Need advice. Wal Mart double gasketed the oil filter and the car lost it's oil on the road!

Remember folks (no disrespect to the OP), this is all 3rd-hand information (1 - owner, 2 - OP's wife, 3 - OP). Who knows how accurate it is as it's told from one person to another....

Let them correct the oil change and run the car. It even sounds like the car is running as the WM folks are sending her on her way with the promise to "flush" it out in a short time to help with any issues.

I had a '99 Accord (same generation, probably the same 4-cylinder engine) that blew a camshaft seal (I think, it was on the top end, side of engine) and dumped A LOT of oil before the oil light came on. The mechanic that fixed it said he had to add almost 4 quarts of oil. It holds 4.5 quarts.... It ran fine for a number of years and tens of thousands of miles after this !
 
Documentation along with the name/s of the person and people who owned up to the mistake. The engine can live a long life or die in short order. Either way I would want to be compensated for the mistake, running an engine w/o oil even for a short period of time is bad, Honda [lol] or not. A lawyer may or may not be needed.
 
Sounds to me like the Tech doing the oil & filter change didn't remove the old filter gasket nor checked if it came off with the oil filter.
Checking for the old oil filter gasket is one of the first things you learn about when changing oil & filter along with tightening the oil pan bolt.
First two questions on the oil change guy hiring quiz should be: 1) What's an oil filter "double gasket"? 2) How do you prevent a double gasket from happening when changing an oil filter?
 
First two questions on the oil change guy hiring quiz should be: 1) What's an oil filter "double gasket"? 2) How do you prevent a double gasket from happening when changing an oil filter?
Sorry, that just doesn't happen at a WM. I've got two stories about a WM TLE store that I'm going to mention here. One of them is hearsay, the other actually happened to me. First story: Was shopping at a WM one afternoon and I heard two ladies in the checkout lane talking. One lady says to the other that her brother just got hired into the WM TLE section and had no automotive experience background whatsoever. Okay, perhaps she was making that up. Perhaps this guy was just a guy who drives the cars in and out, I don't know and I'll leave it at that.
The next story actually did happen to me. It was a Sunday afternoon and I needed a 13" car tire immediately. Around here the WM TLE store is the only place open on a Sunday afternoon, so that's who I called. Checking the needed tire and the other three tires on the car to make sure it was the exact size I needed, the voice from the WM TLE store said they had one to sell and if I came right in, they would fix me up. I had already taken the tire off the car, dismounted the old tire from the rim and all they had to do was install it and balance it. It was a carry-out. This was a 13" tire, remember. As I sat in the TLE waiting area watching their tire tech, I noticed he was having somewhat of a hard time. (BTW, all of their employed TLE techs had their photos hanging up in the TLE customer waiting area. I noticed he had been there 8 years) He fought with a tire to get it on and then went back to inventory to get another tire. That one didn't work either. After about 15 minutes he comes in to me and says my rim won't take a 13" tire and it's too small for a 14" tire also. He takes me back there (surprised their insurance would allow that ;)) and showed me that the 14" tire was too big for the rim. But then he says the 13" tire won't fit either. Now I knew I had given him the right size of 13" tire. I had checked the bad tire and made sure it matched the other three for size. Also, right out of tech school, I had done some tire work in a repair shop and also had installed tires as a tech in a Ford dealership. So before he could say or do anything, I grabbed the tire, soaped up the bead, put it in place on the rim and installed it before he could say anything more. Somehow, after working there eight years, he didn't have the knowledge to drop the bead down into the narrower part of the rim so that the rest of the bead would fit over the lip of the rim. You should have seen the look on his face as I got the second bead in place and the tire was now ready to inflate and seat the beads.
Most of you won't believe it and I can't understand why a 13" tire would be any different than any other size of tire that's he's installed over an eight year period.
 
First two questions on the oil change guy hiring quiz should be: 1) What's an oil filter "double gasket"? 2) How do you prevent a double gasket from happening when changing an oil filter?
Answers:
#1 A double gasket is a type of gasket found on the more expensive filters. A single gasket is a cheaper filter.
#2 Use the better filter.
 
Seems like Wal Mart should at least pay for her to have a rebuilt engine.
Once a 'claim' is filed (assuming one was), the remedy is pretty much removed from the local WM management and is taken over by WM's insurance company. The problem here is the age of the car...20+ years. Their insurance would probably just offer Bluebook value if it is less than what a replacement engine install would cost.
 
Walmarts around here have done oil changes and other (minor) repairs for as long as they've been here. At one time, they promoted "get your oil change done while you shop". Today, it seems like they're only doing oil changes, tire work, and battery installation.
 
I guess my father taught me well. He wipes off the filter mount surface before installing the new filter. Maybe this should be a mainstream SOP. Lord knows I've made messy mistakes, but I'll never make this one.
 
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