Hi all, we are seeking some advice re our broken car! Our 2.5 petrol s-max suffered a terminal engine issue last june(2013) requiring either a new engine or reconditioning the existing engine. We chose to recondition because a new engine was more than the cost of replacing the car. We were without the car for 5 weeks! because they were waiting on parts etc. That was a pain in the butt, but we were please to have the car back to working order...or so we thought.

The car was using alot of oil, it was aparent that oil was visiably leaking from somewhere so we returned it to the garage. They changed a seal, well the garage didnt..the engine reconditioners did.

The car continued to binge drink oil( about a litre a week, depending on useage) we when back to the garage on numerous occasions for them to check it. We were told that it was the turbo and that we should change this or just 'keep topping the car up with oil'..which would have cost £2000, so we asked another garage to look into the turbo.

This company confirmed that the turbo was fine, but there was white oil deposits all over the engine, on the sparks etc and took pictures of the engine internals. SO we then went back to the garage that orignally looked at the car. They called ford, who said it could be the diaphram in oil filter housing which would need to be replacing. Which we did..at our own cost, but they didnt charge labour. the car was almost at the 10 000 miles warranty for the engine recondition and we discussed our concerns with the garage, but they said it would be fine.

So of course the car continued to drink oil...so back to the garage at 100 miles over the 10 000 miles. Thhey now want us to deal with the reconditioners directly. Which we are not happy about because we didnt pay them, we paid the main garage and they out sourced the work.

They have now taken the engine out and believe it to be a fault with the piston rings.. but we are still waiting for confirmation.

I asked for a courtesy car, but the garage refused, I put my foot down and they offered me a old peugeot 306 and i have to insure it myself!!!

Ithey arent part of the motor code unfortunately and I am struggling to deal with them.

The garage seem to think they have done no wrong, but I disagree. I don't know what to do next? I would want a refund for the intial work as it was not fit for purpose and they did not investigate the oil issue properly when they had it the first time. I'm guessing we will probably end up in the small claims court. We feel we cant even sell the car on as we are honest people and wouldnt want anyone else to have a heap of poo...

sorry for the long post!