cost of parts 25% of anything between £1500 and £3000, so you might end up paying out up to £4000, again much depends on what you can get re labour charges...bear in mind you do not want a mech rushing a rebuild cos he's on a fixed time allowance.

Thats not taking into account the cost of new turbo either (required for full or rebuild), plus pipework, or the new oil pump etc which will be required for rebuild.

Personally i'd want a new engine and not a short block or worse still new parts like crank and bearing being fitted, cos you won't know how many engine rebuilds the mech doing the job has been involved in for one thing nor how thorough he is in finding the nasties now loose in the oil system, and its worse value for you in the long run as its more labour intensive, and when you come to eventually sell the car (another thing to consider) a new engine fitted @ 60k is a private sale bonus, but you won't want to put in your ad that some unknown mechanic has stuck a new crank and bearings oil pump and turbo nor would a short engine be as desirable as a full engine.

I would visit the service manager and involve the dealer principal and get better definitions of the failure and what they intend to fit to the car, obviously if a poorly fitted or poor quality oil filter pouring oil out was the cause of the problem the evidence is now long gone...so all IMHO you can do with this garage is try to pin them down to a fixed cost for you and then decide if it's worth proceeding.

It might be cheaper for you to get a used engine complete with turbo and all ancillaries fitted by an indy, but that's for you to decide after you've negotiated more.

Hopefully someone else has got better answers for you.

Edited by gordonbennet on 26/01/2016 at 10:22