Excuse me for butting in, but I have to add a comment of value. I have an 1988 Dodge Grand Caravan that currently has over 420,000 miles on the engine. It was making a knocking noise starting in the 1990's, and I assumed it was not long for this world, so as an experiment to show my students what some engines are capable of, I stopped doing oil changes. It used about a quart to every 1,000 miles, but I often ignored it until there was slightly more than two quarts in it. That is the point at which it no longer shows on the dip stick. There is enough additives in one quart of oil to keep an engine happy, so I was getting plenty of additives to prevent foaming and sludge buildup. Beyond that, the drain plug was not removed and the filter was not changed on well over fourteen years. Its demise was a rubbed-through rear heater hose that resulted in overheating. Dragging around a tandem axle enclosed trailer that was bigger than the van didn't help. Finally blew a head gasket, but it still runs.
Now, you are expecting me to believe your engine seized only two weeks after a scheduled oil change? Engines really are not that smart. A lot of people go strictly by mileage. I have a 1993 Dodge Dynasty, (twenty three years old), that is getting suspiciously close to its second oil change in its life. That one gets its oil changed every 2,500 miles. It's at 4,950 right now.
Between time and mileage, no engine needs the oil changed on such a strict schedule. If that were true, almost every engine on the road would have seized by now. Some people wait until 5,000 miles. Some have it changed every three months regardless of mileage. Ford even used to recommend "every 7,500 miles for normal driving". They pulled that stunt to make their cost of maintenance appear to be lower than that of their competitors. Once you bought the car and read the owner's manual, you found out it was impossible to adhere to the "normal" driving schedule. If you drove in the rain, in the heat of summer, short trips, long trips, winter, etc, it fell under the "severe" schedule that included 3,000 mile oil changes. They have other tricks to get people to buy their cars, but you don't figure them out until after you've owned it a while.
The only thing I can see that might be a contributing factor is if there was a known oil leak and you wanted the oil changed to make it full again. As a driver, I would assume it is full, but it also falls on the driver to check the level at every gas fill up. The "two weeks" is a non-issue. There has to be more to the story that you have not shared or that you're not aware of. Your engine did not seize simply from the oil change being a little late. If the engine cannot tolerate that, you would better look into a different brand of car. It is much more common to read about complaints of engines seizing two weeks after an oil change, and the owners try to blame that on the mechanic. This is the first time I have heard of blaming the shop for not doing a service. Please tell me there is more details that are relevant to the problem.
Sunday, June 26th, 2016 AT 10:55 PM
