Reply With QuoteThat's a hell of a manufacturer's defect. My only guess is ignition timing, cylinder may have ignited early, bringing the combustion past the intake valve and into the fuel/air intake?
So this happened to my co-workers car last week during a routine oil change. Skip the first 20 seconds or so to get right to the juicy part.
Aside from being hilarious, I'm wondering if any of our more mechanically inclined QT3'ers can suggest what might have happened here? The engine is completely shot now and my co-worker is understandably upset about taking his car in for an oil change and having it destroyed. The oil change place is claiming complete innocence and no responsibility. Their story is that the age of the motor (2001 impala) in conjunction with a known defect in GM 3.8L V6's of that year caused it spontaneously fail despite them doing everything right in terms of the oil change.
That's a hell of a manufacturer's defect. My only guess is ignition timing, cylinder may have ignited early, bringing the combustion past the intake valve and into the fuel/air intake?
IANAM, but as an anecdote I don't go to oil change places anymore. A few years ago they put the wrong size filter on my Mazda3. It was 99.99% the correct size, but slightly too small (or was it that the o-ring was too big)? Whatever, it was wrong, and my oil slowly leaked out over six weeks. There was like half a quart left when the oil pressure light came on.
I'm willing to pay the dealer the extra $5-10 each time, now.
Yeah, I stopped going to Oil Change places like Jiffy Lube after they did a coolant flush on my '96 Blazer a few years ago and then didn't clamp the tube that goes from the radiator to the engine, so it fell off while I was driving home on the freeway, causing my car to severely overheat. That was lovely. Now I go to a local mechanic I trust, and it's been nothing but lovely.
Sorry about your friend's car. :(
WOW! Looks like a piston went through the head. The thing that gets me though is the fire after. It looks like oil is burning. My guess is after the oil change (if they put oil back in) the sump didn't get oil up to the valve system fast enough. The valve system got extremely hot extremely fast (hence the oil fire after) and a valve seized open and the piston smashed it back though the head like a hand grenade.
I asked my co-worker about the context and according to the guys in the shop the oil change was just finished. In the beginning of the video you can see a guy putting the oil cap back on. Then they start the car, presumably to circulate the oil.
So are you Tom, or are you Ray? :POriginally Posted by GreasyPig
Jesus. My 1990 Honda Civic DX hatchback is still going strong after almost 210,000 miles. I've only ever had it serviced by dealers, which many think is a dumb waste of money, but at this point I consider the results to speak for themselves -- it's obviously gotten high-quality maintenance, and I'm saving a mint from not having had to get a new car in my entire adult life!
The thing probably will keep going until at least 250K, which is great because what I really want is the 2.0 or 2.5 version of the plug-in Prius, which ships 1.0 this year. So if I can keep it going to 2015 (25-year-old car!!!), this would be great.
I will definitely never ever buy a GM car after seeing what happened to your friend. I hope they can get some insurance money or something out of the oil change place.
Ninjedit: I did a random curiosity surf and found this:
Did your friend get this recall service?
Neither, he's not uncontrollably laughing all the time. ;)
He says he did not.
Yeah that's a benefit from going to the dealer once in a while. If you don't keep up with recall notices (who does?), you won't know about them without going to the dealer.
That condition in the recall notice in no way caused that motor to grenade like it did.
You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or you can call me Johnny or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me RayJay, or you can call me RJ… but ya doesn’t hafta call me Johnson.
This is clearly caused by the flourish the guy does at 0:11.
As much as it pains me to say it, your friend may want to retain the services of an attorney. The fact that this happened in the shop during the completion of the oil change pretty much puts fault squarely on the oil change place, and an attorney will advise you to have an independant mechanic examine what's left of the engine and provide an expert opinion on what happened to it. If the mechanic can provide claim that the oil change shop was at fault, it's likely they will settle with your friend without ever going to court. Hell, simply the threat of legal action on a letter from a real attorney would probably net your friend the blue book value of the car without ever going further, as it's not worth the expense for the oil change shop to fight the claim.
Even his insurance company may go after the garage, and it would free compared to an attorney. The garage should have insurance to cover this type of accident so his insurance should be able to talk to their insurance and resolve the problem.
If not, then he sues.
Why would the insurance company be involved at all?
Just curious. I've never heard of an insurance claim being made against mechanical failure. Perhaps other states/countries are different.
That said....Most surely follow Slainte Mhath's advice and work on the legal end. Shops have insurance for exactly this kind of thing. They won't use it unless forced.
I went through a very similar situation and since I had another mechanic's opinion of the fault (which personally I felt was dubious and a much weaker case than the one here) the shop replaced the engine and provided me with a rental during the repairs.
I can't think of anything done during an oil change, even incorrectly, that could cause an explosion like that, though. Unless he had other work done, an oil change literally just involves draining and refilling the oil and changing a filter. It definitely looks like a pre-existing defect and sounds pretty close to the description in that recall notice RepoMan posted.
Oil dripping on the exhaust manifold doesn’t cause a motor explode. Look at video. The explosion doesn’t happen on the manifold.
I wish the vid had sound. I bet the tech rev’ed the motor after starting. An oil starved valve train will get hot fast. Like I described above. No oil, valve gets hot, valve seizes, piston smashes valve through head.
I mean I can’t possibly know for sure but that’s my guess. How many times have you seen a grease monkey rev the your motor after an oil change. Happens all the fucking time and not once do they look at the dummy light or oil pressure indicator.
Have your friend talk to a real mechanic. See what’s up before dumping a lot of money on a lawyer. Also, it doesn’t hurt to talk to your insurance guy/girl. Worse case is they won’t get involved but they may give you good advice on how to proceed. They see this shit all the time and they have an interest in keeping your business (which by the way went by-by with an oil change).
I've never heard of revving the engine after an oil change. It's very unnecessary, the oil should get pumped almost immediately to the valve train. Perhaps there's a defect on that engine with an air bubble in the oil delivery pipe for the valve train (if there is one).
Pogo,
Your absolutely correct. You don't need to rev the motor but too many idiots still do. The air bubble in the oil system is exactly the kind of thing I'm describing.
Look, you got to remember you also replaced the oil filter. It does take some time to get the system primed again.
Let me also say, I am not exactly blaming the techs. Though I want too because I am rarely happy with their product. I have personally witnessed way too much stupid shit to ever trust them with any of my vehicles. Shit does happen and it may not be their fault. But the facts are the vehicle ran prior the service and violently exploded under their watch.
I'll quote Al Swearengen: "I have got to be satisfied. See, I’m the simple type cocksucker, that when he sees lightning, readies for thunder. And takes the thunder if it comes as part of the same fuckin’ storm."
My car has had over a dozen members of the owner club report the engine literally chewing itself to bits after an oil change where the suspected culprit was not priming the oil filter. I now prime the oil filter every time :)
http://forums.xpowerforums.com/showp...46&postcount=1
This is true, I always prime my filters manually after I started doing it for my bike. My bike is an old school oil sump and you don't want the filter unprimed. Hadn't occurred to me that it would be a problem on vehicles, I just started doing it out of habit.
Yeah that's a lawsuit. Judge Judy needs cases. Just saying.
Holy cats, you're absolutely right. Dude was throwing cantrips right over the engine. That can't be safe. No wonder it caught fire!
-Tom
GreasyPig's comments are exactly why, if it was my car, I'd be getting an attorney involved. At the very least start with the insurance company and see if they want to step in, since they hold as much if not more weight than a private attorney when it would come to dealing with the oil change shop. Even if there was a recall notice out for a defect that actually did cause this, if the recall work hadn't been done the car manufacturer might still be liable. Just because recall gets issued doesn't mean a manufacturer is absolved from responsibility for anyone who doesn't receive a recall notice or have the work done right away. Again, in this case the insurance company and/or an attorney would be the route to go.
I'm assuming the engine is destroyed. In that case, the owner is looking at thousands of dollars in replacement/repair costs if not simply totaling the car outright. That's a lot of financial hardship for an owner to shoulder without at least putting up some kind of fight. It's not the owner's fault the oil change place didn't prime the oil system before starting the car, and as GreasyPig points out, the vehicle ran fine prior to service then exploded while under the care of the "professionals".
About all you can do is shut 'er down.
I've figured it out. See how the headlights go out just before the explosion? The technician must have push the dash control too far down, thus activating the self destruct. Really poor design on Chevy's part, imo.
Never have I seen something go so badly wrong.
It's interesting how the cars lights go off just as the fire starts and then come back on when the fire goes out. Electrical problem?
Your auto insurance covers more than just collisions. If you are driving down the road and your engine catches fire your insurance would cover the costs.
In another case a auto dealership here recently had a fire in their maintenance department and several private vehicles were destroyed. The dealerships insurance will pay for replacements.
Neither of these cases would require you to hire an attorney.
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