Oil indicator light after routine oil change

[adam2562]

If I may ask, what do you feel Toyota should do in this situation in order for you to be fully satisfied? Replace your engine with a new one? Give you a written lifetime engine warranty on any lubrication related failures? Buy back the vehicle and give you a new 4runner?

Unfortunately events like this happen because we are all human, and there's never going to be a 100% satisfactory resolution if both sides do not want to compromise. IMO, in this situation, all you can really do is accept a resolution which is reasonably accommodating given the circumstances. From what it sounds like, the OP's dealer is doing just that or at least trying to make it right.

Regarding your statement about if the engine threw a rod tomorrow you would be covered under warranty anyway--I am not so sure that is going to be the case at all. If you bring in your brand new 4runner with a blow motor and Toyota deems that you ran the engine without oil which caused the catastrophic failure, I highly doubt they will be making a good will engine replacement on their dime due to your negligence. This is where your allegedly worthless letter from the dealer would come in handy; you have on the record that the dealer is taking full responsibility for running the engine without sufficient oil.

you can't just accept that they made a mistake and carry on... they have to honor coverage on that engine ONLY at least. and if not then replace it with a brand new one. if they don't want to do that then the OP should consider getting a lawyer and have them give him a brand new vehicle all together.. Toyota will resell his original vehicle at a very minimal loss.

I had a friend who at a local Rockville Toyota dealership went for an oil change on his 03 Camry (roughly 80kmiles) and they forgot to put oil on it.. he heard a knocking on his way home and pulled over.. had a friend of mine come to tow his car and HE checked his dipstick and told him there was no oil in there. after they towed it back and the service writer got a hold of the mechanic who did it.. they wheeled in the car and came back and said "oh it must have been a routine failure, there was oil in there" both friends at this point knew toyota was lying and were very stern that they BETTER fix this or they won't hear the end of it. a week or so down the road, their customer service rep called my friend and said they would fix it by replacing it with a junkyard engine that has 50k on it. He didn't care he agreed. (it was obviously FU$&ED)

point of the story, fight for what you want them to do, they will do the easiest cheapest thing to get you out of their hairs. and ALWAYS check your oil or whatever was worked on before leaving. GOODLUCK


PS i wouldn't accept any longer warranty as a fix.. these engines SHOULD last a long time.. a warranty up to 125k is BS ..you're engine could fail prematurely at 150k vs 250-300k and you're still getting screwed in the end

 

[Jayhawk5G]

you can't just accept that they made a mistake and carry on... they have to honor coverage on that engine ONLY at least. and if not then replace it with a brand new one. if they don't want to do that then the OP should consider getting a lawyer and have them give him a brand new vehicle all together.. Toyota will resell his original vehicle at a very minimal loss.

I had a friend who at a local Rockville Toyota dealership went for an oil change on his 03 Camry (roughly 80kmiles) and they forgot to put oil on it.. he heard a knocking on his way home and pulled over.. had a friend of mine come to tow his car and HE checked his dipstick and told him there was no oil in there. after they towed it back and the service writer got a hold of the mechanic who did it.. they wheeled in the car and came back and said "oh it must have been a routine failure, there was oil in there" both friends at this point knew toyota was lying and were very stern that they BETTER fix this or they won't hear the end of it. a week or so down the road, their customer service rep called my friend and said they would fix it by replacing it with a junkyard engine that has 50k on it. He didn't care he agreed. (it was obviously FU$&ED)

point of the story, fight for what you want them to do, they will do the easiest cheapest thing to get you out of their hairs. and ALWAYS check your oil or whatever was worked on before leaving. GOODLUCK


PS i wouldn't accept any longer warranty as a fix.. these engines SHOULD last a long time.. a warranty up to 125k is BS ..you're engine could fail prematurely at 150k vs 250-300k and you're still getting screwed in the end

In response to the story about your friend, that's rough. I don't think I would want a junkyard engine lower mileage or not, I mean I guess a leak down test might give a little more peice of mind. In that situation you don't know if the engine was cared for, what led it to a junkyard, you can't see the car it came from to determine overall level of care...

In response to your opinion about the longer warranty, I think most would agree that a situation like this should manifest any problems caused well before 125k, if it's gets to 125k it's probably fine and should go longer no problem. If the OP doesn't plan to keep it that long it's even less of an issue.

 

[adam2562]

In response to your opinion about the longer warranty, I think most would agree that a situation like this should manifest any problems caused well before 125k, if it's gets to 125k it's probably fine and should go longer no problem. If the OP doesn't plan to keep it that long it's even less of an issue.

yea true, but we don't know that much about how much damage an oil issue like that could cause.. many could say the way it was taken care of after that could be why it would fail at 150k but we just won't know. but if it does fail on him at 150-200k he'll always wonder if that visit to the dealership is what caused the early(so we say) failure at 150-200k when most of us are running up to 300k (hopeful!) .. i'd still try to get a new vehicle replacement if i was within a year of ownership regardless!

 

[cbreze]

I had a tacoma that got an oil change at the dealer I bought it from. Drove it home and decided to check the oil. Was about two quarts low. Called the service writer and he says, bring it back and we'll top it off. The dealer was many miles away, so he says buy the oil and add it myself and bring him the receipt for reimbursement. I said that was lame and wtf happened anyway? He says the oil filling machine had air(?) in it and it malfunctioned by not putting enough in. I said it sounds more like the tech is the one who malfunctioned by not checking the level before signing off on it.
Hindsight being 20/20 I should have made a formal complaint but just told the service writer I'd never be back and this was after a twenty year relationship with this dealer and three trucks purchased new.
Bottom line is I don't do my own work anymore, to old to crawl around under the rig and just don't care to. But I can check my own engine and see that it's got oil in it , run it, check for leaks before driving off. I get looks from the service folks when I do, but don't give a shit. It's my $40k truck not theirs. Maybe they'll be extra careful since they know I'm watching and checking.

 

[flyrv9]

How about just asking for a new engine? Toyota could then tear down yours and rebuild it and sell as used.

 

[Canazes9]

In response to your opinion about the longer warranty, I think most would agree that a situation like this should manifest any problems caused well before 125k, if it's gets to 125k it's probably fine and should go longer no problem. If the OP doesn't plan to keep it that long it's even less of an issue.

I agree. Catastrophic failure with no warning after ~120K miles after the incident is a very unlikely failure scenario. The most likely 3 outcomes I see based on the limited information we have:

1) The motor drives on with a normal life expectancy.

I've seen many engines that were starved for oil, multiple times that could have suffered serious damage each time yet seemingly suffered no ill effects. Most notably a buddy in high school that could never remember to put oil in his leaky Monza 3.8 v6. He stripped 4 nylon timing gears in 2 years due to partial engine seizing from lack of oil. Each time he replaced the timing gear and the car drove right off seemingly unharmed. After the last incident, his dad had it repaired at a shop where they fixed the oil leak on the main seal and valve covers. He then proceeded to drive that car for another 4.5 years until he traded it in on a new Mustang when he graduated college.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't just accept this, if the dealership did this. I would want an extended warranty. Regardless, there is a reasonable chance the motor is unharmed.

2) Over the next 5-40,000 miles the motor will begin display signs of premature wear. The real problem with this scenario is that you could be out of warranty and out of luck w/ just a letter in your pocket by the time you realize you have a problem.

3) The engine will experience a castrophic failure within the next 5,000 miles. Certainly this is possible. Based on the description of events given by the OP I think its unlikely.

David

 

[1000MPH]

How about just asking for a new engine? Toyota could then tear down yours and rebuild it and sell as used.

They can't handle an oil change. You really want those monkeys doing an engine swap? Besides, mismatched S/N's could kill your resale value.

 

[Qjake]

I've never seen or heard of a motor that's partially seized nor have I seen a seized motor suddenly run fine after just adding oil

My next car is definitely gonna be one of them there magic Monza's :boink:

 

[Canazes9]

I've never seen or heard of a motor that's partially seized nor have I seen a seized motor suddenly run fine after just adding oil

My next car is definitely gonna be one of them there magic Monza's :boink:

I certainly don't have a solid explanation - our guesstimate was that about the instant the engine was gonna grenade itself the little nylon gear in the timing set would strip. Acting as a sort of low oil shear pin (if anybody remembers when outboard motors had shear pins...).

Immediately after this happened he could hit the starter and the motor would barely turn. It wasn't seized, but it wasn't turning freely either. Who knows for sure? He replaced the gear, re-assembled, filled with oil and crossed his fingers when he hit the starter. After the first couple of times he just got to where he expected it would fire off again - it always did...

David

 

[BlackWorksInc]

I've never seen or heard of a motor that's partially seized nor have I seen a seized motor suddenly run fine after just adding oil

My next car is definitely gonna be one of them there magic Monza's :boink:

Remember "Cash for Clunkers?" I was one of the lucky guys that got paid to just wreck the **** out of cars! We were given only a gallon of "liquid glass" to glass the engines with and some of those Mercedes Benz and BMWs engines just wouldn't glass with one gallon so I ran those suckers until you could hear the engine just come to a catastrophic end...

Man... that was a fun Summer... round 2 Obama?