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Hi All

This is my first post so be gentle with me .Great forum helped me a few times fixing problems with my 02 Civic.

So here it goes i had my car serviced back in March 2016 91,000 miles,December 2016 98,000 miles as the weather starts to get a little colder here in the U.K the amber check engine light comes on.I read through the forums and decided to reset the fault by pulling the fuse,Light reset and was o.k until reached 3/4000 revs and then came back on.
I sent my wife(main user) to the garage and asked them to have a look they said code p1259 V tec failure they reset the light and charged me £35 for the privilege.
Light came back on within a day so i did a little research on the forum and suggested i check oil level.I checked the oil level and was not on the dipstick.Sent wife back to garage and they put 2.5 liters of oil in engine and said it must be burning oil. I said this was strange as it had never burnt any before.
I have been checking oil level every week since car has now done 102,000 miles not burnt a drop of oil since.
Checked my paper work from the service schedule and noticed the check boxes for Drain oil and remove filter,renew engine oil,run engine check for leaks,switch of engine and re check oil level boxes have not been marked off! Also the service completed by, date, signature and checked by and not filled in.
I have been to the garage this weekend as my M.O.T is due and showed them the Service schedule, the manager is back in on Monday and the assistant said he will give me a call.
I said to the assistant i dont want anyone to get in to trouble for this as everyone makes mistakes.
What would you guys think is reasonable for the garage to do for me? A letter stating if the engine has any lasting damage they will fix it? Free service?

Thanks for reading

 
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Welcome to the forum.

On reading Your post it sounds like the Garage is taking full responsibility

for there mistake & willing to work with You on this. 2.5 Liters of Oil

down on the dipstick is not good at all. check for Leaks and PCV valve if its not

Leaking Oil externally.? ... its ... consuming Oil internally .

 
Rep Power: 0

Hi brags

Thanks for the reply and welcome.The car has not lost any oil since the garage topped up the oil in December. In July i replaced the Fan heater resistor(with the help of the forum) i'm now wondering if this was caused by overheating due to low oil.
I was just curious to see what you guys thought as acceptable as recompense, the engine does seem a little more noisy since this happened but i cant prove this.

Regards

 
Rep Power: 517

Completely unrelated failure. You should inspect the cabin air filter set though (assuming your model uses them) as the resistor depends on good airflow to keep it cool.


You've listed 91k, 98k, and 102k, but at what mileage did this (non-)service event above occur? Was the last oil change service really done sometime prior to 91k?

I'm wondering how many miles it took for the engine to consume the 2.5L of oil. (assuming no major external leakage)

ALL engines consume oil by design, but whether or not this consumption is noticed by the user depends on many variables. Some consume oil at a faster rate than others.

The car is accumulating miles, some accelerated oil consumption is considered 'average' and expected as mileage accumulates.
If you check and refill oil and other fluids religiously and keep ahead of the loss rate, you can get a lot more life out of it without a lot of unnecessary expense (major engine damage due to lack of engine oil).

 
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Hi ezone

My thoughts are the garage did not fill my engine with oil after the service in March 2016, 92,000 miles and the engine was working with what was left in the sump 0.7l? I paid for a gold service 56 check points and every tick box is marked off except the ones relating to filling the engine with oil checking after running etc....The service check list had not been signed off or checked by anyone .

March 2016 -December 2016 (92,000-98,000)miles used 2.5 l of oil allegedly???
December 2016-March 2017 (98,000-102,000)miles no oil used

 
Rep Power: 517

Ok then...If the garage had DRAINED the oil but not refilled at 91k, you wouldn't have made it home, let alone driven for another 6k. So if your checklist is accurate, I'd assume the oil was not touched in any way: Not drained, therefore no oil related service whatsoever at 91k.


If the garage didn't actually do the oil service at 91k, at what mileage was the last known previous service? (85k maybe?)
That would put the 'miles since oil change' around 13k for that period?

 
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Hi ezone

Previous service was 14/03/15 81412 miles. This is a reputable garage and not cheap £165 for a service.Thanks for your input and looking at it from a different angle.

 
Rep Power: 517

81k to 98k without any oil change, that's 17k, the consumption is certainly expected (along with low level and dirty oil being bad for internal engine parts)....... that oil was probably black as coal by the time it caused a fault code.

You never regularly checked oil level prior to this check engine light and P1298 code? If you had, I'm sure you would have seen it was not clean and golden after the 91k maintenance service, and you also would have been aware the oil was slowly disappearing.

When it comes to oil consumption, we figure a rate of up to one US quart per 1000 US miles is within reason. It may not be desirable, but it is not out of the ordinary nor cause for alarm.....BUT if the driver goes 3-4000 miles without checking and adding any, they're going to have huge expensive problems.

Once the oil is allowed to get that low, engine parts that rely upon splash lubrication may be compromised and wear accelerated, and further increase in consumption rate could become the new norm.

======================
Over here in the states, the 1.7L engine used form 2001-05 holds roughly 3.5 US quarts during a typical oil and filter change.
By the time the engine has lost enough oil to cause the P1298 code, the engine is usually found to be about 3 US quarts low.....If the engine didn't have VTEC to cause a Check Engine Light fault code when oil pressure is insufficient, then the only warning you would ever get is the RED GRAVY BOAT icon that usually only comes just AFTER the engine lost oil pressure, followed shortly by a $pectacular and cata$trophic event!


Red gravy boat icon (low oil pressure warning light):


======================

If you are looking to understand if the oil consumption is normal or not, yes it is normal and expected---especially after 17k.
I'm actually really surprised it took that long to lose just 2.5L!

If you are looking to point the finger of blame for this unfortunate event, I'd say the garage has documented responsibility through their own incomplete checklist, BUT you should be held at least partially if not equally responsible for allowing it to get as bad (low oil) is it did, due to not checking your fluid levels on a regular basis--- as outlined in your owners manual. (See: "Owner Maintenance Checks" or similar in your owner manual...... and know that just about every major vehicle manufacturer on the planet will have a similar list of owner responsibilities in their owners manuals.)

I can't tell you if your engine has suffered serious damage due to the preceding events (probably not catastrophic if it still runs and doesn't sound like a coffee can full of rocks), nor should I weigh in with an opinion on any agreement you and the garage may arrive at.
If they are reputable and ethical, they will do what they feel is right. They may even ask what YOU would like them to do about it, what arrangement would be agreeable to YOU?


===========================
An unwritten motto at a shop I once worked for:

"If you think our work is good, you should see what happens when we make a mistake!"



HTH

 
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Thanks ezone

I can't disagree with anything you have wrote above.Yes i'm definitely partially responsible for not checking the oil.I have been lazy with checking the oil level on my car in the past only used to do a 1-3 k per year,now my wife uses the car for work this has gone up to 12k.
Lesson learned i will now check fortnightly , hopefully the extra 200ml left in the engine(saved by the p1259 code) will be our savior.
Interesting reading about the oil consumption i never thought it would be this high.
Oh well no one was hurt, just one of those things i suppose.

Thanks again for your in depth and knowledgeable replies!!!