A Big Rant & a Big Thanks!
 

I recently took my car to a well known oil change/car wash chain in Chilliwack to get an oil change.

Just under 2 weeks later, whilst I was going home from work, my car dumps it's oil in a pretty big way whilst I was going up hill on HWY 1 at 100kph.

By the time I got onto the shoulder the engine had seized & the piston rod had punched a nice big hole in the engine block.

I towed my car to Dsaundry's place in Chilliwack (Darryl also kindly picked my g/f up from work whilst I was stranded on the highway) and found out that the guys who did the oil change didn't screw the sump plug on properly.

1 new engine later I'm back on the road (thanks again to Darryl).

Moral of the story?

1 - Don't take your car to place where the staff are not fully trained mechanics.

2 - If you know a good mechanic use them! Don't listen to the g/f & get an oil change somewhere more convenient!

3 - Canreef members help you out with much more than just fish stuff!

[/rant]

Ouch....

I have to worry about things like this again... I drove a beat up old S-10 that leaked oil badly. I never had to worry about changing it, just kept adding more. I didn't change it for YEARS. Now that I have a newer car I have to try and remember to get the oil changed.. been good about it so far ...lol

LOL @ Robb I had a chevy blazer (s-10) that did exactly the same thing. Never did oil changes, just added more.

That totally sucks about your vehicle VFX, did they replace the engine or did you have to pay for that?

They're paying for the damage!

Thank God!

As it was a pricey repair!

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I worked at a dealership for a good number of years and I can tell you that this was a very normal thing from many of the "quick-lube" type shops. Just a while back, my friend had her 1 year old VW Golf get a tranny flush at one of these places while she was in for an oil change...needless to say, they flushed it but proceeded to also put motor oil in the tranny. Funny enough they say that it couldn't have been them that did this even though my friend didn't even make it home before everything seized. Small claims court is where it's at now.

That's good to hear.

:eek: Yikes!

Yikes.

At least they're doing the right thing and covering it. I've heard far too many stories where they claim it's not their fault and you have to try and sue to recover the money.

There was no getting away with this one for the Lube company... they didn't argue against it as far as I know.

I guess I got lucky with my bad luck!

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Had close to the same on the wife's Pathfinder.

Went to one of those big drive-thru change places, come home and parked the car in the garage. Next day the wife's leaving for work and for some reason I was in the garage saying good-bye and noticed some drips on the garage floor when she was backing out.

Crawled underneath and thinking oil filter but no, found the drain plug only finger tight. Called the company went on a rant and got two free oil changes. Did the two, checking the plug each time, then never went back.

Something though, when you get the change, they're yelling back on forth like "tight on three" and shaking you truck from below like they're really checking something.