QuestionHi John. You answered a question posed by my husband, Paul Walker-Bright, earlier today about our 2004 Discovery engine being dead within minutes of the oil pressure light going on. Thank you so much for your helpful response.
Land Rover has just stated (late afternoon)that a new engine in this instance is 100% owner responsibility due to the oil not being changed at 7500 miles. (New engine is $10,500 approximately.) They stated that there was no oil in the vehicle when they looked at it. They did not do anything else regarding taking the engine apart, diagnosing, etc..
I contacted customer service and they just called back stating the same thing - 100% our responsibility because we didn't change the oil at 7500 miles. We can appeal, and will. However, where do we begin with this type of thing? Have you come across this type of denial before?
Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Erika C. Walker-Bright
AnswerIf your engine ran out of oil and failed I'm afraid that may end up being your responsibility.
In years past when people changed oil at 3,000 mile intervals you had some leeway . . . change it a few thousand miles late and nothing happens.
But when the first change it 7500, and you go to 11,000 . . . sometimes the consequence of that is very bad. If the engine runs out of oil, or if the oil turns to sludge . . . that is probably not going to be Land Rover's responsibility.
If the engine was out of oil when it failed I imagine they would take the position that repair is your responsibility.
If the engine were full of oil but the pump failed, that would be a warranty issue as I described to you in the previous answer.
As oil change intervals have increased the consequence of not performing service on time has risen. In cases like this it's dramatic.
If you wish to appeal the denial of warranty, assuming you did not change oil at 7500, this is what would have to happen:
1 - You would have to pay to take the motor apart and determine why it failed.
2 - If the failure was from absence of oil, you would have to figure out where the oil went.
If the engine failed for some other reason (not likely if the motor was empty when the dealer got it) there could be a basis for a claim.
3 - If you could establish that the car, for example, developed a sudden leak and lost its oil you'd have a good case.
If the engine just ran out of oil I really don't know what to suggest. The owners manual does remind you to chank oil, and the service schedule says it has to be changed at a certain interval.
