Thanks for responding Parts Man1. This is one of the things that the service manager said — they may have requisitioned 6 quarts but the tech would recognize the engine as a V6 and not add that. However, I doubt this was the case in every instance or, frankly, most. After having my oil seep pointed out to me at an inspection about a year and a half ago, I noticed the oil was high, checked my invoice and found the 6 quarts listed. When I was in a few weeks ago they insisted I pay extra for the sixth quart and sure enough, from checking the dipstick, it looked like they did.
They put in oil dye and told me I have a leak at the oil pan gasket. While there’s definitely a decent leak lower on the engine, I also see it higher up behind the water pump. There are other things that indicate they were being careless during the oil changes — not greasing the tie rod ends for example, not noticing a missing sway bar link. While I’d like to believe they didn’t regularly put enough oil for the v8 in my v6, this just doesn’t square with finding high oil on the dipstick, the presence of oil leaks, and the figures on the invoices. I’m also like, just ask the mechanic how much oil he added, but it feels like they’re worried about liability now so aren’t dealing with me honestly. When I went back to have some oil drained and the oil leak checked out I even had to argue with them not to pay $90 for a fresh oil change.
At this point, I’m hoping the damage is limited to damage to gaskets that are relatively straightforward to replace. I have a 2×4 so the oil pan is more accessible. They quoted me $430 to replace the oil pan gasket but I’m not sure that will fix all of the leaks.
Thoughts?
