Oil change fail

[TwentySix]

Crazy quick oil change horror story - wow!

Just another reason not to take your S4 to an instant oil change shop
I already blame myself enough and am aware what I did was stupid by not taking my car to a more trusted shop or doing the work myself but i'll share this post anyways and be ready for the flaming I was looking through Groupon and happened over a $49 deal to get a full synthetic oil change at the Valvoline Instant Oil Change place. [edit] Note, I usually do the oil changes myself but its been a little hectic lately. We are selling the house, things are packed up, yada, yada. So I figured, why not do an added 5K interval change at such a cheap price and i'm driving around anyways near there. I cant buy the parts that cheap and it's Valvoline so whats to lose right? ...and there is where my mistake lies and what turned into a 4 hour ordeal that involved police.I pulled up to the oil change place and stayed in the car. A couple minutes into the change I feel a jarring / ripping sensation through the floor of the car. I'm thinking, "Hmmm, I hope they know to slide the aero belly pan to the rear to let it drop down instead of pulling on it." ...I make a mental note.So now they are at the stage where the person up top starts to pour in the motor oil. He starts to poor it in and stops pretty quickly yelling to the guy below to make sure he drained it all out as it is overflowing. ... Mental note number two. Hmm.A few minutes go buy and I call the manager over and mention to him that I would appreciate it if he make sure all the 1/4 turn fasteners are put correctly back into place because they are very expensive to replace. He smiles and assures me he will make sure that happens.Now the oil is supposedly back in the car and we are about to close our transaction. I'm standing at the front of the car and i'm staring at a 1/4 turn fastener sitting on the ground under the front of my car. I'm waiting...waiting..waiting for someone to pick it up to put it in or to tell me "You're all set." ....and sure enough I hear..."You're all set; you are good to go." So I bend over and pick up the 1/4 turn fastener and ask to talk to the manager. The manager comes over and I point out to him that his person just left $20 worth of fastener of mine on the floor and I'd like to go into his pit to see what else is missing. He takes me down into the pit where I see this...I'm looking up at the car at first and I see the DSG drain plug right there and there is DSG fluid all over it and dripping. I'm thinking "Why can I see the DSG drain plug? Theres supposed to be an aero pan covering this?" and i'm also thinking..."Oh crap, they drained the DSG fluid." As I keep looking up my brain starts to register what it is seeing. Holy crap, this guy cut my car into pieces. My aero pan has a huge hole cut into it. I'm standing in the oil pit now with the tech and the manager and I ask the tech if he did this to my car and if he drained my DSG fluid. He says absolutely not. Well since I am under my car every week and I know no one else was under my car I'm finding that very hard to believe. So I took it upon myself to walk around their oil pit until I found two of these..Yeah, sitting in their trash can are two pieces of my aero pan he cut out. At this point i'm thinking that I need witnesses, and alot of them. I call my wife and I called the police so I could at least get a report.It looks like this is what happens...1. Employee cuts hole in transmission aero pan and drains DSG fluid.2. Tech tries to put in motor oil and it overflows all over the engine because no engine oil was ever removed.3. Tech and manager were going to let me drive on my way with no DSG fluid and massively overfilled engine oil in which case id likely be out an engine and transmission.I had the car flat bedded to Audi and will await the damage on MON. I'm worried they tried to cover up their mistake of draining the DSG fluid and put some no name brand automatic transmission fluid in the DSG in which case I dont even want to know how I can get Audi to test the fluid in there to see if it is non OEM. I have learned my lesson.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread...hange-shop

[ccm911]

I would have had a stroke if that happened to me!

[scott_nichol]

Wow. This is why I've increasingly become a DIY home mechanic. I just recently did my first oil change on my 08 Boxster S and it was so easy, I can't see taking it back to the Porsche specialist I had been using. He gets about $400 for an oil change after putting in 8 quarts of Joe Gibbs Racing Oil. It's good oil, but I can buy it myself for about $100.

My girlfriend's brother is a mechanic and seems to like working on the Boxster. I know I can trust him and he won't BS me, so anything major that needs to be done, I'll take it to his shop from here on out.

What ever happened in the end? Was the shop held responsible for the damage done?


scott

[TwentySix]

What ever happened in the end? Was the shop held responsible for the damage done?

Hi, it got so big it was on Jalopnik's Front Page http://jalopnik.com/lazy-idiots-at-lube-...1748394648 check out the pictures of the cut pan

I clipped these out of the thread showing the results:

Hello Michael,

Thank you for taking the time to contact Valvoline Customer Care and your patience in addressing this matter. The documentation for your claim has been successfully received. It has been attached to your claim (claim# 1-227256) and you will be issued a reimbursement check in the amount of $1,442.48. You will receive the check in the mail within 7-10 business days.

If I may be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate in contacting me.

Sincerely,

Melissa
Valvoline Customer Care

Thank you,
VIOC Customer Care


UPDATE 2:
On 12/18/2015 I received a phone call from the Valvoline regional manager. He stated he was aware a check had been issued but he wanted to follow up with me regardless just to make sure an apology had been appropriately expressed to me and wanted me to know that the employee had been terminated. He wanted me aware that Valvoline does not tolerate this kind of service. I expressed my appreciation for him reaching out.


As far as responses go from corporate, I am impressed with their response time and their response itself. It appears that as long as you do your diligence and make sure you document document document and make sure you observe observe observe as any errors are made, Valvoline is willing to step up and provide compensation for their errors. Reflecting on this, I suppose that can be a positive aspect of going to a quick lube that is backed by a more reputable company. You actually do have the opportunity to observe the oil change as it is happening. If I were at a shop and this was done back in a bay on a lift somewhere out of my sight, I may have never noticed the issue until my car stopped running days later. I know I dodged one this time.