Neglecting Maintenance and the Consequences

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About a month ago a customer came in for a diagnosis, the check engine light was on.  The technician follows the diagnostic procedure. He verified all of the codes that were present and noted them.  Codes were showing up for the ABS system, the charging system, and multiple timing codes.  The technician manually diagnosed the charging system, verifying the alternator was charging correctly and nothing was causing an unexpected draw.  The next step was to clear the codes and test drive the vehicle.  During the test drive the technician was able to get live feeds on the ABS system and engine timing. Everything seemed to be with parameters and the codes did not return.  After putting over 10 miles on the vehicle, everything seemed ok and the vehicle was returned to the customer.  

The customer came back a week later with the check engine light on again.  As before the technician followed the diagnostic procedure.  This time the only codes were engine timing codes.  After further research, it was determined that there was a problem with the variable valve timing system.  For this vehicle, the variable timing system is hydraulic and relies on oil pressure through the camshafts.  This is where never forgetting to check the basics becomes unbelievably important.  The technician pulled the engine oil dipstick and started to uncover the source of the problem.  The oil was thick, way thicker than 0W20 oil should ever be.  The oil also smelled burnt.  We started checking the history for oil changes and could not find any.  When asking the customer we were told that they had a friend do it.  With no apparent history of oil changes available and an OE filter on the engine, the only thing that we could conclude is that we had a vehicle with 50 thousand miles on it that had never had an oil change.  The oil had gotten so thick that it plugged the galleys in the camshafts and could not supply the variable timing system with oil pressure.

Knowing what is wrong, in this case, is a good and bad thing.  The good thing is now we have a course of action to take to repair the vehicle.  The bad thing is that it’s expensive.  Essentially you have to replace the engine.  Vehicles using 0W20 oil generally have very thin tolerances with moving parts and smaller oil galleys.  That is why the oil is used. It would be impossible to warranty any repair without completely rebuilding the engine or replacing it.  In this case, replacement is a more cost-effective repair.   To compound the problem even more, the vehicle isn’t quite paid for.  The customer is still making monthly payments.  As you can imagine, the customer was not happy at all with our findings and wanted to talk with the owner of the business.  The argument was that the technician should have found this the first time.  Why would they have to pay for an engine that was not diagnosed the first time?  

In my opinion, it was diagnosed correctly the first time.  It just took time before the real source of the problems became apparent.  I’m pretty sure that if the technician had checked the oil the first time, it would have been caught.  But he wasn’t asked to check the oil, he was asked to diagnose the check engine light.  There are always two sides to an argument.  If I was in the customer’s shoes, I would be looking for a way out too.  At the end of the day, the maintenance was never done and it was extremely costly.  Whether it was caught the first time or a week later the outcome is still the same. Like the old saying goes “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  You tell me, who is right?  Should the shop be held liable because the problem wasn’t caught the first time?  Is the customer on the hook for not having regular oil changes?  Please leave your comment below.  I’m very interested in feedback.