This is a follow up question about an oil change on my mini, a local shop changed the oil, I drove it about a hundred miles and the next day a pool of oil in my garage, I had them tow it in to let them do it again, and again the next day the oil leaked out. This time I had them use a mini oil filter and problem solved. I need to settle this event with the shop, what should they be responsible for? There may be damage to my car, and I worry about this every day now, is it their fault for using an off brand, is it my fault for not telling them to use a mini filter, should they pay to have my car evaluated at the mini dealer, or would there even be a way to determine if any damage had occurred?
if oil light did not come on there is probably no damage except your garage floor. The problem could have been not tightening the filter or a dirty seal…off market filters should work.
To assess possible damage you need to determine if the motor was running with zero oil. Evidence would be; did the “low oil pressure light” go on? How many miles did you drive from the shop to your garage? It sounds like the gasket from the wrong filter didn’t seat and seal properly meaning oil only comes out of the motor when the motor is running. When you saw the pool of oil and pulled the dipstick what did you see? Did the motor make any unusual and louder knocking noises than normal when run low on oil? Does the motor sound the same now as before the oil change? Did the motor overheat, and/or smoke?
If you only drove a few miles from the shop, and didn’t run the motor out of oil (no oil light came on) then I think you avoided damage.
I think you need to find out what the real problem is! All the Minis take oil filter cartridges. Car manufacturers don’t make oil filters. “Off-brand” oil filters never cause problems. The Mini oil filter is, basically, an “off-brand” filter in a Mini-branded box. I think the shop may have done something wrong in replacing the filter cartridge, as this is not just a spin-on type filter.
If it makes you feel any better, if the oil pressure light didn’t come on while you were driving, I doubt that there is any damage. The oil appears to have mostly leaked onto your garage floor after you shut it down, which sounds to me like a drain plug problem.
I agree that there was probably no real damage to anything other than your garage floor–as long as there were no dashboard warnings of low oil pressure.
However, a couple of points to consider:
->>Many shops will skip the very important step of replacing the crush washer on the oil drain plug in order to save time and a couple of cents. While it is possible that the aftermarket oil filter was the source of the leak, it is much more likely that the leak resulted from failure to replace the crush washer on the drain plug, or failure to tighten the oil filter properly, or failure to remove the gasket from the old oil filter (“double gasketing” of a new oil filter can easily lead to leaks).
The fact that the leak disappeared when a genuine Mini filter was used does not conclusively prove that the original filter(s) were the problem. It is possible that the shop just decided to do a complete and competent job on the 3rd try.
->>Your engine requires a special European-specification motor oil. Are you 100% sure that this shop actually uses that expensive oil? If they are taking shortcuts with filters and possibly with crush washers, it is very possible that they are not playing by the rules when it comes to the motor oil.
I strongly suggest that you find another shop for your maintenance.
But, whatever you do DO NOT take the car to Jiffy Lube or any of its clones unless you are eager to experience problems far more serious than some oil on the floor of your garage.