Car Care Clinic

Review: I took my car to get an oil change there and they put the wrong oil filter on and all the oil leaked out. I drove the car along ways and started having alot of problems with it running. evenutally I checked the oil and there wasn't any. The Car Care Clinic came and put more oil in it and took it to their garage and replaced the oil filter. Since that time, my engine in the car has been sounding really bad on start up. The Car Care Clinic took my car for over a week and even sent it to a dealership to have them diagnose the problem. The dealership said I needed a new timing chain and other miner repairs to the engine. The Car Care clinic said that the oil problem didn't cause the my current engine problems and they weren't going to fix it. The owner also told me that my specific car had a service bulletin out for it from the dealerships that this could become a problem. It was never a problem until all the oil leaked out from their incompetant service. How can an engine with no oil in it have no damage done to it? When he came to put oil in it after I realized I didn't have any in it. The engine took over 3 Quarts of oil for it to even show on the dip stick. Also when I left my car there for over a week, I had written down the mileage and when I picked up my car I had over 1747 new miles on my car. I asked the owner [redacted] about this and he said it was impossible and that I was wrong. So my car's engine was never repaired and I was not compensated for any of the extra miles on my car and lost work time dealing with this issue. I was treated very poorly and I know alot about cars and engines. I spent 22 years in the military as a mechanic on F-16 fighter jets and now how engines operate and the importance of oil in an engine. I can't imagine how a less experienced automotive patron would have been treated. It was the worst service I have ever experienced!Desired Settlement: The Car Care Clinic pay for the suggested repair from the Toyota dealership and the work is done by the Toyota dealership. Compensate me for all the extra miles on my car.

Business

Response:

Dear Sir or Madam,

On 11/22/2013. I received a phone call from Mr. [redacted] that his car was making loud noises and that there was no oil on the dipstick of the engine. I went to where he had called from and put 2.5 quarts of synthetic 5/30 in the engine and it registered in the safe zone. The capacity of this car is 4.7 quarts. That would leave 2.2 quarts of oil in the engine. I asked if the oil light had been on and was told by him that it had not. I had him start the car. It was quiet and sounded normal. He drove the car to the shop where we found the o ring for the filter leaking. We replaced the o ring and filter and made sure the oil was full. I assured him that there had not been any damage to his engine from the loss of oil. He informed me that as long as the car lasted six months that would be enough as he planned to trade it off. He stated his girlfriend works at Schoep Motors and he gets a good deal on cars there.

On 12/04/2013. Mr. [redacted] called and stated that his car was making horrible noises and lacked power when starting in the morning. I asked him to bring it in and leave it overnight so I could hear the noise. He was provided a loaner car. The next morning my head mechanic and I listened to the vehicle. Neither of us heard any unusual noises upon start up. Mr. [redacted] picked up the car after his work shift.

On 1/02/2014 I received a call from Mr. [redacted] once again claiming that his car is making horrible noises and he did not feel safe driving it. I told him to bring it in and we would supply him with a loaner car as it might need to be here for a while as the outside temp of -13F had everyone going crazy. He stated that he wanted me to pay for a loaner car from Smart motors. I told him that I would provide one of ours and if he wanted a rental I would split the cost with him. He said that he couldn't afford it. He informed me that our loaner cars are beaters and that he did not feel comfortable driving them and if I wouldn't pay for the rental he would drive his car until it had to be towed in. I checked on the price of rentals and ordered one for him at our expense. He dropped off the car in the afternoon on the second of January. The car sat in our parking lot until Monday January 6th. On Monday I went out with my head mechanic and started the car. After sitting three days it should have been particularly noisy. There was no unusual noise upon start up. We drove the car around the block, did not in any way act abnormal. I asked my head technician to drive the car home that night and see if it did anything abnormal. He brought the car in Tuesday morning saying it did not make any unusual noises. We started the car the mornings of the next two days. No unusual noises were experienced. I felt I needed an outside opinion on the vehicle so I made an appointment at Smart Motors for Friday morning to evaluate the car. On Thursday the 9th I delivered the car to Smart Motors, it was there until Saturday the 11th at 7:30am when I picked it up. The gas level was at 1/4 tank, I had my employee fill the car so he wouldn't complain of us using his gas.

The dealer concurred that there was no damage to the engine and that there was a technical service bulletin #[redacted] titled Cold start engine knock rattle that pertained to the noise the engine is making. The weather got colder in between the low oil incident and when Mr. [redacted] began noticing the noise in his engine, he therefore appears to believe we are liable for a manufacturer defect.

On Monday January 13th I notified Mr. [redacted] that his car was ready for pickup.

On Tuesday January 14th I received a call from Mr. [redacted] stating is this all I was going to do? I informed him that I was not responsible for a problem created by the manufacturer. It was at that time he notified me that he will be ending his association with us and he will be posting negative reviews for us on his work website. He also questioned how his car had accumulated 1700 miles on it. I would find this laughable if it wasn't so sad. The shop is equipped with video surveillance. The only time the car is not on camera is when we were driving it around the block or it was at Smart motors. We did not put 1700 miles on the car.

The car has been checked by three ASE certified technicians. All have said the car is fine and did not receive any damage from the low oil incident.

There was a time when I would have considered performing the TSB at our shop at our cost, I will not pay for Smart motors to perform the TSB to his car. Mr. [redacted] attitude and crazy accusations have left me wanting nothing to do with him. I would be happy to meet him in court if he so desires.

I would be happy to provide any documentation or video mentioned in this letter upon request.

Sincerely [redacted]