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I was in a hurry to leave somewhere when I found this out today. Luckily I have a company vehicle to use but dont want to use it too much for personal use.
The more I read and think about this, the more worried I get. I dont know if I kept the oil change receipt, but Im a little worried about the fine print and what I signed. I dont think most people ever read that. Im guessing the put something in there that says they wont be liable.
When I get the call from them tomorrow, Ill have to ask straight up if the engine doesnt start, what can they do for me. And if it does start, will they be willing to pay for a test to be done in the event there is damage done that will show up down the road.
I pray that they are easy to deal with and are willing to make things right, even if it means replacing engine/tests. I imagine they have some sort of insurance but Im sure there are some out there that would still try and refuse to do anything.
If it gets to a legal matter, which I hope it doesnt, how would I prove it? Common sense and putting two and two together doesnt always fly in court. I had an oil change, a week later my oil drain plug is gone. Seems cut and dry to me but perhaps not in a court.
Call a dealer of your make and model and ask them what they think? If you drove it 450 miles and then something happened once you got home that may be a problem.
Hard to tell what will happen, regarding who's liable for your engine. But be sure of this: If your engine was out of oil, started making weird noises then died, it is shot. It might still run - kind of - but it won't go another 1,000 miles. Probably not 100, maybe not even 10.
If it gets to a legal matter, which I hope it doesnt, how would I prove it? Common sense and putting two and two together doesnt always fly in court. I had an oil change, a week later my oil drain plug is gone. Seems cut and dry to me but perhaps not in a court.
I knew someone who had this happen to them but they were about 0.3 miles away when it did. Sorry to say but you've driven hundreds of miles since they changed your oil, really no one way to show it was them who messed up.
In my garage I have an engine from a car that was driven after the oil light came on. It didn't make it far. It isn't seized but it might as well be. It is very hard to rotate it. I bought the entire car from someone for $250. The engine is toast.
Uh, they screwed up big time and if you let it just go by you are a fool. A local oil change place did the same thing to a guy I know and they ended up buying him a brand new motor. They carry insurance for that purpose.
My Son worked at oil change places when in high school and he has told me horror stories of the things some of the employees do and the mistakes they make. Things like putting transmission fluid in the motor instead of oil, forgetting to put oil in at all, and not tightening the drain plug.
Your oil change place either stripped out the threads or didn't torque the drain plug enough. It held for a while but started to loosen and finally all your oil seeped out. Your motor is really toast at this point, and you need to take your car to the dealer, explain what happened and let them tell you what is damaged. They will write a report that you can give to the oil change place, and if needed, use in small claims court. Do not drive the car to the dealer, call AAA if you have it and have them flatbed it to the dealer. Even if you have to pay for the tow, do it, because driving the car will only make it worse.
DO NOT LET THIS SIMPLY GO BY, the oil change place is going to try to tell you nothing is wrong or that you did it yourself !!
Started up the car, noticed it sounded funny. Then notice oil light was on. Sound got worse, car died.
Ummmm...ummmm...what? It sounded 'funny', and you noticed that the idiot light was on? And yet, you let it continue to run while the sound got worse, until it eventually died?
Or close enough to it so as to make no difference. It will most likely require some serious and in-depth repair/rebuild or complete replacement at this point. The 'funny' sound was probably the sound of tortured bearings self-destructing and the parts that depend(ed) on them grinding to a halt.
Do not try to start this motor again.
Do not fill with oil and try to restart this motor again.
Do not let the quickie-lube guy replace the drain plug, fill it with oil and try to restart this motor again.
Do not let the quickie-lube guy replace the drain plug, fill it with oil and walk away, leaving you to try to restart this motor again.
Have this vehicle TOWED directly to a qualified mechanic for diagnosis and a repair estimate. Your motor has suffered serious damage and will never run correctly again until/unless it is repaired, and it may even be cheaper (and faster) to have a [professionally] rebuilt motor installed.
Do not let the quickie-lube guy(s) touch your car again.
DO hold the quickie-lube guy(s) financially responsible for the repair/replacement of your motor and for the cost of alternate transportation while it is being repaired/replaced.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tilt11
I got out, saw oil coming out underneath. Noticed the oil cap was gone. Also saw a small trail of oil into my drive way.
I called the oil change place, they will be bringing me a cap tomorrow and oil. Some how, they didnt tighten it enough. So it has been loosening for a week and mustve completely fell out yesterday when I was running errands. And perhaps I made it home just in time. Whatever oil came out today, mustve been just residual stuff from the engine. Because its not close to the amount of oil from full tank.
Obviously, if the car sounds awful or doesnt start, Ill know there is damage.
There is damage.
Guaranteed.
Do not try to start the motor again, you will only do MORE damage to it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tilt11
But what if it starts and seems okay. Is there anything else I should check for? Maybe just take a drive on the parkway and see how it goes?
Do not try to start the motor again. Do not try to 'take the car for a drive', not on the parkway, not to the end of your driveway. [Insert joke about driveways and parkways here.]
Do I need to repeat, again, the part about not starting the motor? No amount of hope or wishful thinking is going to make this motor 'all better' without a serious infusion of cash and labor to go along with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tilt11
I imagine this place has insurance, and in the event there is a major problem, hopefully they wouldnt fight taking care of it.
You HOPE they have insurance, there IS a major problem, and if you let them replace the plug and oil and walk away they may find a way to ********* out of holding them responsible (especially if you sign something that has some fine print where your signature absolves them of any further liability).
Edit:
This censorship thing is getting ridiculous, the asterisks make it seem like I said something really bad when it was actually a commonly used phrase that doesn't even attract the attention of the FCC censors for broadcast media. Sheesh.
Replace the asterisks with "cheat you".
(The original word that accompanied "you" refers to a commonly used fastener available at most hardware stores, which holds two or more items together by means of spiral threads, and is installed with a tool known as a 'driver' that may be called a 'phillips' or 'flat-edge' depending on the type of slot(s) on the head of it. I can still say 'head', right? Or is that a bad word too? If it isn't, maybe it should be? I mean, it IS as good or better than the other word, right?)
Last edited by Zymer; 08-25-2013 at 05:56 AM..
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