My Bosch Experience

Hi I serviced my bakkie with Bosch Autoserve Pinetown on 120 000km. Two days later, 902km after the service the engine ran without oil. The engine seized and I had the bakkie taken back to Bosch. Initially, Bosch told me there was a fault with the oil filter. They had the filter tested with GUD and the filter was unfaulty. Then they told me the technician must have put the oil filter on wrongly and they will send the bakkie to Key Delta in Johannesburg t redo the whole engine. Two days after that, the director called me in and said that he is unhappy with that answer and that he wants to further investigate where the oil came from. A couple of days after that, he told me they found the source of the leak and that it was a nut (banjo bolt) next to the engine, that holds an oil pipe that feeds into the turbo, that was loose. He said he does not know how it got loose, it's just loose. The director also claimes that the engine had been opened before, with an external party other than the agents (Isuzu). He said the engine covers had silicone markings of red and black on which is unlikely of being factory standard. The bakkie was under warranty at that stage (confirmed with Isuzu) and it sounded very strange to me, that the previous owner would have had the engine opened at an external party if they could have fixed whatever on the warranty. While that vehicle was in my ownership I had the aircon fixed under warranty.

I opened a case with the MOISA and got a letter from Isuzu stating that in the 10 years of that KB D-teq 250 engine running on the South African roads, has there never been a case of a banjo bolt coming loose spontaneously. Another letter from Isuzu states that the silicone markings of red and black are factory standard. Isuzu made me aware that it is quite common for a new oil filter to not seal properly, when it is not *****ed on properly. They also made me aware that if the banjo bolt was the source of the oil leak, the topside of the bakkie's engine would have been covered as well as the bottom side. I took photo's right after the incident happened on the 2nd of July 2021, of the topside of the engine as well as the bottom side. Only the bottom side was covered with oil. To me, this is proof that Bosch's story is false and that they just do not want to take responsibility for the damage.

Bosch quoted me R141 000 for the repair of the damage and I did not take that option. I bought a Remtec remanufacture engine for the bakkie and had it installed at Isuzu Emond Durban North. When the bakkie got to Emond Isuzu they were shocked by the state my bakkie was in. The bakkie was so stipped, with all the parts so unorganized that Isuzu almost told me to take the vehicle elsewhere. All the nuts and bolts of the front part of the vehicle as put in one small little tub, unorganized. An 11-hour job of an engine replacement by Isuzu, took Isuzu 2 and a half weeks, just because they had to figure out which parts go where first. Isuzu said the way Bosch works is disgusting.

The MIOSA ruled and said they cannot take the case further seeing that the bakkie is already fixed. They also said that it would have been their recommendation that an external assessor had assessed the damage. The incident happened on 2 July 2021 and I use my bakkie for work. I was desperate to get my bakkie back so that I could carry on with work. This whole incident cost me R103 000 roughly. I went to Bosch to save money, little did i know that they would be way more expensive.