Who's at fault?

Was heading up to Cayuga for the drag race thingie this last weekend. My friend was driving her civic up to race. 20 min from the track, The car's oil light started to blink and then smoke was coming up from all over the place. It turns out the drain plug went missing and all the oil spilled out. NOw she just got an oil change the day before. Do you think she sould pay for the repairs or the mech who did the oil change?

the moron, i mean mechanic that did the change should be responsible. no other work was done by anyone else other than that guy, that day right?
private mechanic or a one of those lube places?
what sort of repairs must she do now?

nope. no other work was done. it was done by in independant mech.

when we pulled the dipstick out white smoke was coming out. it didn't sound too pretty when we started it up. took us awhile to find a new plug and a synth oil. ended up towning it back to TO. JDM motor too.

I think its the fault of the Girl that was Driving.
It always the Girl Drivers Fault!

i know this girl, and she knows what she's doing.

She trusted the mech would know what they were doing, and would complete the job properly.

Anyhow, I say the mech should fix it up b/c they obviously didn't do their job right.

Originally Posted by ccdude

I think its the fault of the Girl that was Driving.
It always the Girl Drivers Fault!

LOL

Get the mech to pay for the repair.

Didn't she notice the oil light was on? Or that the engine was overheating?

Mechanic will say she played with it etc.

It will be nasty. Each one will be pointing the finger at the other. The mechanic is not really obligated to pay for it. He will claim that he tighened the drain bolt and that she loosened it with her wild driving.

See if you can get the mechanic to pay for it, the offer to split the costs in half. It could mean a new engine if it siezed up. No luberication and metal on metal grinding.

Still I think she should have noticed the warning lights.

Clearly the mechanic is at fault if events are as you describe. No way a plug comes out if it has been correctly tightened. And if the drain plug came out there would be no time to avoid a catastrophic failure - warning light or no. She should take it to court if necessary.

Originally Posted by Gee

Didn't she notice the oil light was on? Or that the engine was overheating?

Mechanic will say she played with it etc.

It will be nasty. Each one will be pointing the finger at the other. The mechanic is not really obligated to pay for it. He will claim that he tighened the drain bolt and that she loosened it with her wild driving.

See if you can get the mechanic to pay for it, the offer to split the costs in half. It could mean a new engine if it siezed up. No luberication and metal on metal grinding.

Still I think she should have noticed the warning lights.

Funny. I was in the car with her. The oil light blinked but never stayed on. Even with NO oil in the engine the light never stayed on but just blinked.

There is no way a drain plug is coming off if it was tightened. I use to work in a shop and it's very easy to forget to tighten the drain plug because your removing the filter, checking the tire pressure ETC. while the oil drains.

Heya,

Turns out the motor is not as bad as we had thought. Just a busted bearing in the block, which the mechanic is going to repair, free of charge. He's also getting the valves and head cleaned out since the oil residue is very dark from the overheating. Probably going to change my water pump, timing belt and clutch. Very tempted to get some more goodies in there since my entire motor is in pieces at the shop. Mmmmm...

Anyways..thanks for the support! Will be at the track next weekend so wish me luck!!

Absolutely the mechanics fault....

That said... Its pretty stupid to continue to drive with the oil light on!!!

NEVER drive with the oil light or the Temp light on!!

So did it start clicking? Then seize up??


Soulda gone to Mr. Lube.. they always pay for ther mistakes...