Car maintenance - the R80 000 oil change?

Think twice before having even the simplest of maintenance done - it could cost you dearly!

A few years down the road after embarking on  new-car ownership, you might be tempted to take short-cuts on maintenance, even though there is still a portion of the warranty left to run. This sad tale should persuade you to read your warranty document with the scrutiny of a Sherlock Holmes, and stick to every single detail as required by the manufacturer.

An R80 000 oil change? Well this happened to the young son of a close friend, and it came about because he was trying to save a few hard-earned bucks and also save some time.

Jake (not his real name) was the proud 20-something year-old owner of a two-year-old little hatchback a car that his father told me proudly he had bought with his own money!

Now Jake appreciates a good car, and this little hatch ticked all the boxes for him: Rakish styling, alloy wheels,  USB ports for I-pods, coupled with a small-capacity engine that was noted for its good fuel economy. Although he loved his car, Jake is an artistic type of fellow, working in the music business, and he is the kind of driver that feeds the clutch lever in gently, keeps the revs down, and shifts up to top gear as soon as the engine can handle it without shuddering, thus saving his hard-earned loot.

Jake is no back-seat driver!

In other words, he is not the type of driver to place his cap on his head with the peak facing  backwards and adopt a driving position as close as possible to the back seat!

Jake had read the warranty agreement of his car and noted that it excluded some wear-and-tear items, such as windscreen wiper blades and brake pads. As he needed these items replaced, he thought he could save some money and time by getting these parts replaced and installed by a friend of his father’s, who runs a small workshop from his home.

A simple job that went wrong for the right reasons

Luke presented his car to his dad’s friend and all went according to plan. Then the fateful moment occurred:

“Do you want me to do an oil change for you while the car is here?”

And without thinking things through, Jake replied, yeah, why not?

All went well for a period of time, and then the car began losing power. Jake presented his car to a franchised dealership, telling them his car needed a service, and the dealership said, not to worry, because the car had already been serviced at 40 000 km.

What had happened was that the family-friend workshop owner had, critically as it turned out, filled out the owner’s log book, detailing the work he had done on the car, which included an oil and filter change.

A few 1 000 km later, the car came to a grinding halt. The upshot was that it had suffered major internal engine damage, and that the remedy was a new or replacement engine.

The agents weren’t interested in any claim against them, because they pointed to the fact that the log book bore details of work carried out by a non-franchised dealer. This is clearly contrary to the warranty agreement. And so Jake was faced with a huge repair bill.

Warranty voided

With the car ‘s warranty now voided, Jake had it taken to another non-franchised workshop in the hope of getting a second-hand replacement engine installed. But this proved to be impossible, and so the final bill for the new replacement engine turned out to be just shy of R80 000 including labour costs of installing the new engine!

And after having the new replacement engine fitted, Jake is now driving a car that has nevertheless had its warranty cancelled. If something were to go wrong in future, he would be left without any recourse on a claim.

The non-franchise workshop was not to blame for the blow-up

This was in fact a comedy of errors, caused by the kindly family friend’s intention to do the youngster a favour. His oil change included using the factory-recommended oil and filters, and all this was detailed in the car’s log book. The fault – apparently a connecting rod that failed – was unrelated to the non-franchised service.

Jake’s father says he realises that the manufacturer can’t be faulted in sticking to the letter of the warranty agreement. But it must have been a bitter pill to swallow when he had to hand over R80 000 just to keep his youngster mobile!