Questionable dealership service
 

Hey, I just wanted to see if anyone else has ever been in my situation and was unsure of what to search.

During October, I hit the 7500 mile mark and was ready for my first service of oil change/tire rotations, etc. I went to a local dealership and they performed all these for me.

Today, I noticed my car was leaking oil. I never actually paid attention or checked on my oil due to my ignorance of trusting the service done to my car. The oil is pretty low and will need to be refilled. I believe they did not properly tighten the oil pan plug.

I'll be calling/bringing in my car Monday, and was hoping to know in advance what to expect. Do you think they will service my car for free due to their negligence or would they put the oil leak against myself claiming it as my fault for not properly checking my vehicle regularly?

Go to see the Service Manager, calmly state your complaint, and open fire.


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It is anybody's guess as to what they will do.
Just make sure you approach them in a calm and professional manner and the odds will be more in favour of them treating you well.

... and then open fire.


http://www.monologuedb.com/wp-conten...tle-friend.jpg

hmmmm......first off, @justin6280 , if then car is more than a quart low, I'd suggest you put some oil in it before you drive it anywhere.

Can you tell where the oil is leaking from ..... around the oil filter .. ?? Around the crankcase drain plug .. ?? Other place(s) .. ?? It would be good to know this before you took in in.

How much is it leaking ... enough to puddle up on the floor/driveway .. ??

Has stuff ever happened to me like that. Oh, heck yes. I've left the dealership with leaking oil filters ..... filters that weren't changed .... spark plugs that weren't changed .... car washed with recycled water and comet cleanser (I suspected) ...... tires that weren't rotated ...... and that's all I want to remember ....... :mad0260:

What do I do now? Before taking the car in for service, I mark the tires and mark the oil filter. I put a BIG note on the dash DO NOT WASH THIS CAR! After the service, before I leave the establishment, I check to make sure the tires were rotated, the oil filter was changed, the proper amount of new oil was in the crankcase and their isn't any oil dripping from the drain plug.

In your case, I suggest you follow the recommendations of @Tcoat ..... not so much @Hotrodheart. Which reminds me, I always take my loaded .45 ACP out of the glovebox before I drop off the car .......... the FIRST time ..... :paddle:

I believe most dealerships want to please ...... but, many of them have some lazy, unfocused, ill trained, irresponsible employees ...... :sigh:

I suspect they will make it right for you and your car ...... :)


humfrz

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I'll be following this advice soon, due for next service in less than 200 miles. Especially the car washing thing.

I'll bet anything its a wrongly inserted washer, probably with the wrong tools, important thing is that they didnt damage the groove( where it fits if thats the correct word ) or else things get a bit complicated.

I asked the mannager to let me pass to the garage, now i know what exactly they are doing
I cant sleep well without knowing what type of oil they are using on my engine, transmission.
But yes sometimes sometimes they make me want to kill them with fire cuz they are slugish

The first (and last) time I had my oil changed at the dealer didn't go well either.
After waiting a couple hours I went to investigate what was going on. They had my car on a lift and were taking it apart. The service manager was there and I asked him what was going on. He said they double gasketed the oil filter and the oil sprayed out all over the engine. They had to take the skid plate off and clean the entire engine compartment. It took hours. This is by far the easiest car I've ever had to change the oil on and they couldn't do that right. From now on I do all the work on my car myself.
And yeah never let them wash your car.

Chill brother. Even if there is an oil leak you have a warning light. It's nothing major, are they official Toyota mechanics or can you just change them easily. If they're Toyta then send an email to their headquarters with some photos as proof and bills etc. That's how you screw them properly. I assume you had no oil leak when you took it in and then it started leaking after the oil change.

Do not use the oil light as an indicator for low oil. At that point it is probably too late. Always check the dipstick.

Sure the dipstick, but worst case scenario is the low oil light comes on and then you need to switch off the engine immediately. If you don't use a dipstick right though you can get a totally wrong reading. I can't even remember how that works. Switch off engine, wait 5 mins, check after wiping dip clean. Can't recall.

That's not how it works, the "oh the car will warn you mentality" doesn't work on any car long run. And you don't start by sending an email to headquarters, that's one too many hoops to go up to wait for them to contact the dealer, speak directly to the service department manager, if nothing comes of it then you move to the top.

If the "low oil light" comes on, your already in trouble. It usually means the oil level is is too low for the pump to pick it up, and the engine is being starved for lubrication.

Light coming on means serious trouble, its like the fuel light coming on only much faster. Your first action is to park car immediately, switch off engine and then see whats going on. But you will not damage or burn out your engine, thats why its there.

From what op is saying they are useless so talking to them wont do anything, thats why he needs to ( if hes that pissed off ) document how sloppy their management is. And youre saying that if the oil light comes on thats it, he has a blown engine? What is it there for? Might as well not have it. Thats like saying that when the fuel light comes on its too late.

I would disagree with this one.

I was booting along at 50mph on my Yamaha R6 once and out of the blue, the rear tire locked up. No oil light. Guess what happened? Engine was starved and the engine decided it would rather weld itself together than warn me at all.

You must always ensure that the pimp has been monitoring the lubrication!


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You need to always check your oil levels sure, but in an emergency its supposed to switch on.

Funny thing is that I topped up on oil that very morning. Fact of the matter is, don't trust the light. Simple as that. By the time that light comes on, it's probably much too late.

Or the complete opposite. Like any sensor they can fail and tell you there is low pressure when all is actually fine. I spent days and a pile of cash once chasing oil pressure issues just to discover it was a loose connection on the bloody sensor.
They are called "idiot lights" for a reason and should never be trusted one way or the other.
Nothing beats a good gauge for such things.

I have a weird feeling you haven't been involved with very many cars later in their life, the oil light probably won't come on in oil starvation situations when the leak is too fast. Some cars do have oil level sensors (e.g. some German marques) but for most vehicles like ours I'm pretty sure the oil warning light means the oil pressure has dropped to zero at the sensor or switch. The oil pressure switch is a normally-closed 12 volt switch plumbed into the oil galley, usually near the pump. when the oil pump builds pressure, the switch opens and the light turns off. if the oil level is low enough, the pump may "suck air" when the oil in the sump sloshes away from the pickup, and the pressure switch will close and the light will come on. In fact ours I believe may be wired right below the oil filter. Honestly, we can get into an existential argument as to why they didn't design it better and such but it doesn't work.

In this case we are referring to OP but it stands for Teseo's issue as well. You speak to the manager directly explaining your concerns and if something isn't fixed you will go higher, you don't come in at a threatening manner. In OPs case this is his first time dealing with this service department so he needs to go directly to the manager, and possibly get some sort of compensation as well for his time and the mistreatment of his car. This isn't a total manager issue, this is some flat rate tech in the garage in a hurry to get to the next car who needs to be reprimanded and be a little more careful.

Since were on the subject, whats the best way to check your cars engine oil. Ive actually forgotten.

Ive had my fair share of shit cars believe me, my first car was a mini with a blown engine, every now and then id have to put a litre of oil in it just to keep it going. Till the engine blew out for real.My youth was all about shit racecars that were good cars 10 years earlier. But as you say here "because racecar"

Yups gotta go through the proper chain of command.....

I am fairly sure that you will throw a CEL for AVCS not responding before you get a low oil pressure light. (but not certain)

And I have ONLY had the Suby dealer change my oil in my car.
That way it is on record that it has been done, and they cannot try to pull any crap if I have an engine problem later under warranty.

I have seen way too many "Sorry sir, your engine failure is not covered under warranty because you have no evidence that the oil changes were done when required".

Maybe this is yet another case of the quality of care you get at Scion vs Subaru.

The oil light usually means the pump is not flowing any oil. No fuel being delivered, no big deal...no oil, now that's a pretty serious condition. Your probably only a few minutes from serious damage. When the fuel light comes on, you usually have 1-2 gallons remaining, when the oil light comes on, the oil pump is probably cavitating.

For every fraction of a second that oil light flickers, serious damage is happening. Might not immediately spin a bearing but I guarantee that engine's lifespan just shortened by 10K miles.

It's just too damn bad cars cannot have "real" oil pressure gauges anymore.

Why can't we? Because too many people do not understand what engine oil pressure is all about.

"OMG! when I first started my car, the oil pressure read 60 psi ........ a few miles later it only reads 30 psi ........ I want a new engine, under warranty ......:eyebulge:"


humfrz

I thought dropping them was just a cost-cutting measure but that makes sense. My Eclipse had an oil pressure gauge.

On a related note, I thought my water temps were rock solid on both my Eclipse and this one. Imagine my disappointment when a few months ago someone here explained to me that once the gauge reaches normal, unless there's a drastic change in temp, it just sits there. :bs:

There's a reason they're called "idiot lights."

edit: Tcoat said it first.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I purchased a qt of oil to put in so at least it isn't as low as before.

I'll update this thread when I contact the service manager. Hopefully there will be some type of compensation.

Most of the time they'll give you a gift card or give you free oil changes or something extending your service boost or something

That is why I mentioned above that the engine will likely detect AVCS response errors before the oil is so low that the oil light comes on steady.


If the oil is leaking very slowly (like a dripping drain plug) then the pump will start cavitating early on during cornering as the oil pickup pulls some air and this will be infrequent at first, but get worse slowly as the oil leaks.

I wish I could find it, but a few years back I saw a picture of an oil filter that had a big "X" scratched into the top and instead of changing it, the mechanic just took a Sharpie and tried to fill in the "X"! :D

But yeah, when I still took it to the dealer I marked the filter and the tires too. I discovered on tire rotations, dealers no longer do (what I consider) the standard rotation either, they just move back to front front to back on the same side vs what I was taught which is back to front, front to opposite side back so your tires truly rotate through every corner of the car.

Now that I'm out of warranty (and no longer getting the service for free), I just do it all at home anyway. A Fumoto Drain Valve makes oil changes so easy.

Anyway, OP always do a post-maintenance walk around. Everyone has a bad day and even the best garages can make a mistake.

Hopefully they didn't cross-thread and strip the hole in your oil pan.

I actually think it's the opposite: OP's oil drain plug has the original washer still painted to it.

See my post from 2013:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54142

Hey Humfrz,

Next time ... just drop one of your viagra pills in the oil. That will get the pressure up.

Hey, @Braces , ..... I don't use Viagra pills anymore.

Why? Because I forgot where I put them. Besides, by the time they kicked in, I'd forgotten that I took them ....... and had fallen asleep ....... :bonk:

(at least, they kept me from rolling out of bed)



humfrz

UPDATE: So after about 10 phonecalls of going straight to voicemail since Saturday, I decided to just drive up there myself and talk to them in person.

They checked my car for leaks and found out that the gasket needed to be replaced. So they did that and filled my car with new oil as well. I'm satisfied since it only took about 45 minutes