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I posted back in February about damage done to my oil pan by a local oil change establishment. I'm about to enter litigation over this, and I need some expert opinions.

To summarize, I had an oil change done at a local place in September, then had the car serviced in February at my dealership. The dealership discovered a slow oil leak due to the internal threads being stripped, and an oversized aftermarket drainplug that "someone" inserted without first retapping the hole. Each establishment is blaming the other, but the fact remains that whoever stripped the hole and installed the oversized plug is liable for rendering my oil pan useless and the cost of the new one.

Right now the out that each of them are using is that regardless of who did this, due to the age of the pan I would have needed a new one anyway. "Oh boy, taking that plug in and out so many times over the life of your car really wears it out!" I'm not buying it, but I also don't have anything to substantiate my doubt.

I drive a 1999 Civic EX, odometer 132,000 at the time of the oilchange and 135,000 at the time we discovered the problem.

My question is, is the age of my car relevant to this discussion at all? What's the average life of a drip plug/threads in an oil pan?

And most importantly, if age is irrelevant, would anyone be able to point me to statistics stating average life of these parts, or be willing to send me an "expert" letter that I could take to small claims court?

I greatly appreciate input.

 
Rep Power: 812

unfortunately, you would never win this case in court. ofcourse the shop is at fault and the reason is they retorque the drain bolt before letting the engine cool down. its a part of the quick lube process and why i will never let anyone change my oil again. an oil change is not a 15 minute job. it takes hours to do it properly. if you do it with the car hot, you can start by draining the oil and changing the filter, but then youre stuck waiting for the pan to cool down so you can retorque the drain bolt properly. tightening a bolt into hot metal will tear it apart. and not to mention, many places do not even know that the drain bolt is only supposed to be tightened maybe 20-30 ft/lbs. most mechanics just tighten it as hard as they can so it doesnt leak and this also strips threads. their excuse of old age causing it will hold up in court, even tho in actuality if the oil change was done properly, the pan and bolt would last the life of the car. im at 100K now and still have the original pan with perfect threads and no leaks. ive seen cars with 500k miles and no problems. so good luck, but i am betting you will be doing the pan replacement yourself. im not an expert either, i just know alot about stuff like this. to me its common sense, but to these companies, they just care about getting you out as quickly as possible and taking your money. i personally think doing an oil change in under an hour (if you start with a hot engine thats been running) is impossible. the same thing happens when you install new spark plugs into a hot engine after driving. it will strip the cylinder head threads and then youre screwed.