Bought secondhand BMW with low oil level returning home
Discussion
On Saturday I bought a 2009 2L Petrol BMW 320i M Sport Coupe with my dad. It has 57k miles on the clock and was last serviced at 46k and MOT is due in the start of November. The car has 3 months mechanical warranty (engine, gearbox etc.)
We brought it back the day we bought it and the journey home in said car was 1hr 45mins. I dropped my dad off home and went for a quick food shop and when stopping heard a ding followed by the yellow oil level light.
Unfortunately these models do not have a dipstick and oil levels have to be checked electronically to which the results came back as below low with a +1. Looking this up on the manual I followed the instructions of adding no more than a litre of 10w30 fully synthetic (bare in mind cheap supermarket oil is all I had on me)oil. The light hasn’t come on since and levels are showing just below full.
My dad is understandably furious at the dealer for letting the car go in that circumstance. The dealer has taken it upon themselves to pay for the MOT and servicing of the oil/oil filter.
Upon further research I am extremely worried about potential damage this could have done on the engine in the long run considering it running on a low oil level.
I want to know what action I should take and what I am entitled to.
We brought it back the day we bought it and the journey home in said car was 1hr 45mins. I dropped my dad off home and went for a quick food shop and when stopping heard a ding followed by the yellow oil level light.
Unfortunately these models do not have a dipstick and oil levels have to be checked electronically to which the results came back as below low with a +1. Looking this up on the manual I followed the instructions of adding no more than a litre of 10w30 fully synthetic (bare in mind cheap supermarket oil is all I had on me)oil. The light hasn’t come on since and levels are showing just below full.
My dad is understandably furious at the dealer for letting the car go in that circumstance. The dealer has taken it upon themselves to pay for the MOT and servicing of the oil/oil filter.
Upon further research I am extremely worried about potential damage this could have done on the engine in the long run considering it running on a low oil level.
I want to know what action I should take and what I am entitled to.
Edited by redafterlife on Monday 9th August 20:31
redafterlife said:
On Saturday I bought a 2009 2L Petrol BMW 320i M Sport Coupe with my dad. It has 57k miles on the clock and was last serviced at 46k and MOT is due in the start of November. The car has 3 months mechanical warranty (engine, gearbox etc.)
We brought it back the day we bought it and the journey home in said car was 1hr 45mins. I dropped my dad off home and went for a quick food shop and when stopping heard a ding followed by the yellow oil level light.
Unfortunately these models do not have a dipstick and oil levels have to be checked electronically to which the results came back as below low with a +1. Looking this up on the manual I followed the instructions of adding no more than a litre of 10w30 fully synthetic (bare in mind cheap supermarket oil is all I had on me)oil. The light hasn’t come on since and levels are showing just below full.
My dad is understandably furious at the dealer for letting the car go in that circumstance. The dealer has taken it upon themselves to pay for the MOT and servicing of the oil/oil filter.
Upon further research I am extremely worried about potential damage this could have done on the engine in the long run considering it running on a low oil level.
I want to know what action I should take and what I am entitled to.
What do you actually want? There will be zero damage, that’s why there’s a warning light…..We brought it back the day we bought it and the journey home in said car was 1hr 45mins. I dropped my dad off home and went for a quick food shop and when stopping heard a ding followed by the yellow oil level light.
Unfortunately these models do not have a dipstick and oil levels have to be checked electronically to which the results came back as below low with a +1. Looking this up on the manual I followed the instructions of adding no more than a litre of 10w30 fully synthetic (bare in mind cheap supermarket oil is all I had on me)oil. The light hasn’t come on since and levels are showing just below full.
My dad is understandably furious at the dealer for letting the car go in that circumstance. The dealer has taken it upon themselves to pay for the MOT and servicing of the oil/oil filter.
Upon further research I am extremely worried about potential damage this could have done on the engine in the long run considering it running on a low oil level.
I want to know what action I should take and what I am entitled to.
Edited by redafterlife on Monday 9th August 20:31
Dealer has said they will pay for the oil/filter change and an MOT, what more do you actually want?
Your dad might be overly annoyed as he has mixed up oil level and oil pressure warnings,
Oil level is perfectly normal part of maintenance and it's a system that warns you before damage occurs. This is a fairly recent addition to cars.
Oil pressure warning means the oil level has dropped below the pick up and thus the engine is running starved of oil and is probably badly damaged.
Oil level is no problem and you haven't lost anything so wont be entitled to any kind of compensation, but just to reassure you the dealer is going to do an oil change for you, that seems like a good result to me.
Oil level is perfectly normal part of maintenance and it's a system that warns you before damage occurs. This is a fairly recent addition to cars.
Oil pressure warning means the oil level has dropped below the pick up and thus the engine is running starved of oil and is probably badly damaged.
Oil level is no problem and you haven't lost anything so wont be entitled to any kind of compensation, but just to reassure you the dealer is going to do an oil change for you, that seems like a good result to me.
What are you entitled to?
Let me introduce you to the basic principles of the tort of negligence. There has to be three elements for a successful claim.
A duty of care, breach of that duty, consequential loss.
Perhaps the selling garage did breach their duty of providing a car with a workable amount of oil in. You rectified that by topping it up. You should ask them for the refund of the cost of the cheap supermarket oil you put in. There is no other loss. You are therefore entitled to nothing else.
It seems the garage have gone over and above what they should have given you by paying for a further oil and filter service and MOT. Are you going to look to claim against them of the car fails the MOT in November?
Let me introduce you to the basic principles of the tort of negligence. There has to be three elements for a successful claim.
A duty of care, breach of that duty, consequential loss.
Perhaps the selling garage did breach their duty of providing a car with a workable amount of oil in. You rectified that by topping it up. You should ask them for the refund of the cost of the cheap supermarket oil you put in. There is no other loss. You are therefore entitled to nothing else.
It seems the garage have gone over and above what they should have given you by paying for a further oil and filter service and MOT. Are you going to look to claim against them of the car fails the MOT in November?
Edited by KungFuPanda on Monday 9th August 21:23
KungFuPanda said:
What are you entitled to?
Let me introduce you to the basic principles of the tort of negligence. There has to be three elements for a successful claim.
A duty of care, breach of that duty, consequential loss.
Perhaps the selling garage did breach their duty of providing a car with a workable amount of oil in. You rectified that by topping it up. You should ask them for the refund of the cost of the cheap supermarket oil you put in. There is no other loss. You are therefore entitled to nothing else.
It seems the garage have gone over and above what they should have given you by paying for a further oil and filter service and MOT. Are you going to look to claim against them of the car fails the MOT in November?
Why would he pursue a claim under tort when he has contractual rights?Let me introduce you to the basic principles of the tort of negligence. There has to be three elements for a successful claim.
A duty of care, breach of that duty, consequential loss.
Perhaps the selling garage did breach their duty of providing a car with a workable amount of oil in. You rectified that by topping it up. You should ask them for the refund of the cost of the cheap supermarket oil you put in. There is no other loss. You are therefore entitled to nothing else.
It seems the garage have gone over and above what they should have given you by paying for a further oil and filter service and MOT. Are you going to look to claim against them of the car fails the MOT in November?
Edited by KungFuPanda on Monday 9th August 21:23
(Notwithstanding that he does not have a contractual claim either).
redafterlife said:
My dad is understandably furious at the dealer for letting the car go in that circumstance.
Why?It's a 12 year old car last serviced a year ago, and needed a small oil top up.
redafterlife said:
I want to know what action I should take and what I am entitled to.
The polite answer is "nothing, and nothing".I'm on my 4th BMW with the electronic dipstick and everything I have read suggests there will be no damage if you put a litre in when the warning flashes up, which you have done. So potentially all the dealer really owes you is for a litre of oil!
Here's a more detailed explanation of how it is designed to work (7th post down):- https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&...
Here's a more detailed explanation of how it is designed to work (7th post down):- https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&...
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