re: Woman says Walmart oil change ruined her car, leaving $10k repair bill

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But the next day, she says she noticed something just wasn’t right while driving. “What I did - pulled to the side cause I noticed it was smoking a little bit,”

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Jones details that Walmart sent a tow truck for her and looked over the vehicle. They told her the oil drain plug was never put back on after her oil was changed,

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If they did not replace the plug before they dumped new oil in it the car wasn't running right when it was being driven out of the bay, let alone the next day. It would have had zero oil pressure and the bearings would have', immediately upon turning over, began to seize and would have caused the engine to run very roughly. If you have ever tried to turn over an engine with no oil in it you know it takes a HELLUVA lot of torque to do so....the bearings were lubricated prior to dumping the oil but it would not have taken but a few seconds at idle speed to displace the left over lubrication and without any oil pressure to replenish it they get harder to turn every time a cylinder fired causing the engine to labor and it would be painfully obvious something wasn't right.

That said an engine will run a surprisingly long time with no oil in it. My dumbass BIL had a BEAUTIFUL 1958 Plymouth convertible....it was in rough shape but it was straight and had no rust, was a great candidate for restoration. He was changing the oil one evening and could not get the oil filter off. I told him to try a pair of channelocks, no good. I then suggested he drive a screw driver through it from one side to the other and that did indeed work. Her dumped the oil out of the filter...AND PUT THE FILTER BACK ON....the dumbass actually spun it back on with the screw driver through the side. He filled it up with oil and crunk it up and it was fine. Drove it about 100 or so miles when it finally came apart...but it had pumped the oil out of those screw driver holes in probably 1 mile.....

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Seems like an awfully high amount of money to just put the plug back in.

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i laughed.

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Honest question - How would a Take 5 handle this situation vs Walmart?

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They would have charged you twice as much and their oil change guys would have gotten in a fight with each other behind the shop while your car was still in the bay. After the engine smoked out, they would probably offer about the same as Walmart.

At least that's my experience with Take 5.

About 25 years ago my old man took his car to Sears for an oil change. Some dope left an oily rag in the engine and it caught fire just after my old man had parked the car under the carport and went inside. Fortunately he saw the smoke and managed to push the car back out into the driveway. Damn thing burned all up. The firemen found remnants of the oily rag and made some kind of official report. After some going back and forth my old man got a check for $20,000 from Sears. Even though he was compensated, he was still pissed because he really liked that car. He's still pissed about it.

She could take the 6K and find a "salvaged" engine from a wrecked Hyundai.

I had a pathfinder bow up once, I was poor at the time so I opted for this .

My man found a wrecked Infinity with a good engine that had 42,000 miles on it, costs me under $2,000.00 for the engine and labor to install it.

Freaking thing ran like a top for another five years

Then I sold it to a Mexican for $800.00

$10k seems ridiculously high for a Hyundai engine.

I replaced an engine in my wifes old Jaguar and it was $9K. Granted this was 15 years ago but it was V8 Jag

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Seems like an awfully high amount of money to just put the plug back in

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Wanna run your engine w/o oil for a few miles?

You won't like the results.

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$6,000 and she can save 30% on fruits and veggies by using SNAP should be her last offer.

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Chips and Queso

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About 25 years ago my old man took his car to Sears for an oil change. Some dope left an oily rag in the engine and it caught fire just after my old man had parked the car under the carport and went inside. Fortunately he saw the smoke and managed to push the car back out into the driveway. Damn thing burned all up. The firemen found remnants of the oily rag and made some kind of official report. After some going back and forth my old man got a check for $20,000 from Sears. Even though he was compensated, he was still pissed because he really liked that car. He's still pissed about it.

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Damn.

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I almost guarantee this is because the Hyundai dealer wants to put in a brand new engine with 0 miles on it and Walmart wants to put a used/remanufactured engine in since her car is 8 years old and the engine that was damaged probably already had over 100,000 miles.

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This is why corporations like Walmart are hated so much. They obviously screwed up, they should have just ponied up the dough and paid the dealer directly. Now she has a case against them for actual and implied damages considering they are an impediment to her getting from A to B. A good attorney could probably argue 2 or 3 times the original number in damages.