Earlier this year I took my 2018 Hyundai i40 1.7 Diesel to a local independent garage for an MOT and a full service, including an oil change.
Very shortly after this the car lost all of its oil, while being recovered the oil sump plug fell out of the bottom of the car, it had apparently not been refitted correctly (the recovery drivers opinion). The car cut out when I was stopping but did restart to finish pulling over. There was oil under it where it stopped, although I’m not sure if this dripped engine or from the under tray.
The same garage refilled the oil and felt that the car had luckily avoided major engine damage, the car did seem okay at this stage.
Fast forward 5 months and 3000 miles, the car starts tapping/knocking, this rapidly gets worse and the car is recovered again, this time to a different local garage. They diagnose engine failure due to the ‘big end’ knocking, this matches the recovery drivers initial thoughts that it was ‘bottom end’ and the engine was finished.
I feel that it is very likely that the loss of oil has led to the engine failing. Speaking to the first garage, they disagree and feel 3000 miles is a lot of miles to cover since the service, and if there was damage it would present sooner. They are also not happy about the diagnosis and want to diagnose it themselves. They are willing to investigate a cause themselves.
I have no reason to doubt the engine has failed and I would like a different garage to investigate the cause if that is needed.
What are your thoughts on this and how would you proceed?
The car is otherwise in good condition, it has covered 93,800 miles and has all or nearly all the stamps in the service book.
