Hello all, thanks for the replies, sorry for it to be a bit "vague" my friend has no mechanical knowledge at all and details are sparse, He had just had a cambelt change and full service prior to his trip at an independent garage, so yes less than 1000 miles, when the van got back to the garage they confirmed (I presume through analysis) that the wrong oil was used, the engine was a total write off! it cost 13K to get a new engine and put it in, now this is where it gets a bit muddled the garage paid half only and he paid the other half, the garage said that he must have put some extra wrong oil in! now if that was me they would be footing the whole bill, but him and his wife are in their late 70's and the wife is disabled, I think they were just so grateful to get the van back that they couldn't be bothered to see it out, I do not know what oil was put in at the service (assume they know which is the correct oil) he denies putting anything in it, he also says they were no warning signs on the dash it just blew up with a bang! and crunching (his words) I am not really one for saying this but he is a bit dithery.
he is glad to be back on the road and the incident is now in the past and they don't dwell on it, but this got me thinking (hence the question) and why did the garage only pay half (in doing so admitted responsibility) I didn't want to push him on that bit because I didn't want to embarrass him with questioning!
hope that's a bit clearer or the real question would be if the garage was to put 10w 40 in by mistake would this cause damage! I presume the engine would heat up and seize I have no knowledge on this hence the question the other bits of info are just that info
Jonathan