near disaster with rental car (oil related)

[pbm]

I flew down to Raleigh-Durham last week on a 3 day trip to take care of some business. I rented a sub-compact since I was only going from the airport to the hotel and would be spending some time in the city (parking consideration).

I ended up with a Chevy Sonic with the 1.4 turbo (I almost asked for something different for the sake of variety since I have this engine in my Cruze but I decided to keep it to see if it felt different in the lighter car.

I drive about 7 miles from the airport when I smell burning and then see smoke coming from the engine compartment...I pull over asap (less than a mile) and shut it down. When I opened the hood I see oil everywhere and notice that it came from the oil filter housing.

Apparently they had just changed the oil and either didn't tighten the housing enough or forgot to put the o-ring in place...(I believe this since the oil was nearly colorless on a 20K vehicle and my oil darkens quickly) When I pulled out the dipstick it appeared to have some oil left (maybe a quart) and the 'oil light' never came on. I called the rental agency who came and picked me up and an hour later I was on my way in a Nissan...

Somebody will buy this vehicle down the road never knowing that it ran (for a short time) with only about a quart of oil in it's sump. Do you think there will be any long term problems?

PS: It never went into boost as I was only doing about 40 mph max. so I doubt the turbo suffered.

PS2: The Sonic is 'peppier' than the heavier Cruze.

 

[NHGUY]

Good thing it wasnt a "Spark" or it would have gone up in flames...

 

[blackman777]

One quart would still be enough to keep the engine lubricated.

But I wonder what the rental agency would do if the Customer was unaware, and kept driving the car until it seized? They'd probably try to stick the customer with the ~20,000 dollar bill of replacing the car, or 5000 bill to replace the engine.

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: blackman777
One quart would still be enough to keep the engine lubricated.

But I wonder what the rental agency would do if the Customer was unaware, and kept driving the car until it seized? They'd probably try to stick the customer with the ~20,000 dollar bill of replacing the car, or 5000 bill to replace the engine.


Highly doubtful unless they can prove negligence on drivers part but its very unlikely.

 

[bigjl]

I had a Jaguar UK owned loaner for a week. 12 months old. 18k miles on the clock.

Checking the oil is a pain. Run the car till warm. Let it sit for ten minutes then select the appropriate part of the menu.

It took 2 litres of my finest Shell 5w30 C1 and a litre of coolant.

I think somebody may have been spoken to later.

I did 500 miles in it after that and it used none. So it must have not been checked from virtually new.

Might have been the FF

 

[crazyoildude]

if there is any real damage it will be apparent in under 3000 miles

 

[morepwr]

The rental car company got lucky that a "car guy" was driving it!

 

[dernp]

That's exactly why I'd never buy a rental car.

 

[pbm]

I seriously doubt the engine will suffer any consequences since the oil light never came on (never lost oil pressure).
A big old American V8 would be less likely to have problems than a little 1.4T after losing oil but the one quart likely kept things in check for such a short ditance driven.

You're right about a 'car guy' driving it.

Maybe the rental company was using a full synthetic since it has a turbo but I doubt it. It would be lucky if they even used dexos1 oil.

Would a full syn have helped in this situation?

 

[The Critic]

This could have happened to anyone -- errors occur all the time during vehicle maintenance.

Originally Posted By: blackman777
One quart would still be enough to keep the engine lubricated.

But I wonder what the rental agency would do if the Customer was unaware, and kept driving the car until it seized? They'd probably try to stick the customer with the ~20,000 dollar bill of replacing the car, or 5000 bill to replace the engine.


You have quite an imagination. This explains the story about your recent threads.

 

[thrace]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
This could have happened to anyone -- errors occur all the time during vehicle maintenance.

Originally Posted By: blackman777
One quart would still be enough to keep the engine lubricated.

But I wonder what the rental agency would do if the Customer was unaware, and kept driving the car until it seized? They'd probably try to stick the customer with the ~20,000 dollar bill of replacing the car, or 5000 bill to replace the engine.


You have quite an imagination. This explains the story about your recent threads.

One rental company tried to make me pay for a car fire repair in 1990. They claimed I had a perfect car but returned it with the engine compartment burned. I countered that there was a recall and how dare they threaten me and my passengers by not doing the recall repair. I did not pay. Caught fire from a slow oil leak from the valve cover gasket. I knew there was a recall on this model for this issue but did not ask if the repair had been done. Sure enough, the engine caught fire. The car smoked a little while freeway driving for over an hour. Much smoke came from under the hood when coming to the end of the trip. I opened the hood, saw flames and fortunately, I found a bucket immediately and water to drown the flame. Did not have time to look for a proper fire extinguisher for oil fires. This all was before the passengers got out.

 

[artificialist]

I had a friend tell me a story where the renter was a fault for the price of an engine. One of his friends took a trip around Europe. At one point, they put gasoline in a diesel engine. By the time the engine was destroyed, his friends were already back in the USA, while the rental fleet was trying to make them pay the 5000 Euros for repair.