Legal advice regarding my car

[StupidLandRoverStupidHusband]

Hope you can help me with some advice / sensible words.

Husband took our 7yo Land Rover for a service and mot a couple of weeks ago as it was running on reduced performance. We've owned it since Oct 2011 and it's been serviced each year since.

On 31 March 2018 it had done less than 38,000 miles.

Last service Nov 2017.

So, earlier this month, Husband drove it to Land Rover approved garage. They carried out the mot which required an emissions test as it is a diesel. This requires running the engine under strain for 20mins. They already knew diesel had got into the oil as the oil level had risen. Long and short the emissions test basically killed the engine.

Quoted £10k for a new engine!! Husband thinks we should just pay it. We would need to take out a loan. He thinks it's one of those things. I think we should take up a complaint procedure with the garage on the basis we drove the car in - it worked at that point.

Any advice for me?

So if I understand correctly......you knew the vehicle had a fault.........DH drove it to garage and asked them to put it thru’ an MOT. They did what you asked.

Perhaps you should have asked the garage to recover the vehicle and repair it first.

But if you didn’t know it had a fault but they did.......that bit mystifies me.

It was a service and mot. They knew about the fault beforehand

Firstly, under strain for 20 minutes - I don't think so. The engine oil is bought up to a specific temperature then the engine is briefly revved governed by the emissions machine. I agree with IzzyGee the cost of repair is your responsiblilty. Written as the part owner of a MOT test station.

My point is they knew about the problem but still put the vehicle through the emissions test.

user my husband said the garage told him the engine is run for circa 20 minutes. Is that not correct?

I think it'd be worth getting some proper legal advice before you cough up 10k! No idea if you would have any claim but it hass to be worth looking into it properly.

If the fault was there YOU should have had it looked at before the service and MOT.

They can't not do the test. It is part of the MOT procedure and has to be done. It's your responsibility to keep you car in working in order and quite frankly, if it packed in on that 20min test, the next long drive you took would have killed it anyway.

The engine may be run for 20 minutes but not under strain. It must be running whilst the lights and brakes are checked but only ticking over not under strain.

Strict instructions should have been made for the engine problem to be sorted before the MOT IMO as you knew there was a fault.

I've always sat in the garage for my MOT's (often helped a bit as mechanic is a family friend) and never has he run the engine under strain for 20 minutes prior to an emissions test.

Whats the mileage now? Have you asked Land Rover about engine failures? They might be willing to help if it's still reasonable, but generally I think this might have to be filed under 'shit happens'.

As I understand it, it's normal practice to MOT first then service (our car went through the same at the weekend) so the fault and implications should have been discussed with the garage before the MOT was carried out. Did that happen?

Five thousand miles a year, short runs, in a diesel? I’m amazed it lasted this long. Why do people buy Land Rovers with Diesel engines in order to drive them a mile to the shops?

We only knew it was running on reduced perf. We didn't know why. Everything else the garage has told us. We aren't mechanics.

The garage knew it was running on reduced perf before the mot.

Put me off Land Rover cars! I used to have a Ford Ka. I drove it over 100k miles. This expensive car has died after c40,000.

Actually reflectant a lot of the time it was doing 180 miles in one go on the motorway!

Do you not have insurance to cover the cost?

This expensive car has died after c40,000.

Over seven years. Presumably you didn’t take twenty years to put 100k miles on a (petrol) Ka?

If I were running a large 4x4 doing a low mileage it would be petrol, and I would religiously service on the dot every year (yours was a couple of months overdue, it would appear) and use the very best synthetic oil I could. An endless succession of short journeys will kill diesels, because they never get properly warmed up so are constantly running with cold oil. I’d also be very certain to change all accessory and ancillary belts on time, or earlier, because it’s time not mileage that kills them.

What failed in the engine? My guess would be the cam belt. 38k miles? Not due for a change. 7 years? Due for a change. My diesel did intergalactic mileages in its youth, but is now doing rather less: I change the cam belt every three years, I think.

Do you not have insurance to cover the cost?

Even if you have an extended warranty seven years out, “my vehicle which was last serviced fourteen months ago has thrown a bearing / belt / whatever” isn’t going to get very far.

I don't think it was one thing that failed. The entire engine is dead. The garage has said it was the emissions test that killed it. We need an entire new engine.

By the sounds of it I need to have serious words with my husband as he wants another Land Rover. But our lifestyle will be the same.

@VanCleefArpels Car insurance doesn't cover mechanical failure.

I don't think it was one thing that failed. The entire engine is dead. The garage has said it was the emissions test that killed it.

Engines don't just die. Something breaks, and the debris breaks something else. Usually, either the top end (valves, cam shaft, pistons) goes because the cam belt broke, or the bottom end (crankshaft) goes because of poor oil, but you get more warning of that (grumbling, nasty noises) If the engine stops dead suddenly with no prior warning and there's top end damage, it's very often the cam belt. If it's the original 7/8 year old cam belt, then it's not totally surprising.

This or something like it will be displayed in the testing station:

www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/repository/Diesel%20Smoke%20Test%20Poster.pdf

"As part of the MOT test you will be given a Diesel Smoke Test Information leaflet. Also, you may be asked questions about the vehicles maintenance history, for example, has the timing belt been replaced recently?"

Essentially, you're describing that fuel was leaking into the engine somehow. That's fairly serious!

Performance was affected by a fault albeit the fault hadn't been identified. You'd failed to have the known fault looked at. How long had it been having issues?

That is not the fault of the MOT station.

The engine had not been serviced in 14 months, despite clearly being underused as a diesel.

Expensive car - don't bother with a new engine. But something petrol and write this off.

What model of Landrover is it? We have a 2006 diesel Freelander with 180,000 miles on the clock and still going.

After they found the fault did they tell you about it?
It's quite unusual for a garage to find a major problem one that may cause the car to fail the mot but not tell you and carry on with the mot.

Although if it's been running on reduced performance for a while there was obviously a problem, you actually should have had it looked at not taken it in for a pre mot service.

Five thousand miles a year, short runs, in a diesel? I’m amazed it lasted this long.

My Uncle has a 9 year Mercedes diesel that has done less than 30k. Nothing wrong with the engine at all.

My Uncle has a 9 year Mercedes diesel that has done less than 30k. Nothing wrong with the engine at all.

"My grandfather smoked 80 a day and lived to be 90, therefore we should stop fussing about smoking".

Obviously, there are outliers. But if you take a cambelt diesel (I think most of the Merc engines are camchains, aren't they) and run it for a low mileage on mostly mileage-based servicing, then it will be disproportionately likely to fail. Tendencies are not guarantees.

Reread the OP, sorry. The fault HAD been identified. By the same garage as did the MOT? Why was the fault not repaired before the MOT? Who made that decision?