What sort of damage are we looking at here?

Tdh1987

Tdh1987

Tdh1987

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The car involved is a 2002 Renault Laguna Turbo Diesel.

On Tuesday one of my stupid colleagues tried to help a woman out by topping up her oil for her. He obviously didn't know what he was doing since he poured over 4 litres into the engine.

She drove the car 500 yards down the road until she noticed the car was blooming with smoke, she pulled over and tried to turn the engine off, but it wouldn't stop revving.

Luckily a passer by stalled the car. She was in a mess, she was dragging her small child out of the car because she thought it was going to blow up!

I ran down the road to see her, once I'd found out what exactly my colleague had done. I advised her to call her breakdown company and tow it to a garage of her choice, agreeing to pay any charges she may incur when repairing the car, and also taxi's if need be.

The AA man turned up 15 minutes later and once we'd explained the situation alerted us that the turbo had probably taken in oil, and that was the reason why it wouldn't stop. He also said that if the passer by had not stalled the engine then it would have revved to well over 7,000 rpm before blowing up.

Once the lady has been towed away by the AA man I returned to work.

Renault (the garage she took her car to) gave our company an initial estimate of £1000, since it needed a new turbo and fitting etc.

Today the garage contacted us and changed their estimate to a figure of £8,000.

Now I'm not an expert on Renault Lagunas but surely the worst case scenario is a new engine and cat? Surely even with labour that wouldn’t amount to £8,000.

So what sort of damage could have been caused by over filling the oil? Since I think Renault are taking the biscuit as it is our company footing the bill.

Thanks

Tom
 
No where near £8k thats just stupid money... engine and cat are only things that could be effected by the over fill of oil i belive.. no way a new engine and cat would cost £8k to supply and fit thats crazy
 
Shes probably decided she doesn't want it. Knows someone at the garage to get them to quote some silly figures and hope that whoever damaged the car panics and pays for a new vehicle.

I'd ask for a detailed description of the repair and suggest that no movement will be made until initial discussions are complete with a solicitor.

That might change things a little.
 
£8k is clearly ridiculous, it sounds like they are trying to write it off. I would firstly insist on a detailed breakdown of the quote and then have the vehicle inspected by an independant engineer.

Unfortunately diesels are not overly fussy on the fuel they burn, and will quite happily run to destruction on their own engine oil, which would have been pushed through the crankcase breather system. It sounds like the engine was saved from grenading in this instance by someone with their head screwed on, but there is a possibility that some damage has been done, though certainly not £8k worth.

I can see someones butt being kicked for this....
 
cymatty said:
Off topic q, how do you stall a diesel, even when learning I never once stalled a diesel.
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The usual method is to bring the clutch up quickly with insufficient revs.
 
Put your foot on the brake and release the clutch, easy.

I thought £8,000 was ridiculous. I suspect the company that I work for will doing their own investigations, well I hope they are.
 
Toekiller said:
!

Out of interest how'd you stall the engine in that instance? Change to a higher gear?
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Make sure the car is suitably braked and let the clutch out in a gear, preferably something like 3rd or higher i guess. Voila stalled engine :confused:
 
Some months ago, my turbo died due to oil starvation.

There wasnt enough oil because it was leaking through into my turbo and getting burnt :/

Anyway! getting to the point, since there had been a lot of oil which had travelled down the exhaust and out, they wanted me to get a whole new exhaust syster from top to bottom :/ Even on an A4, that was only around £1k

I imagine that theyll be pretty much rebuilding the engine for 8k? :E
 
£8k is actually not totally unreasonable for a new engine.

Its not just the engine, its all the ancillaries as well, turbo, filters, cat, exhaust, intercooler, sensors, the lot, but I agree it does seem a bit high and as others have said i'd want a full breakdown of the costs they are proposing.

Hope you sort it out.
 
-Mike- said:
Surely a replacement 5 year old laguna isn't going to be worth 8000?
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Also since it's out of warranty (and 5 years old) I'd have thought a recon engine fitted by a reputable garage would be acceptable.

What line of business are you in? Why was your mate helping her put oil in?
 
I don't want to enclose which company I work for. But we sold the woman the oil for her car.

My colleage shouldn't have been doing what he was doing, he did it out of the kindness of his heart and because of his actions the company is now responsable for his damage.
 
£8k would be a reasonable quote for a main dealer to supply and fit a brand new engine. Main dealers won't generally deal in exchange/recon units.

Whether it would be sensible to pay it is entirely a different issue, it would be cheaper to just buy a new car.

However, what sort of liability the company has to repair her car would be something you'd need to speak to someone legally trained about...
 
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