first and for the record, i take care of my S and drive it nicely. i usually change my own oil, but this once i had it changed at a jiffy lube. i was busy and just needed it done. of course they acted like they knew what they were doing, but to me it looked like they had never seen an S before. i watched them do it and everything appeared to be done properly. so fastforward a month and 2 thousand miles of uneventful driving and i'm coming home from work. i upshift into 4th at about 5k rpm and suddenly i hear a hissing sound from the engine bay, and white smoke is coming from every possible outlet. i IMMEDIATELY put it into neutral and coast to a stop on the side of the road where i turn the car off. when i open the hood oil is everywhere and is leaking like crazy from somewhere on the lower front left side of the engine. as i sit on the side of the road all the oil drains out. i get towed to the dealership, they promise to call. a day or so later the dealer tells me that when jiffylube changed my oil they left the old filter gasket in the block thus double filtering the oil filter, but they tightened the filter down enough to get some seal so the seemed to run fine. but after enough pressure and vibration the seal broke and all the oil blew out into the engine bay. so now i pretty much need a whole new engine, short block, heads, everything. the bill is almost 10k dollars. jiffy lube is going to try to not pay it. what would you do...??

 

sue. I don't see any other recourse.

 

Get the dealer to document what they found in print. Use that to sue Jiffy Lube or at least take it to their head office people first. Of course Jiffy is going to make you fight them for it. It's a lot of money. I think you have a good case. Just just have to see how much it'll cost to take legal action.

 

That's pretty much all you can do, gather all your resources first including any receipts from the oil change etc. Also get the service manager who was incharge when your car was towed into the shop, as well as who ever worked on it to give statements etc. And of course get a lawyer, personally I would say that you should talk to a lawyer first before confronting the jiffy lube as there are always ways they can fix signs or what not at their location to try and give them some basis, though I think this should be a pretty easy case if it can be proven that they has incorrectly performed the oil change.

 

Dude that's terrible.

Here's what I would do:
Collect whatever receipt I had from the Jiffy Lube and head down to the location where it was changed. Make sure that you bring the bill from Honda and speak with the owner.
JLube should carry liability insurance for situations like this. If they try to F--- with you, all that's left is a call to your local attorney at law. Remember, they're in the business of working on expensive machines, they MUST carry appropriate insurance. Make sure you mention to the Jlube owner that you are planning to consult legal counsel, that's all it generally takes to get someone's attention.

If you don't want to go the court/legal route, I guess you're dealing with your insurance company and whatever coverage you carry.

Just my $.02.

Good luck with this. Keep us updated.

 

that's terrible. at least your dealer's diagnosis presents solid ground for you to fight. document everything then go f#ck 'em up!

 

How does the dealer know the old oil filter was used? Was it a honda filter? This is important to prove your case

 

First of all good luck.

At what point did the oil light come on. I know it's hard to see the warning lights on the dash some time, but they'll usually keep you out of trouble.
I'm also amazed that the oil stayed in so long on a double gasket. I worked as a mechanic before college, and seen some pretty silly things done durring oil changes. I've never seen a double gasket hold oil, much less hold oil for 2 months. Just a ticking time bomb waiting to blow.

 

They only left the gasket on there, they replaced the filter itself.

The idiot light is kinda useless in most hondas, it comes on at a seriously low pressure which generally just indicates that you already have damage.

 

mattylight Posted on Sep 22 2006, 07:59 PM
You mean they did not change the filter?
Or did the rubber gasget that was on the old filer get stuck on the engine and they put a new filter (with a new gasket => double gaskets) on?
And that's why the new filter unscrewed itself and started leaking oil?

If that's the case you have solid proof they did something wrong.

Good luck getting your car fixed (payed by Jiffy Lube)