How much damage has the dealer done to my engine?
 

My car developed another in the engine bay. It sounded like the heatshield on the up-pipe again which I had replaced once before. The dealer had a look today and confirmed the up-pipe needs replacing.

The problem is when I checked my Defi's after picking up the car, the peak oil pressure was at 8.2 BAR. This means the dealer has ragged the engine when it was cold. I know this because the peak oil pressure was 7.4 BAR when I dropped it off. The oil pressure doesn't go over this on my car as I keep the revs below 3K when it's cold. I queried this will one of the technicians and he appogised and admitted they had reved the engine when cold.

The explanation I got was the engine had to be cold so they could feel around up-pipe with their fingers to find the rattle. What concerns me is that they will have reved it to at least 5 to 6K when stone cold because this is where I told them the rattle was happening.

It p1ssed me off big time when I take care of the engine on a daily basis. I use Mobil 1 15/50 which I know is thicker when cold, so have they damaged the engine?

Surely there must be a better procedure for finding these types of faults around a hot engine? Am I being unreasonable here, or am I turning in to a Victor Meldrew?

Anders

It takes quite a lot of abuse to knacker an engine, just doing that wont have done any damage, though i wouldnt be impressed with the dealer either :mad:

Tony

hmm let me see,

your performance car that redlines at somewhere between 8-9k has been revved to about 6k...

shocking, it will blow up tommorow, the block will turn to glass and shatter on the first tuesday in the month

given that most engines are only stressed to a quater of there operating potential, i doubt this will have any adverse effect..

how do you know it wasnt ragged severley at the car plant?? have you seen some of the tests done to cars?? given that one car roughly rolls off the production line a minute, nicetys such as waiting until the oil is hot and engine warm, dont apply..

weve done high speed testing in the sonara desert at 6 am in the morning on cars bareley off the production line, these went back into the lot to be shipped to customers, did we put a note in the book to say so??

what would you have said if the dealer had made you grasp a hot zorst to check for rattles??


m:) ;) :D:D

chill out man! Your engine is put under more stress and wear etc when it is hot and under load. Reving it a bit when its cold is not gonna kill it. No damage will have been done. Q pslewis for this one me thinks:). The dealers probably had a good laf/moan about you once youd gone! lol
Worry not.

Not good practice but as long as it only happens occasionally it will make no difference. It does not say much for the dealership however and you could have a word with their principal.
It doesn't matter whether it is a Scooby, any other car or wagon for that matter, the engine should not be put under a lot of strain or taken to high revs until the oil is at working temperature. Ignore that and you shorten the engine life.

Revving it when cold is not going to do one bit of damage!

It would be different if four of them climbed in and drove up the nearest hill at full throttle - hot OR cold!

Cheers for the feedback. Had an hour and a half drive back last tonight to dwell on it. Had pictures of scored bearing shells in ma head...

The dealer said the up-pipe is a Prodrive part?

Rant over

It still amazes me how many people still do not realise the importance of an engine being at the correct operating temp..!

I suggest they make a note of API's number, it will be needed before long..!

With regard to the original post, as Harvey and Tony have said very occasionally it shouldn't have any detrimental effect, however I always feel my back side twitch when leaving any car with a main dealer for exactly this reason. Best not know or else go to an independent specialist who cares..!;)