Hello I’m hoping this is the right place to ask this.
My 2008 Scion xB was sounding funny so I took it over to my dad’s place (15 miles from where I live) to have it checked out. He said that there was no oil in it which I found weird because I had just gotten an syntheitc oil change two weeks prior. He put oil in the car and then attempted to drive it to a local shop but the engine seized and the car stopped. There was no oil in it so he had it towed to the shop that I had the oil change at.
A person at the shop said that they were confused because the drain cap was still on and the entire oil filter was missing. They claim that it is not on them because I was able to leave their shop and the car was running so the filter was clearly still in. I’m confused about this whole process so I talk to another local mechanic and he states that it is possible that they didn’t tighten something and the oil filter fell out or they left the old ‘O ring’ on and that’s why the new one fell out.
Again I am just confused on how to proceed, the shop that did the oil change is saying that there is nothing they can do other than replace the engine which would cost around quite a bit.
I would appreciate some advice on how to proceed. Thanks.
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They didnt put a filter in
They owe u an engine, they owe legal fees if u have to lawyer up
Theyre story of no responsibility is bull shit. They installed an empty filter canister
This was common in Toyota Camrys back when I worked at Jiffy Lube. Somehow the V6 filter fits on the 4 cylinder and after enough pressure and heat cycles it spits it out.
Something with the thread length I dnt quite remember. It’s 100% the oil change shop fault. They are going to fight you tooth and nail and you will probably have to get a lawyer.
Your car’s oil pump puts out something like 6-8gpm at idle. If a filter wasn’t installed or was double gasketed, it would take about 15 seconds to pump all the oil out of the sump.
If you filled it back up with oil and there’s no filter, there’s not going to be any mystery about what’s going on.
If someone installed a 20mm threaded filter on your 3/4” Toyota, you could eject a filter while driving. You would be out of oil in a matter of seconds.
Could the oil change place screw up? Yes. Could your filter have leaked oil? Yes. Did you drive 15 miles without a filter? No. Did you add oil, start the car, and not notice the filter was missing? No.
You’re going to have to fight a real uphill battle to show that you didn’t your notoriously junk Toyota 2AZ out of oil, and are trying to run a scam on the quick lube for a new engine.