Oil Pan replacement I want your opinions

[groomerz]

2003 chrysler voyager with 2.4 L four banger 50,000 miles

My GF taook her van to get oil change at herusual local repair facility. They told her needed new oil pan because pan was stripped. She told mgr that they always did the oil changes they must have stripped it. She has receipts and manager looked up her records and confirmed they did all the changes .He told her it is common with aluminum drain pans. The refused to repair pan or release vehicle cost her 300 to replace pan.

After the fact she tells me. I think she should write her credit card to reverse charges because they damaged the pan and should be responsible because.

1. No crush ring ever replaced during oil changes. Not listed in parts on any of the oil change they performed. improper procedure?

2 They did the previous oil changes documented

3. I looked at new pan on internet and appears to be stamped steel ,not aluminum, [censored]? Can someone confirm?

What should she do.

 

[demarpaint]

Dispute the CC charge and see what happens. After that the only other thing is small claims court. Good luck!

 

[Silver_civic]

The shop is wrong. That oil pan is indeed steel. Not aluminum at all.


just my 2 cents

adam

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

What should she do.


Find a guy that does the OC for her. j/k

There is a non destructive repair kit that uses a threaded rod and rubber bladder to cover the oil fill hole; I will try to dig up the link where I posted it before; many will consider this a hack repair, I had one on my 305 SBC for 10's of thousands of miles with no issues. Sure beat the $$ of a pan replacement.

I would not go back to those OC guys if that needs to be said.

 

[Jakegday]

i unfortunately have a decent amount of experience disputing CC charges. since they did perform the service, and they have rock solid proof of it, by her personally signing the slip, this will get her nowhere. small claims court is where she should be headed.

 

[simple_gifts]

http://www.sherco-auto.com/drainlpluggasket.htm

Top left; not sure if you are asking for help from a legal or mechanical perspective.

 

[aquariuscsm]

That`s soooooooooooo sorry and f`d up of them to do that to her. They took total advantage of her. If it were my girl someone would be going to the hospital and I`d probably end up in jail.

 

[Chris142]

Can't you put in an oversize plug? There are several oversizes available depending on how large the stripped hole is.

 

[demarpaint]

Unless I read it wrong, the work was done. Lots of things could have been done other than replacing the pan. Other than CC dispute or legal action there is nothing left. Unless the pan wasn't replaced, if that's the case there are a few repair options as already mentioned.

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Quote: The refused to repair pan or release vehicle cost her 300 to replace pan.
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I'm thinking the job was done?

 

[doitmyself]

My '04/'05 Caravan 2.5L has an aluminum oil pan with very substantial (deep/long threaded length) threads.

Mine has no crush washer. The plug has "built in" rubber washer that I have never replaced.

Get everything in writing.

Quote:
He told her it is common with aluminum drain pans.


I don't think so. Just his way to weasel out of responsibility.

Quote:
They refused to repair pan or release vehicle


Four banger held hostage! I don't think I would trust them anymore, even if they did offer to repair it.

But, what to do? Do you have any other shops you trust for advice/



EDIT: Confused here. Did she o.k. and allow them to replace the pan? If so, you are entitled to the old part back by law. Ask for it. It will at least get them worried that you are taking this somewhere, and maybe provide evidence they are hiding something.

 

[doitmyself]

I went to this site and a new pan and gasket is about $130. http://www.wholesalemopar.com/parts_catalog.html?gclid=CKGy17mAzaoCFRDGKgodAiRn2A

I compared '03 to '05, and it is the same part(aluminum???).

Seems like a good shop, trying to keep your business, might opt to offer a compromise. Charge you whole sale cost for the parts and not charge labor. Probably dreaming on this one.

 

[Donald]

I think a lot of quick oil change places really tighten the drain plug too much. I once bent a wrench hitting it with a hammer trying to loosen one drain plug and broke an impact socket on another. The first and only impact socket I ever broke (OK it was a HF).

The kids that work there don't shave yet and are wanna be mechanics. In NY I do not believe the oil change places need to be licensed for mechanical repair.

On the flip side mechanics got to start somewhere and even the best mechanics probably did some dumb things early on.

Thus I change my own oil. It costs me just under $40 for 6 QT of PP and a Amsoil Ea filter. I go to 7500.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: Jakegday
i unfortunately have a decent amount of experience disputing CC charges. since they did perform the service, and they have rock solid proof of it, by her personally signing the slip, this will get her nowhere. small claims court is where she should be headed.



This. You can only reverse the charge if the item didn't arrive or wasn't as promised. They changed the oil, just poorly.

 

[Eddie]

See if you can get an oversize plug from AP and see if it will do the screw in firmly. I am stuborn in a case like this and would have the vehicle towed to a private shop before paying the jerks. After you get it fixed, write a letter to the the company and include COPIES of the oil receipts. Write that this place has performed ALL the oil changes and you want your money back for the repairs.

 

[glum]

May or may not be worth a trip to small claims court. If they are sane they would back down and do the repair free of charge before heading there. Then again some people are idiots.

I don't think I'd want those idiots touching my car at all. If it were me, I'd pay someone with a bit of gray matter to re-tap the threads of the existing oil pan to the next largest size, and install a Fumoto Quick Valve.

And I remember people here mocking the idea of using a torque wrench on oil drain plugs... Gee whiz, you think there might be something to it?

 

[The_Jeff]

Go ahead and dispute the CC. The only thing is you have to make a good faith effort to fix things with the manager first. Threatening the chargeback shows you're serious, as one of these would put him under the ire of HIS manager.

Tell the CC company you were defrauded. You were when they said the stripped pan was "your fault" or a "wear item". Let the process sort itself out. You can always later say there was a misunderstanding.

CC chargebacks, and court cases for that matter, aren't black and white, cut and dry.

I've challenged about three things with my CC company and gotten my money back every time. (Not sure if they docked the seller or just gave me the $ for customer service reasons.) One was for a package that USPS scanned as delivered-- delivered in a snowbank somewhere else! Despite evidence to the contrary I won...

 

[Spector]

something to be said for a Fumoto valve.

 

[PandaBear]

Depends on the CC company it may or may not do squat for you. American Express will comes in handy here but if you are not a big fish the CC company will likely not do much in this case (since service is performed).

If it is a franchise (Jiffy Lube, Midas, etc) I would escalate it to the HQ because that's what they suppose to take care of. I personally know Goodyear doesn't do squat but I think Big O and a few other chains would. It is still worth trying especially if they lie and said that it was an Aluminum pan. Most likely they will back off and ask if you want to split or only charge you labor or parts, and you should think about whether it is worth taking that or not.

If they refuse to budge and they are a "family owned small business", by all means the only way to do it is to go through small claim court. You'll have to make sure you bring in enough evidence: proof that it was a steel pan design, and they have done all the oil change, and oil change is the only way you can strip the pan, they refuse to release the vehicle if you do not fix it (a big one that will get the sympathy of the judge). You can't assume the judge will know everything because you are responsible for constructing a convincing argument, and if you don't have written document or technical article to proof, you have to probably bring in a professional witness (another mechanics, etc). It could be time consuming and may or may not worth $300. In the end the shop may feel annoyed enough that they just settle with you rather than spend time in court (think about how much are you willing to settle for, i.e. split or paying only part or labor).

I didn't prepare my case correctly but the party I sue did, so I lost, so please learn from my mistake.