I currently own a 2009 Hyundai Genesis sedan which I had been very happy with until recently. Two weeks ago the check engine light and check oil pressure light began coming on intermittently. I brought the car to the dealer for service. The dealer told me that there is damage to the lower engine block and that the repair will cost almost $9000. The dealer told me this was caused by what he claims is an improperly installed oil filter and that as a result, the repairs would not be covered by my warranty. The mechanic who installed the oil filter denies that it was installed improperly. In addition, the last oil change on the car was almost 6 months ago and, if the filter was installed improperly as the dealer claims, the check engine or oil lights should have come on to alert me of this situation well before $9000 worth of damage was done to the engine. I disputed the denial of warranty coverage with the dealer and called Hyundai Motor America through the 800 phone number on the website, followed the prompts for Genesis customer service, and initiated a claim for the warranty denial. I was told that someone at Hyundai Motor America would contact me within 3-4 business days. I never heard back from Hyundai Motor America. When I called the dealer to follow up, he told me my claim with Hyundai Motor America was denied. I have attempted to contact Hyundai Motor America but they cannot tell me any information other than that my claim was denied and they told me the case was closed. They have told me that there is no one else I can speak with about it. All of my contact has been through the dealer, as the service representative who supposedly denied my claim has refused to call me to speak about it. He has only offered to meet me in person but will not be able to do so until next month. In the meantime, my car has been sitting at the Hyundai dealer's service department with the engine disassembled and the dealer is now threatening to assert a mechanics lien on the car. If I refuse to have Hyundai make the repair, the dealer is telling me I still owe him a few thousand dollars just for them to disassemble the engine and diagnose the problem. I have not received any denial of my claim in writing nor did anyone at Hyundai even contact me to let me know that the claim was denied. Not only is the denial of warranty coverage unbelievable, Hyundai's customer service over the past 2 weeks has been horrendous. Has anyone else had a similar experience either with this type of oil filer/engine problem or with a warranty coverage dispute, or does anyone have suggestions of how to proceed from here? My owners manual is in the car at the dealer so I don't know if there is some specific information in there that could help me with the warranty issue.

So the oil change was done with a personal mechanic? Do they have a shop? 6 months is a long time between changes. Did you ever see any oil spots on the floor or ground. That is a lot of oil to lose without seeing some accumulation somewhere. Are they saying the car is out of oil completely and that resulted in the failure?

Yes, it was done at a Mobile gas station. I have been using the same mechanic for 10+ years now on multiple cars and never had a problem. I use synthetic oil so I change the oil every 7,500 miles, was about 1,000 miles away from my next change. I park in a garage and never noticed any oil spots on the floor. The dealership is saying that because the mechanic improperly installed the filter, the car was not receiving the proper amount of oil. This caused portions of the engine to "grind", which caused the shavings and ultimate damage.