Oil Service gone Wrong

A friend of mine just brought her new Subaru to Jiffy Lube for a routine oil service and by the afternoon as she was driving, the car was sputtering. She admits she doesn't know much about cars and shrugged it off as a temporary hiccup that would go away. -

Turns out that the mechanic drained her ATF fluid by mistake... and left it dry! Bewildering. They admitted this and it has been transferred to a Subaru dealership service center. She is awaiting a call from them. Any advice on what to do or not to do from here? I advised her to contact her insurance for a consultation but not to file a claim just yet. Thoughts? 

It's all on the quickly lube to make her whole. They've admitted they berkeleyed up. Whatever is the cost of a reman and r&r labor is the minimum acceptable.

Mechanic?  That guy doesn't even rate the title "fluid changer".     

The new transmission cost should all be on Jiffy Lube IMO.    The old one is going to die soon.

Personally, I'd expect them to pay for a trans rebuild or replacement.  If an auto trans was extremely low on fluid, it was almost certainly slipping and experiencing significantly higher clutch wear.  In addition, the engine oil was probably overfilled badly, so I'd expect a drain and fill on the engine, run it, confirm it's running well, and then compression and leakdown tests, etc. to confirm no damage. 

Agreed. This is all on Jiffy Lube. Her insurance company, if reputable and honest, will say the same because they would go after Jiffy Lube. Hopefully, they'll cover the damages without issue. If not, the next step might be a lawyer, unfortunately.

Thank you all for the quick responses. I've sent her the link to the thread and she is super appreciative. Will update this when there's more 

Tell Subaru to check the level in the engine oil ... I assume its been way overfilled if it was never drained. Not sure flat engines like that much oil in them.

Yea that's all on Jiffy Lube. I wouldn't get insurance involved just yet, they are always looking for reasons to increase rates and drop potential liabilities for no reason. She needs to hammer JL on covering the cost of the repairs/replacements and a rental for the interim. 

I wonder how many insurance claims JL processes a month?

This is not particularly uncommon on Subarus for whatever reason. 

My experience dealing with quick lube berkeley ups is they will pay quick lube rates to install the jankiest salvage yard engine/trans they can find and not a penny more. 

Don't forget to ask where they put the oil. If they were dumb enough to drain the ATF and leave it dry, they might've dumped 5 extra quarts of oil forcefully into the engine. 

We had some friends who had a trans service done on their Subaru. The trans has one dipstick/fill port for the front diff (gear oil) and one for ATF. You can guess what happened. I think the shop ate >10k in repairs. Sorry this happened to your friend!

Peanu_Keeyes said:

Turns out that the mechanic drained her ATF fluid by mistake... and left it dry! Bewildering. They admitted this and it has been transferred to a Subaru dealership service center.

Is their admission in writing? If not it needs to be.

She should not sign off on anything unless it is a completely new trans AND any realted damage is fully paid for by Iffy Lube.

L5wolvesf said:

Is their admission in writing? If not it needs to be.

She should not sign off on anything unless it is a completely new trans AND any realted damage is fully paid for by Iffy Lube.

What I was going to say - she needs to have any agreements in writing.

I cannot advise on what the subie owner should or should not do specifically, but I would recommend she connect with the district manager. They have more pull than the guy at the store does. Theres also definitely a corporate number to contact as well. I do know that as a former quick lube tech, there are multiple checks that are supposed to happen prior to a vehicles exit to prevent exactly this sort of thing.  

I may or may not have been fired for following the protocol given to me by the manager - which meant I installed the wrong oil filter, despite protesting to the fact because I knew the manager was giving me bad directions, which lead to said filter falling off in the store parking lot just moments after exit, which lead to oil rapidly exiting the engine, which lead to a locked up 20k mile suburban later that afternoon. Only job I ever got fired from.

Joke was on the manager tho, he later got fired for stealing deposits from said oil-change place, which lead to a disagreement with his wife, which lead to him stabbing her with a screwdriver, which lead to him getting 25 years for attempted murder. 

As a contracts person; yes in writing. At the very least a text message or email admitting guilt.

Sounds like they are trying to do the right thing but if it goes off the rails having a minimum of writing evidence will work in her favor.

Sadly this is far from the first quick lube place I've heard of screwing up monumentally.

Note: this IS on Jiffy.  Do not expect them to hold up their end

As said, everything in writing 

New or New to her?  Agree with everything in writing or recorded.

I taught college auto classes, and in one of mine I admonished my students to NEVER take their car to an "iffy lube" place for exactly this reason.......later that day I found out one of my adult students happened to be an Iffy Lube store manager......we talked, and I toned down my rhetoric after that, but I still believe what I said was valid.

I've read so many stories of things like in this thread......

"How many ugga-duggas on the drain bolt?"

L5wolvesf said:

Peanu_Keeyes said:

Turns out that the mechanic drained her ATF fluid by mistake... and left it dry! Bewildering. They admitted this and it has been transferred to a Subaru dealership service center.

Is their admission in writing? If not it needs to be.

She should not sign off on anything unless it is a completely new trans AND any realted damage is fully paid for by Iffy Lube.

P.S. They should also cover rental car and related expenses. Plus . . . 

NO non-disclosure clause. 

Byrneon27 said:

This is not particularly uncommon on Subarus for whatever reason. 

My experience dealing with quick lube berkeley ups is they will pay quick lube rates to install the jankiest salvage yard engine/trans they can find and not a penny more. 

Happened to the in-laws at some point early in my courtship. They took [now] wife's Ranger to the local tire and lube that I'd explicitly recommended against in the past and somehow got halfway home with no oil before she locked up. 

The shop's resolution was to install a junkyard motor, themselves. So the shop that couldn't remember oil, was the shop that would R&R a motor, and was tasked with selecting said motor. I argued for a reman short block installed at shop of our choice, but inlaws didn't want to argue near as much as I did, so the Ranger got a motor of unknown provenance installed by a shop of known (low) skill.

I wouldn't imagine there will be any problems getting it fixed.   I had a Rover towed in that Pep Boys had done crossovers and a water pump on (why you would take a Rover anywhere but the dealer is beyond me) and they left the thick o ring off that goes from the water pump to oil cooler and the engine completely melted.   The customer contacted a lawyer,  lawyer contacted Pep Boys, and Pep Boys gave us $45,000 to put a new engine in it.  It's cheaper for them to just fix it and make it go away before it becomes a big deal.

In reply to 4cylndrfury :

agreed, that's what I had to do with my safelite saga.  Very similiar situation, shop messed up and had to own up to it.  But only after a lot of run aroun.d

Two friends of mine received new motors due to drain plug failure after an oil change.   Both got much lower mileage engines installed at zero cost to them.   I'm glad to hear that in this situation the car is at a dealer so there is at least a chance that it will get installed properly.

Subarus can be confusing, they have spin on transmission filters with drain plugs near them.   My buddy added Lucas Transmission fixer to the front diff because that's the second dipstick that he found.   This guy is a state licensed Master electrician, millwright and boiler operator, it can happen.