Took a 2006 diesel into a local lube shop this Saturday to have the oil changed. Payed the bill and left with pickup. Drove about 2 miles and heard a clunk noise and a check engine light came on. Pulled off the side of the road as the lube place was calling on the phone to say they forgot to put the oil plug back into the oil pan.

What should be done? What should I be worried about in the future? The lube place filled it with oil, flushed it and refilled it with oil again. Now I'm worried about the long term engine reliability.

Thanks

 

If it was my truck - they would be buying it - period.

 

Hold on!!! They should pretty much owe you an engine if anything even related to that goes wrong. I would take it to a real shop and have it checked out, you drove 2 miles? I would think it drained quickly with pressure and heated up quick. No telling what damage may have been done internally by that. Don't let this issue go, an engine can do without many things but not oil!!!!!!!!

Forgot to add, make them pay for the inspection at another shop. It needs to be in depth to see what damage may have been done.

 

x2....At least a new engine.

 

That is what we are being told by others now. I suppose we better get a lawyer involved? Afraid to ask dodge any questions because of warranty issues.

Sorry about posting in Help, after looking a little more this might not of been the place for this post. Just realized how serious this could be. If this needs to go somewhere else maybe the mods can move it.

Thank you.

 

I would guess they also never put any oil in. They'd see all of that much oil on the ground if they ever dumped it in at all.

 

Get 3 estimates , average them , tell then to right a check for that amount .
Then get a crank kit installed at worse , maybe just rod , main bearings & seals , then put the rest into what ever mods you have been dreaming about .

 

Sorry man, bummer. I think if I was ever in that situation, I would drive it till it locked up, then get a new engine. I guess I would fill it with oil take a long drive to get it up to normal OIL and water temp, then pull an oil sample and get a UOA. Then if something really bad shows up, you will have a record of it. I would be worried too, and I would be talking about how soon I would be getting my check to rebuild engine. Good Luck. Keep us posted.

 

did they have you pull over and send a tow truck?....or did they have you drive back? Makes a difference because if they sent a tow truck you have proof, if you drove back it is just your word agaist theirs.

 

No tow, they came up to were the pickup was pulled off the road and replaced plug and filled with oil. Then the pickup was driven back to their shop, was drained, flushed, and refilled with oil.

Will let everyone know how it goes.

Thanks

 

Hope you've got pictures of them by the side of the road filling it with oil, or a written statement that they screwed up. The tech will be long gone before you get to court and the owner's memory will fail very quickly, I'd venture.

 

Thats why they have business insurance.
BTW if it is running right now with no obvious issues it will likely run for quite a long while before any really bad symptoms appear.
SUE!

 

Did you get any documentation from them stating that they left the drain plug out.? Did you tell them that you heard a clunk and the check engine light came on? As far as I am concerned 2 miles with no oil ruined that engine.




Tim

 

Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of miles of life it took off the engine even though it's running fine now.
Things like this happen quite often at the quickie lube, they have insurance to cover it.
I know three people personally who lost engines (not Cummins) to the quickie lube. Two no plug and one no filter. Quick lubes paid for new engines with no arguments.

 

Sorry to hear, but they would be buying me a new engine. The bearings are shot if they ran with 0 oil pressure for longer then one minute, driving truck is even worse. They would be paying for my rental truck while my new engine was being installed. I have one in my shop now getting a new engine but it's under warranty. It was $4,000 for short block (reman) not counting labor, took about a month to get short block from Detroit. Work is starting to pick up here since all other dealerships in my area have gone out of business. Good Luck.