Hi, I have a 2017 Hyundai Tuscon and had it serviced in February by a Hyundai dealer. All was fine, only drove it maximum 30km a week, but on the weekend went to go away for a few day trip and… the sump plug fell out.
It happened on the high speed freeway where there was no safe place to pull over so I had to drive a short distance to pull over safely and the engine was really labouring by that time. I had it towed via Hyundai’s roadside assist to a nearby Hyundai dealer, and they found the sump plug had (luckily for us) fallen onto the bash plate, and after viewing it they could see the washer on the plug hadn’t been crushed and therefore it had only been hand tightened, and they provided a report to say it was 100% the fault of the dealer that services it. They tightened the plug properly and added oil, but the engine was no good.
It’s now been towed to the dealer that did the service, and they have confirmed it needs a new engine have said they will replace it entirely with a long block. My question is will this devalue a 2 year old car with only 24,000 km’s on the clock? I know I would question and probably avoid buying a car like that thinking it was a lemon…
Happy to provide any other details on the car, service or the report from either dealer.
I don’t think this repair will reduce the value of your car because its done under warranty, like million of cars every years.Its not like if it was in a major accident.
In my mind I can only think that getting the new engine installed would increase the value of the car slightly. The engine will have less mileage on it. Not a huge amount but still less than the rest of the car.
An argument could be made this will increase the value of the car. The engine will have zero Km on it when you get it back, instead of 24Km. As long as this is done by a Hyundai dealership you should be good to go. Make sure that at the minimum the original new-car warranty applies. I expect you’ll also get some add’l warranty beyond that for the engine replacement. Make sure you understand what that is exactly.
If a problem develops with the engine install (such a thing could happen, an engine install is a complicated procedure) any resultant symptom will almost certainly show up very soon; so don’t ignore any symptoms hoping they will go away once you get the car back. Show all problems to Hyundai dealership, and send them a letter (with a cc to you) confirming you have shown it to them.
When you pick up the car once the job is done, make sure to check the oil on the dipstick , and that nothing is leaking underneath the car. Do the same thing once you get the car back to your driveway. And again the next morning.
If and when the Oil light should happen to come on, the very immediate next step is to turn the engine OFF and coast the vehicle to the side of the road. That really is the long and short of things. Of course there are some instances where you cannot do this, but they are few and far between imho.
The drain plug falling out is No Bueno no matter what make and or model we are discussing. All of the damage done occured from the moment the plug fell out and the engines life blood began pouring onto the ground. If the engine was shut down when the oil light came on, it is more than likely nothing at all would have happened to the engines internals… however driving a “short distance” is an absolute sure fire way to engine destruction.
I am sorry to hear that you are going through this fiasco… To answer your question about devaluing a 2yr old vehicle…the answer is yes, it will try to devalue it…the only way to avoid this is to have documentation and or warranty repair information and proof that it was repaired with a new engine etc. If you have all the docs to back it up, you should be OK.
