Service negligence?!

[mordzy]

Ok, so... i have a K1 Cupra which is leased through my company. service is included. just before xmas my service indicator was around 150 miles to go so booked it in for the first day back (4th). over the break i think it went over maybe 50-70 miles.. nothing major.

Anyway. car was serviced on monday (1st service / 10ish k) , no problems to report. today jan 6th got to work slowly because of the snow. set off home about 6pm today and the engine sounded really rough. gout about 300 yards and there was a long beep and the MFD had a big STOP sign saying oil pressure too low.

I pulled over and flagged down a work mate who was behind me. we started the engine again and checked the dash. no errors. revved the engine gently and it sounded very rough. then after taking foot off the throttle as the revvs dropped it sounded like a bag of spanners. we popped the bonnet and checked to see if the oil filler cap had come off and the oil had splattered out (seen this happen before) not the case. pulled out the dip stick and it was bone dry. not a drop on it... (( i gingerly drove back the 300 yards to the office car park and got a lift home.

My question. what could have happened.? all i can think is that they have emptied my old oil on the service and not filled it up.... what do you guys think? however why no oil warning light?

Could do with some help and suggestions of what to say the seat in the morning.

Cheers guys.

 

[m0rk]

Full maintenance lease?

 

[Poverty]

Id be counting my lucky stars that you dont pay for that car!

 

[mordzy]

Fully maintained all but Tyres.

As in i get tax disks in the post, all services are done by seat as are issues etc. i only have to buy the rubber. either way. if the oil was low... wouldnt they top it up? or warn me? are you suggesting im to blame dude?

 

[m0rk]

No, settle petal

I was going to say... FM lease - tell them to put oil in it & get less fussed... Tell them calmly what happened. Doesn't matter if it goes pop, that's the maintenance companies issue.

 

[Poverty]

Fully maintained all but Tyres.

As in i get tax disks in the post, all services are done by seat as are issues etc. i only have to buy the rubber. either way. if the oil was low... wouldnt they top it up? or warn me? are you suggesting im to blame dude?

I dont think its your fault at all. It seems pretty clear to me that SEAT messed up somewhere along the lines. However just wonder what damage there has now been done to the engine, and if it was my own car id be majorly pee'd. Company cars I couldnt care less about. Someone else will be footing the bill for sure.

 

[mordzy]

No, settle petal

Lolzoids. no worries. was getting paranoid then.

Yeah thats what i figured.

BTW the maintenance company is SEAT themselves.

Also - yeh its a company car. but its my company. dont want it coming back to me either way. i look after the thing. check the oil 1-2 times a fortnight.

 

[TimJK]

Check the oil filter housing as sometimes the seals stay on, and then when a new filter goes on it sits on top of the seal already there and will leak. and sump plug also worth checking to see its tight, otherwise looks like they didnt put enough oil in, as if no oil went in, on road test they would have noticed as it would sound rough way before you got it back

 

[mordzy]

Check the oil filter housing as sometimes the seals stay on, and then when a new filter goes on it sits on top of the seal already there and will leak. and sump plug also worth checking to see its tight, otherwise looks like they didnt put enough oil in, as if no oil went in, on road test they would have noticed as it would sound rough way before you got it back

Fair point. if they road tested it. Milage was same...

 

[m0rk]

Maintenance 'services' are always not worth doing for the dealer... virtually no money in it for them, so they will do the minimum.

It won't come back on you... check the wording, but I don't think it would count as misuse etc

 

[mordzy]

Quite. i could understand maybe if it had done it before the service. but after they would have ether put enough in or maybe told me to put some in? not that its for me to do. i dunno. its just bloody annoying since i will probs be without a car and they wont have one to lend me either.

 

[Cupra Jim]

hhmmm I had this issue with my impreza years ago, but it had done 20k more miles, but not covered by the warranty as it had expired. After the expense of replacing the engine a full strip down of the engine revealed that the oil pump had stopped working. So endedpaying thousands more than the car was worth.

Due to the age and milage of your K1 i'd suspect that they probably forgot to put the oil in as its one of the last things they do before they let the customer have the car back.

But I can't see this being any fault of yours and it shouldn't in anyway come back to you as you have only done minimal miles since the service.

keep us informed

Jim

 

[mordzy]

hhmmm I had this issue with my impreza years ago, but it had done 20k more miles, but not covered by the warranty as it had expired. After the expense of replacing the engine a full strip down of the engine revealed that the oil pump had stopped working. So endedpaying thousands more than the car was worth.

Due to the age and milage of your K1 i'd suspect that they probably forgot to put the oil in as its one of the last things they do before they let the customer have the car back.

But I can't see this being any fault of yours and it shouldn't in anyway come back to you as you have only done minimal miles since the service.

keep us informed

Jim

Thanks for the heads up and reassurance Jim. ill post back what seat say once i call them in the AM

 

[mordzy]

what do they actually do on the first service anyway? out of interest.

 

[HotHatchSteve]

With regards to the Oil Light, I was told by a Independant Mechanic friend that VAG dont believe in the Oil light because by time the light comes on the damage has been done.

 

[mordzy]

how stupid. i have heard this before. not necessarily VAG but friends have said by the time the light comes on the damage has been done. seems daft to me... why not make the light come on mid way not when its empty?

 

[HotHatchSteve]

how stupid. i have heard this before. not necessarily VAG but friends have said by the time the light comes on the damage has been done. seems daft to me... why not make the light come on mid way not when its empty?

I couldn't believe it either. When I picked my Cupra up and found out the oil light did not come on I was about to book it in with the dealer. It was only a coincidence that my mechanic friend asked me if I had noticed lack of an oil light. It even mentions in the manual that the light should glow orange or red.

 

[mordzy]

*Update*

Ok so on the way into work i called SEAT and asked to speak to the service manage, explained the problem etc and the service guy asked if i had hit the sump on anything.? though i guess driving round at 10mph since the service on normal roads i doubt i would have and i would have probably heard something.

Anyway i got to work and checked the oil again. Dipstick is BONE DRY. figured id push the car back and see if oil had leaked. small patch in the snow smelling strongly of oil. so i wandered over to were it was parked yesterday. again a bigger patch of oil. i figure its been slowly leaking since service and enough leaked out yesterday so when i left the car park the warning light came on and the engine was rough.

hopefully just done the 300yards with no oil in.

SEAT Service have asked me to call my breakdown company (Seat assist - comes with the lease. which i cant get through to.) to get it flatbedded back to them.

the service manager said he had seen this before when oil coolers had frozen.?!

 

[big_richyt]

Had a similar problem with my CTR, so don't think its just a VAG engine problem with the level that the light comes on.
In my case the by the time light came on for low oil the damage was already done as the engine was running dry for too long causing all sorts of problems.

 

[mordzy]

Had a similar problem with my CTR, so don't think its just a VAG engine problem with the level that the light comes on.
In my case the by the time light came on for low oil the damage was already done as the engine was running dry for too long causing all sorts of problems.

You would think with all the amazing things cars can do these days they would fix such an easy thing. just a light that pops up when its half empty