Would like some advice- Walmart did my oil change and left the drain plug loose?

Question

I would like some advice guys. I took my car to walmart & they said my oil was low and asked me to sign a statement saying they were'nt responsible for any damage done to the vehicle previously because of the low oil level. I told the guy that i'd just wait if the oil was low and take it to a mechanic to see what the problem is. "no point in getting an oil change if its just going to leak out" i said. He said, "Oh no its just 2 small leaks so it should be fine". He literally talked me back into the oil change and i signed the waiver.
Went straight home and the car sat for a couple days cause i dont drive a lot. 4 days later i found a bad oil leak and drove straight home cause i didn't want to blow the engine. Next moring I took it in to another shop who showed me that walmart had left the plug lose allowing the oil to spill out. The shop refilled the oil and as soon as i started my car i knew my car wasn't right. Now walmarts wont do anything saying they're not responsible.

They made me pay to have a shop drop the oil pan so their adjuster could take a look at it. Before taking my car to walmart my engine was quiet and fine and never made any noise. Their adjuster says that because the bearings are blue then it shows that they're not at fault. If the bearings had been blue then that would have meant the engine had been damaged from sudden loss of oil. But i dont think the oil went out completely all at once. Either way they say they wont pay for a thing. The car makes that lifter type tapping noise now when i start it and it sounds like a diesel engine. If i want to find out what the damage is i would have to pay to have the engine torn apart and i dont have that kind of money.
So if i take them to small claims court what can i do when it comes to explaining that i dont know what the exact problem is because i cant afford to have the engine torn apart? By the way a friend of a neighbors had the same problem with the same place in same month.

I do have an oil guage and the light didn't come on. I had checked the oil a week before and it was fine. I have checked the oil every week since then to see if it has gone down any and it hasn't. I really dont think there was any oil leak at all to begin with. My car is a 1996 and if i had been after someone to pay for my engine i would have continued to drive it until the engine was blown which i cant do. Because someone doesn't have hundreds of dollars to pull their engine apart doesn't mean that they're trying to scheme someone. Think on it for a second before you post and please stop hating on me thanks. If i was trying to scheme by the way i sure as heck wouldn't be here asking for advice.

The problem with the lawyer is again i dont have the money and also because my car is only worth $2500 at most it would be a small claims matter of which lawyers (at least here that i've found) dont want any part of it because they cant possibly profit from it.

I used to do my own oil changes also but i'm disabled now and have no choice. These smaller lower sitting cars are very hard to get up under even with a jack. I'm the only female i know that can do an oil change.

Answer 1

call a lawyer, DON'T GET YOUR CAR FIXED AT WAL-MART, c'mon !

Answer 2

to me it sounds like your own neglagence. You obviously have an engine problem. But a loose drain plug didnt cause that. Your car leaks oil you agree to that. So you should not have let them change it like you did and also even if they lef the plug loose doesnt your car have some sort of oil gage that warns you when you are a quart low or so. What type and year of car do you have. Most cars when about a quart to quart and a half low will have a warning light come on to let you know the oil is low. most people would stop the engine and check it. Then you say you had noticed a bad leak and "DROVE" it straight home. That is the dumbest thing one could do. If you notice a pile of oil under your car you should not even start it until you check the oil level. I hope you learned something from this thing. One would be to pay more attention to your oil level. Engine oil is not something that you get change and then forget about it until the next change. It should be checked often so if you do start haveing a problem you correct it right away. I hope wal mart doesnt give you anything because you screwed up not them. I think you are making up the whole loose plug thing anyway. You keep saying how you have no money to fix this. All that tells me is that you are looking for someone else to pay for your problems.

Answer 3

Signing a disclaimer does not mean that you cannot collect in cases of gross negligence. If the shop that discovered the loose plug will write a letter stating what they found, you might have a chance with a lawyer's help. I believe that it would be hard to prove just who loosened the plug. The opposing lawyer could say that you did it! My best advice is never throw good money after bad. It will probably cost you much more than a replacement engine to collect any money from Wal-Mart. Learn from this experience. Always check behind any work done for you and use the best auto service you can find.

Answer 4

Get a statement from the mechanic, get it notarized if possible, adn take the bastards to court. Heck maybe your own a couple shares of walmart when your done.

This happens more often than you think. MY uncle got an oil change from at walmart and neglected to put the oil plug in altogether and he seized the engine a couple miles from walmart. WAlmart had to pay for the tow bill, new engine and tranny because the repair people screwed it up. How sweet is that. By the way the truck was an abused farm truck. On its way out anyway.

Answer 5

I believe you need to see an attorney. Your signing the disclaimer might bite you in the butt, but I don't know, see an attorney right away or legal aid if you can't afford an attorney, if you in the US.
If your in Canada see attorney pronto and check to see if that mechanic at Walmart was licensed to do work & find out if there were any 310T certified mechanics on the premisis & obtain a written statement from repairing shop as to Walmarts mistake.

Answer 6

Threaten them with BBB report and small claims. Then do them if they haven't settled yet. You will win your case most times if they don't settle first.Other times the judge will split the fault. Only thing is your not fighting the store, your going up against the high priced lawyers they have just sitting around waiting for a challenge.

Answer 7

Is anything broken. See if theres no damages, and it doesnt sound like there are, except for the shoddy work at that one Wal Mart, there is no recourse. Next time a Mechanic asks you to sign a waiver that sounds like a Microsoft Agreement, run!

Answer 8

this is why i change my own oil. Its cheaper to do yourself and in 30 years i have never left the drain plug loose or put on the wrong filter. I just goes to show you that sometimes you can't train a chimp

Answer 9

YOU CAN TRY SMALL CLAIMS COURT OR JUDGE JUDY , YOU WILL NEED A REPORT SAYING THE LOOSE DRAIN PLUG CAUSED THE PROBLEM. THE WAVER DOES NOT LEG THEM OFF THE HOOK FOR A REALY STUPID MISTAKE.FROM NOW ON STICK TO GARRAGES THAT ONLY DO RELIABLE WORK , THE CHEAP WILL BITE YOU IN THE WALLET LATTER.

Answer 10

we have the same type of dodgy mechanics here in australia, they r the k-mart mechanics and the ultratune wannabe mechanics. they should not be allowed to hold a spanner.get some good legal advice and sue there **** to the wall.

Answer 11

They did that to someone in Illinois but payed half