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I purchased a hyundai santa fe in march 2020, the vehicle was claimed to have a reconditioned motor and in good condition. due to lockdown i only did 5000km ,and in december the vehicle engine light came on and went into limp mode. I took it to a local auto electrician who scanned it and told me to replace the dpf and dpf sensor, still didnt fix the problem so took it back to seller who is a mechanic.
He charged me to replace turbo, crankshaft, engine bearings, oil pump and conrod bearings then advised vehicle was good to go.
First trip in car to new plymouth on way back to hamilton the engine cut out. and wouldnt turn over.
Upon inspection took it straight back to mechanic and have been advised injectors failed which caused excessive heat to piston and melted on to head. He now wants me to pay claiming it wasnt his fault, ive been to 2 other mechanics who advised the injectors failing were the underlying cause the whole time which caused turbo to fail and now engine failure.
Im wanting some help please with options, due to mechanic failing to correctly identify fault and he advised me the vehicle was smoking when i picked up after repair but said nothing to worry about so is he liable for paying for damage caused by latest problems? Or do i have to pay?

Hi there,
Did you purchase the vehicle privately or through a dealer/trader?
It would sound like the engine refresh and subsequent repairs were simple addressing the symptoms/resulting damage and not the underlying cause. Information of private sales vs dealer and the CGA can be found here: https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/help-product-service/cars/
Engines just don't fail by themselves and any reasonable mechanic would look into this as part of the engine rebuild as to what caused it- and most importantly second time round.

Private seller

Hi there,
Unfortunately private sales are seen as buyer beware unless you feel the seller made false of misleading statements when selling you the vehicle.

So is it possible to go down the route of the mechanic should have checked the injectors in normal practice to figure out what the problem?

You could do this, you would need evidence that the same issue was the cause of all the trouble and the mechanic (professional) should have addressed this as all the signs were there (engine failings) .
There will be questions as to why the engine was rebuilt before you purchased the vehicle and why it required it again after purchase. And if the same guy did both jobs then he certainly may not have considered this, he found what he believed to be the cause, or his knowledge didn't extend this far.