An instant oil change place totaled our car - options?

This happened in Minnesota.

So here's the deal, we got a used car a few years ago, and generally it's always run well. My wife drives it (well, drove it - I'll get there in a second) because of it's reliability.

Anyway, we were going out of town, and were overdue for an oil change. So on our way out of town we stopped at a local (non-chain) quick oil change-type place. You know the places, where a bunch of teenagers change your oil. Generally we hate these places, but we were in a hurry, so we just went for it.

Anyway, long story short, about two months ago, my wife calls me on her way to work. She says her car's shuddering and running funny. She manages to make it to work. The car's always run fine, and never had a leak that we've been aware of (we have a gravel driveway, so you couldn't tell if we did) so I'm confused. I drive to her job (which is about 35 miles away) and come to find out that she is completely out oil, bone dry.

Well, the car was still drivable, albeit not a lot of fun to drive, so we kept driving it the last couple months. In the meantime, we were checking oil all the time, and unlike the first year and change we owned the vehicle where the car never leaked oil, it was leaking quite a bit, so we just kept adding oil to it.

So a week and a half ago, the alternator went out, and so we had a mechanic fix it. When he did, I asked him to look for where the oil leak was coming from. It turned out that the oil was leaking from the oil filter. According to the mechanic, the filter looked like someone had dropped it and then screwed it back on. He pointed out that the bad spot in the oil filter was facing up into the engine compartment - in other words, it's not a hole that a rock could have made, it had to be damage that was there before or during the oil filter was there.

So today the car totally died, and this is bad. We're a two car family, and now we have one car. What are our options? Can we take these guys to court? Does their generic liability clause on their receipt cover them? Help!

Thanks so much!

How long in between the oil change and the day your wife noticed the problem?

I don't think you will be able to get around your wiife's own negligence in A) Continuing to drive when the oil light was on and B) Waiting apparently months to have the problem investigated.

somecallmejim said:

Can we take these guys to court? Does their generic liability clause on their receipt cover them?

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You can take them to court. The question you should be asking is "Can we win?".

I don't know what their generic liability clause states, so I can't guess if it covers them.

I think you should start by going back to the oil change shop with the damaged oil filter and your receipt. Tell them your engine is dead, and ask what they plan to do about it.

Stevef said:

You can take them to court. The question you should be asking is "Can we win?".

I don't know what their generic liability clause states, so I can't guess if it covers them.

I think you should start by going back to the oil change shop with the damaged oil filter and your receipt. Tell them your engine is dead, and ask what they plan to do about it.

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You forgot to mention that they will need to explain why they drove around for at least a couple of months KNOWING there was a problem.

OP - you have no case.

Zigner said:

You forgot to mention that they will need to explain why they drove around for at least a couple of months KNOWING there was a problem.

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They drove around for a couple of months regularly checking the oil, and had a mechanic take a look the next time it was in the shop. There's no indication there was any additional damage after the first time it ran out of oil.

OP - you have no case.

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I disagree. Whether the damage was caused by the oil shop's negligence is a question of fact. the owner's failure to correct the situation can certainly be considered contributory negligence, but MN does not retain contributory negligence as a complete defense to negligence.

The op has not posted any information on the car, its age, or mileage.

The alternator going out, other problems with driveability... that suggests a car on its last "legs"

xylene said:

The op has not posted any information on the car, its age, or mileage.

The alternator going out, other problems with driveability... that suggests a car on its last "legs"

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The age and condition of the car would be used to determine damages, not liability.

Based on this, the questions asked should be: "Can we win?" and "If we win, how much can we recover?"

Stevef said:

They drove around for a couple of months regularly checking the oil, and had a mechanic take a look the next time it was in the shop. There's no indication there was any additional damage after the first time it ran out of oil.



I disagree. Whether the damage was caused by the oil shop's negligence is a question of fact. the owner's failure to correct the situation can certainly be considered contributory negligence, but MN does not retain contributory negligence as a complete defense to negligence.

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This is not a contributory negligence case. After the time that has passed, the OP has lost the ability to prove that the original shop caused the problem at all.

Zigner said:

This is not a contributory negligence case. After the time that has passed, the OP has lost the ability to prove that the original shop caused the problem at all.

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OP has an oil filter with a hole in it, as well as a statement from another mechanic that the filter was installed with the hole on the top so the hole could not have been caused by a rock.

I would consider installing an oil filter with a hole in it to be negligent.

Stevef said:

OP has an oil filter with a hole in it, as well as a statement from another mechanic that the filter was installed with the hole on the top so the hole could not have been caused by a rock.

I would consider installing an oil filter with a hole in it to be negligent.

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So now you just need to prove who caused it...seems to me like after all the time that passed, our OP bungled a diy oil change and now is trying to find somebody to buy him a new engine...

(Not that I feel that way, but that's the hurdle the OP has to overcome)

Stevef said:

The age and condition of the car would be used to determine damages, not liability.

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Yes, which of course would determine if the case has any value.

AND

IT would indeed have a role in determining if any damages were caused at all.

xylene said:

Yes, which of course would determine if the case has any value.

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An extremely important consideration.

Howdy,

Thanks for the replies, it's definitely food for thought. Here are a few more details for you guys to chew on.

First, the car wasn't a clunker with a foot in the grave, as someone posited. It's a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport with about every option they had. The blue book for our specific van in good condition is a bit over $7000. The mechanic actually thought that the reason the alternator went out was due to the incessant vibrration of the motor from the damage from no oil.

Also, somebody mentioned that it could be argued that it was really a "DIY oil change gone bad". I actually thought of that myself, which is one of the reasons I've been hesitant to try getting any compensation. But the oil filter itself is actually my biggest witness against this. The filter brand is "Service Champ", which is a commercially produced brand of filter by Champion. Consumers cannot buy this particular oil filter at any conventional auto parts store or big box store. So I think that covers that.

Interestingly enough, there's actually a big "x" written on the filter in permanent marker, so it's even conceivable (at least in my mind) that someone noted the damage before the filter was ever used and marked it, and the teenager who installed the filter just wasn't using his eyes or brain.

Someone mentioned my wife's "negligence". Here's the thing, we got this car on January 1, 2009. The previous owner kept meticulous records, down to when he bought car washes. According to his records, the thing never had a leak. The first three or four months we owned the car, I checked the oil every time we refueled, and it was sealed tight as a drum, never low at all. For almost a year and a half we went oil change to oil change without having to ever put in so much as a quart of oil. So it wouldn't make sense for my wife to be constantly checking the oil. And interestingly enough, the oil level indicator light didn't even come on until AFTER the car had started running rough, so she had no clue there was a problem until it was too late.

Here's the thing, I'm not out to get rich over this. But I'm an unemployed guy out taking every stupid temp job I can find while trying to raise a 10 month old child. We're a two car family, and when my wife's car died, I gave up mine, which meant I can't go doing temp jobs or looking for permanent work. I'm stranded at home, and all I want is to get reimbursed for the damage done by this shop so I can keep working on putting my life back together. Heck, if we weren't in financial straits, I'd probably let the whole deal drop, because I know it's a hard case to prove. I just need to know if it's possible, because at this point I'm missing meals and not paying bills; I can't afford to go buy another car.

Thanks again,

Jim

I forgot to throw in there: We changed the oil on the van about three months before the problem developed. I know typically we change our oil between 3000 and 5000 miles, and it was definitely in that range, but not more than that. We're a little beyond that mileage now, but only because once the damage was done to the engine, we found ourselves putting in so much fresh oil every week that it hardly justified doing an all-out change.