During the last oil change in my toyota prius, the dealer put on the wrong oil filter. 5 days afterwards I found myself stranded on the highway after the filter came off. They are paying to have a new engine installed so that’s good at least. But I am wondering if any other damage is done to other parts by the car runnig out of oil like this?
It should be fine but that brings up a common question. You state they are installing a “new” engine.
How is the word “new” being defined? Many define that word as meaning a partial repair or even a well-used salvage yard engine.
Does this mean a brand new in the crate from Toyota Motor Company engine?
No. The damage would have been limited to the gasoline engine.
It is a used engine with 20,000 miles on it. The previous one had 76,000 miles on it. The other complication here is that I just bought the car last week so I’m really trying to decide if I want to keep the car now or just return it. I bought it from a non-Toyota dealership and they are using a Toyota dealership to fix it.
Shouldn’t be any other damage except to the engine.
And they probably used the correct filter, but didn’t install it correctly.
I ask that you do something for the readers of CarTalk. I ask that you give both part numbers,describe how the filters are the same and how they differ and if you could explain how this mix-up happened. It would be of great value for you to provide CarTalk with this information.
The only issue that might occur relates to what happened when the engine failed: did anything unusual happen regarding the battery/electrical motor side of the powertrain? Did you lose the gas engine and then drive it on battery power until the battery was fully depleted? I would certainly want those parts fully checked out by the dealership once the gas engine has been replace.
If they replace the engine with one that is new, and equivalent or better to the previous motor you should be fine.
And how do we know that the “new” engine only has 20,000 miles on it? Are we to take their word for it or they will show you papers. If no papers they should give you some warranty on the engine.
I am still waiting for the details or at least the filter part numbers. What could be “wrong” with a filter that works for 5 days and then simply falls off? Was it a threaded section that was a close match but not exact, that does not sound right. Too short or too long would not matter. Incorrect base would leak immeditaly, well perhaps we will never know.
This “wrong” oil filter situation is bugging me so I looked around. Here is a link to a discussion here that discusses the question of “will the Prius automaticaly shut down the gas engine if low oil pressure is detected”?
http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2155446.page
I have found some discussion about oil filters with what appeared to be “twice cut” (like the twice baked potato)threads. Perhaps it was the correct filter but one with incorrectly cut threads that allowed the filter to fall off.
The twice cut thread discussion is about 2/3rds of the way down,this is a Prius based discussion forum.
In reality I bet it was decided by management it was better to say they selected the wrong filter rather than to admit they did not tighten the correct filter enough. In situations like this, management figures they since are paying the bill for the fix then at the very least they get to construct the chain of events.
You’ve waited all of 22 hours.
Could you clarify the chronology? It sounds like you bought a used Prius with 60-70,000 miles on it, had the oil changed on it, whoever did the change messed it up around the 76,000 mile point, and you bought the car recently enough that returning it to the non-Toyota dealer where you bought it is an option.
Am I understanding correctly? If so the 20,000 engine, if verifiable, sounds like a good deal. So does simply returning it.
24 hrs is a standard internet posting “bump” time. Ok you got me by two hours, I am soooo embarassed.How much you want to bet the OP never returns?
Given that there were three posts between “I ask” and “I am still waiting” with the most recent being less than four hours earlier, it wasn’t much of a bump, was it?
I do my best to please.
If you do your best, I suppose it would be unreasonable to expect more.
The “more” part is right below.
Yeah, I read that when you wrote it (your best) and when you edited it (more). Please feel free to have the last word.
I am looking forward (so much nicer than “I am still waiting”) to the OP confirming or correcting my understanding of his/her post. Wouldn’t that be a nice lagniappe?
You have not said if you take my bet (that the OP never returns to explain how this mixup occured).If the OP provided the information I have requested I would do much more than my best getting the word out, lagniappe can find out for themselves (your word not mine).