I need proof that a car WILL start without oil but will not run too long before major engine damage.
Here is my situation, long, sorry - preparing for court on Wednesday of this week!
Timeline of events:
Wednesday 11/15/2006
•3:45 Picked up car from Sears Auto after oil change.
•Headed southbound on 1st Avenue, left onto Spokane, Right onto 4th Avenue.
•3:52 about 2 blocks south I hear a clunk and oil light flashes.
•3:55 Engine is still running and I go about 200 yards to the next driveway. I turn off the car.
•I open the hood and check the oil, There is no sign of any oil at all. The stick was dry.
•4:00: Car starts to smoke a little bit, maybe for 20 seconds
•4:05: I call Sears Auto and tell them that my car has no oil and that something happened to the engine.
•They tell me to call the tow truck, giving me the number. I did and it was on its way
•4:08: They call me back and tell me that the tow truck was cancelled because they do not pay for towing and that a tech will be out with some oil.
•4:30: My dad arrives
•4:45: Technician (Victor) arrives with 4 quarts of oil, nothing else, not even a flashlight. It was dark and pouring down rain.
•We sit in the rain for probably a half an hour with no answers while Victor is on the phone trying to get in touch with the manager, Chris.
•Victor tells me that they are calling a tow truck now and that the wait is now 2 hours, no truck was dispatched at this time.
•Victor wants to put 4 quarts of oil in the car, start it and see what happens.
•I tell him that I do not want any oil because I do not think that there was ever any there. He checks the oil himself and sees that there is no oil on the dipstick at all.
•We wait in my dad’s car while Victor makes phone calls in his car – still raining hard.
•He gets out of his car says that his manager is not available because she is in traffic and not at the shop. No one is at the shop to make any decisions on what to do.
•Victor says again that he wants to put oil in the car to see if it will start.
•I told him that he had to be willing to state that there was no oil in the car before any was added by him. He agreed.
•He put two quarts in and checked it – barley a reading. He puts the other two in and now it is full.
•The car would not start.
•Finally my dad and victor push it to a parking spot where we left it.
•We all went back to Sears auto center arriving around 5:40
•Victor leads us to the show room and there we sit.
•It was not until after 6 that we finally got to talk to Chris on her cell phone while she sat in traffic and she said that she had called a tow truck and they are on their way.
•My dad decided to go wait for the tow truck while I stay back at the auto center.
•The car arrives back at Sears Auto Center around 6:20
•It is pulled in and put up in the air on racks.
•Henry and some other guy take a look at it, they see that all parts are in order; the plug is there as is the filter. When they took the filter off my dad and the three techs noticed there was no oil on the filter commenting this is odd?
•The techs tell me that at this point they think that there is a head gasket blown and the new oil finally gave it the power to blow.
•Scott Gabelein (loss prevention p) takes some information from me and sends me a fax of the assessment.
•Chris, the manager never showed up. She told us over the phone that she would call us in the morning.
•We left the car up on racks, all oil that was put in by Victor had been drained and the oil filter was not on the car any longer.
Thursday November 16th, 2006
•6:45: I drop off the keys to Sears Auto Center as I accidentally brought them home.
•Around 9 AM: I get a call from Chris that she is waiting for the technician that worked on my car to get in. He was to be there at 8 but was not there yet.
•Around 11AM: I get a call from Chris and she tells me that they are having the car towed to Honda of Seattle to have the problem diagnosed, the tech who did the oil change was still not there.
•I agree and she tells me that she will call when she hears back from them.
•Around 3:45: I get a message to call Chris.
•I call and she tells me that she has not heard anything and that they (Honda) were busy.
•Around 5:30: I get a call from Chris and she says that Honda diagnosed the car and says that there was oil in the car and that the car threw a rod.
•I say okay and ask next steps. We agree that I will call Honda to get my car and if I had any questions to ask Julian. Chris gave me his direct number.
Friday November 17, 2006
•7:15: I call Julian, the service writer at Honda of Seattle – leave message stating that I wanted to hear the diagnosis from him.
•8:30: Julian calls me back but I was not available. Leaves me a message.
•9:45: I call Julian and we connect
•I told him who I was and that I wanted to hear his diagnosis as to what happened to my car. I asked him what Sears said when they called in to get my car towed in there.
•Julian had told me that Chris from Sears stated that the car would not start after the performed an oil change and that they could not diagnose a problem of this nature. Julian told me that he asked if it might be the starter and that Chris said she did not know and that is why they were towing it to them.
•I then provided Julian with the timeline of events. He was concerned because he was not told that there was at one point no oil in the car nor was he told that the car was driven off of the property.
•Because the car was delivered to Honda with 4 quarts of oil in the pan and the filter was put back on the car, Julian had no reason to believe that no oil was a possibility. Julian assumed the oil in the car when towed in from Sears was from the oil change.
•Julian told me that Chris stated that she had seen a puddle of oil at one point under the car. Chris was never around? When I told him that she was never present he grew even more concerned.
•Julian said that he needed his Tech to look at the car again after hearing what actually happened.
•10:45: Julian calls back and said that once the techs went back to the car to look for oil residue back by the tailpipe they saw nothing. The oil in question was only on the firewall.
•Julian basically told me that there was not ever 4 full quarts of oil in this car or there would be oil all the way back to the tailpipe.
•He said that the lack of oil caused the rod to throw.
•He tells me that he will call Chris to let her know his findings.
•I call him around 12:00 after I took pictures of the ground where the car sat, no oil residue. There was also no sign of a fresh oil leak on the road where this took place.
•He tells me that he has not gotten a hold of Chris and will call me when he does.
•I call around 3:45 and Julian says that he has had no luck getting in touch with Chris but will try on Saturday.
•15 minutes later Julian calls me back saying that he talked to Chris. And said that she was very rude. He said that when he asked her about the oil she saw she now denies it and said that it was the tech all along.
•He said that she told him that she had some number of technicians that can prove his findings are wrong. Chris said he questioned that because she stated that they could not diagnose in the first place. Chris now says that she is referring to her friends.
•Julian said that she disagreed with him and that she interrupted him every time he tried to say something.
•I ask Julian if he minded holding onto the car until I can confirm one way or another if they will accept fault and he said that was fine.
•Julian agreed to provide the notes they have on what took place and what they found.
•4:45: I decide to call Loss prevention and talk to Scott to find out the status of the insurance process. Scott not available so I talk to the LP Manager, Linda and she tells me that it was done and submitted as a memo because it was determined that it was not their fault the rod threw.
•I tell her what I talked about with Julian and she tells me that she will go talk to Chris about this because she had heard nothing.
•Now I get a call around 5:15 or so from Linda saying that Pete Folaman was going to talk with me because he is more experienced in this. Pete Folaman said that he is the Vice President of operations (not sure on what operations?). I confirmed his title and he is actually the Operations Manager, Sears does not have VP’s at the store level.
•Pete gets on the phone and simply states that there is no way the card would start if there was not any oil in the car so once the car started that is where their liability ended. “Since the car started, there was oil”, this is verbatim of Pete.
•I say that I disagree and after talking to Honda I think that there may have been some oil in the car but not 4 quarts stating the facts I got from Julian.
•Pete told me that he talked to Juliana and heard a different story.
•Pete said without hesitation that the car had oil and that there are at least 3 people to verify this? He named the tech that came out to my car-Victor, Chris-the manager that was never there but in traffic and never named the third.
•He said that they have proof that oil was put in the car and when I asked what that was he would not tell me.
•I told him again that I disagreed and that I was going to call Julian to ask why the story changed to quickly. Pete at one point to me accused Julian and Honda of Seattle of trying to scan me into an engine and making me believe that I could get Sears to pay for it.
•I asked for his direct address so that I could send him some information. I basically want to send him court papers so I want to know where to send it. He would not give me an address. Never did I get an address. I just have the business card for Chris the manager of the Auto Center.
•Pete kept saying “what more information to you need Miss?”
•I told him that I would call the Honda Dealership and may be in touch. The call ended.
•I called Julian and got a voicemail, left message stating that Pete said he talked to him and was told something different than what I was told.
•Julian called me back promptly noting that he never talked to anyone BUT Chris. No one else at Honda had any communication with Sears. The only dialogue was between Juliana and Chris. Julian said that he wanted to talk to Pete to find out why he said that he talked to him and to tell Pete himself his diagnosis.
•Julian confirmed that the car would start if there was no oil.
•5:55: Julian tried to call Pete at the number that Pete game me but was unsuccessful and had to leave a message with the receptionist.
•Julian never got a call back from Pete.
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Monday, April 16th, 2007 AT 10:14 AM
