"Since the oil was changed, the oil light on the dashboard has been lit.
It has probably been drive about 50 miles (or less) since it was changed."
You don’t drive a car 5 feet with the oil light on…
First, this does look like a botched oil change job. The shop is responsible for their botched work.
It is also clear that the OP and girl friend didn’t help the situation. The car was driven with the oil light on, meaning no oil pressure. If the car was stopped and the motor turned off as soon as the “oil light” came on the motor wouldn’t be completely seized up.
Even after pulling off the highway the GF started the car and drove it until it seized again. This can happen. When a seized motor cools off sometimes it can “unlock”. Before the second seizure the motor might have been damaged but not completely shot.
At this point I suspect the motor will have to be replaced. If the shop puts in an insurance claim and replaces the motor then the OP should be happy. If the shop doesn’t replace the motor then this will go to small claims court and I couldn’t predict which side would win the case.
I just picked up my car (Civic) after a timing belt job, including an oil change. Before I drove away from the shop I pulled the dipstick, looked at the level of coolant in the overflow container, and looked to see if all the wires and hoses were connected. A couple of days later I checked the oil again. This is a good shop that has done several timing belts on 2 other of my cars with no issues, but I double check their work before driving away from the shop. I’ve made the mistake myself of not adding oil when doing an oil change, and I caught my mistake with a double check.
OP and girlfriend, please take a few minutes to read your owners’ manuals for all your vehicles so that you will know which warning lights mean “there is a problem that should be fixed one of these days” and which lights mean “pull over immediately!”
The check engine light is in the first group but the brake light is in the second group. The oil change shop owes you a refund, a tow, fresh oil, and a new plug, and that’s all. If you get more, it’s more than you deserve.
I don’t know, man. You’re right that no one should ever mistake “know” for “no”. But you did manage to call a Rodeo a “car”, you drove tens of miles with no oil, seized an engine and then you took the BATTERY out and had it checked.
What could possess you to think the oil light coming on right after an oil change wouldn’t be the most important time to ever pay attention to it?
The oil light probably came on when there was NO INTERNAL DAMAGE AT ALL
Anyone who would drive at all or that far in that situation should get a bicycle
Hell, a passenger on the short bus could have told you to shut the thing down under those circumstances … and now you’re on here sounding all of this arrogant and upset and all of this
I hope that you plan on being cool when you go in and talk to these morons. If you told them what you did and they’re stupid enough to take it out of their pockets just be very very quiet and thank them profusely
If I could catch breaks like that even when I am in the RIGHT, hell, I’d have a coronary
The engine has a 99%+ probability of being scrap metal. Let me throw out a theoretical.
The specs show a 6.5 qt capacity on a V-6 engine. If there was not sufficient oil put back in the engine it’s possible there was enough to keep it from seizing although damage will occur.
Very low oil levels can trash the cylinder walls and piston rings. This is going to lead to vastly increased oil consumption seeing as how they are lubed by splash oil. What oil that was in there could have been consumed by the rapidly trashed cyl. walls and rings.
It would be interesting to know how many miles on this vehicle and if the oil light was popping on immediately after leaving the oil change facility.
Odds are the oil change facility made a mistake. The fact that you and your girlfriend continued to operate the car with an illuminated oil light means that some blame falls on the both of you.
You’ve ignored the oil light, waited until the engine is trashed, and THEN decide to check the oil level and add as necessary. Bad move.
Come on! Let’s all pile on this guy! It’s fun!
PvtPublic: No offense, but in your efforts to kick the guy while he?s down, you?ve forgotten to make sense. A professional mechanic charged him for an oil change & forgot to put oil in it, and the customer has no one to blame but himself?
TrippWorthy is obviously wrong in not pulling over right away, but the preponderance of the blame is on the shop.
Some people on this board take delight in rubbing a person’s face in their mistakes and it’s not constructive. We’ve all done stupid things in a realm not in our area of expertise.
Without knowing a lot of those minor details, which can drastically change an opinion, let’s not pile on the fast lube at this point either.
The OP states this vehicle “had issues” (not defined) but drove fine.
Who’s to say this engine did not have an “out of or extremely low on oil” experience before the GF took it to the fast lube.
People routinely take damaged goods to fast lubes, dealers, and independent shops all of the time for oil changes, trans fluid changes, etc. hoping or praying that it will be the cure-all for an existing problem.
I’m not saying this happened at all; only that it’s a possibility that should not be dismissed without knowing the full, honest story behind the problem.
It’s not about rubbing his face in it. He asked who’s responsible. The shop is not responsible for damage that occurred that didn’t have to occur. Had the OP and/or his girlfriend stopped driving the car when the oil light came on, instead of ignoring it, the engine damage would not have happened. The shop would have been responsible for a new oil pan or whatever else was needed to fix the leak that they caused, but the engine would have been fine.
Now the guy wants the shop to replace the engine even though the engine broke because of his and his girlfriend’s negligence. I don’t think it’s “not constructive” to point out that this isn’t the shop’s fault, and its certainly not “not constructive” to mention that it’s a good idea to pay attention to trouble lights, and that if you don’t, whatever breaks is your fault.
So the question is ,do we beat up on people who make these type of posts? well I would say the reaction from the majority is not sympathatic…BUT there is no other “automotive help site” where you can come and post these kind of things…period.One of the bes tparts of CarTalk is the utter stupidity contained in some of the posts, it makes the time spent here worth it.
When I read in this post that the OP drove 50 miles with a flickering oil light and then decided to remove the battery and have it tested, I was sure we were getting put on, is everyone sure we are not?
Let’s say the post is entirely legit,the incident did occour,I have a question. When did the concept of operating your life so blindly become so common? What I mean is, there are legions of people who operate just like the OP.They pull down 100K+ a year but don’t know not to drive with the oil light on. Where did this disconnect from being demonstratably smart and doing smart things come from? what generation of parents taught this behaviour too their children. This is not the typical “personal responsibility” post, rather it is a “how did we sink so far” post.
From reading the OP’s follow-up messages, I would say that one problem is that the check engine light has trained a lot of people to ignore warning lights. That’s no excuse for not knowing which lights mean “see a mechanic soon” and which lights mean “stop now”, but it’s an explanation.
Maybe every warning light should simultaneously trigger another light that just says: “Consult your owner’s manual - NOW”
There was nothing wrong in this thread about telling the OP that s/he takes some of the blame. It just ends up going on pretty thick. No one wants to be told the same thing 20 times. That’s when it goes over the top.
Yes, it probably was the shops’ fault. But you TrippWorthy, are the pilot in command.
You have ignored other lights on the dash, and chose to ignore an oil light.
All pilots are told that whatever happens to an airplane, its their fault for not checking the oil, the fuel level in the wing tanks, tire pressure, water contamination in the fuel etc…
I would think that all vehicle owners would check the oil level after it has been changed.The simple oil change has the biggest consequences of any vehicle repair performed ,if done improperly.When the oil light flickered,thats on you.
Engine seizure is likely the reason for thinking starter or battery was faulty so a non-mechanically minded person might honestly think the problem lies there instead of the engine itself.
There’s a lot of story missing. The GF had an oil change performed on this vehicle, the oil light was on afterwards, the GF now decides to get a new car, and the OP has taken on a problematic car from the get-go.
Just my personal opinion and keeping this as mild as possible here, I wonder if the GF knew this car was damaged goods and through the powers of female persuasion talked the BF into taking over the payments. Basically, jaded BF takes on a headache in the name of love.
It’s not so much what people are saying to the op’er, but the tone; plus somebody called him a fool. No need for that. The engine broke because of his negligence but more so because of the incompetence of a professional mechanic.
I MIGHT have driven 15 miles with the oil light flickering. Any amount it was driven before was not by me. Still 15 miles is too much… I understand.
The Precision Tune has not agreed to fix the engine. They said if it was their fault, they would.
So you own a shop? If a customer brought his car in to have his oil changed, you or one of your mechanics didn’t tighten the drain plug completely, and the engine seized on the customer on the way home, you wouldn’t take responsibility?
Haha, I know, I have a hard time with proper car-related verbiage. I feel weird calling it an SUV, and it doesn’t have a proper bed, so I have a hard time calling it a truck, even though I know it’s both. And it IS technically a car, isn’t it?
I need to clarify, I didn’t personally drive that far without oil. I understand that ANY distance without oil is a mistake, obviously. This was clearly an error.
As for removing the battering, NO electronics were coming on when I turned the key. No lights, no sounds, my automatic windows and doors weren’t responding. Which led me to believe perhaps my alternator was bad, caused my battery to drain, and subsequently my car to die.
Again, I hadn’t owned the car but for about 12 hours before it seized and died. I’m fairly sure I didn’t even notice the oil light on until the morning I tried driving it to work.
OF COURSE I’m upset! If not at the shop for not having the wherewithal to check for leaks or properly tighten the drain plug, than at myself for not checking the oil sooner!
And trust me I haven’t caught a break yet. The shop manager is currently trying to sell me an engine. I’m about to post an update below…
About 140,000 miles on the vehicle.
As for the oil light popping/flickering on immediately after leaving the shop, I don’t know. I had only been in possession of it personally over a week after it had been changed.
Honestly, I’m not trying to get them to replace the engine if it isn’t their responsibility. I’m not trying to get anything free out of anyone. I’m merely trying to figure out what is right.