Hello everybody, i'm Mark and I need some advice pretty badly. To put my story in a nutshell, i'm 16 and had to leave my dads house (family problems) and got my car taken away (Pontiac Solstice). In my family not having a car is a slightly big deal because we all go everywhere...a whole lot, and we all need to get to seperate places. My mom(who i had just moved to) said shed buy me a car simply because shes a vengeful mother against my dad and wants me to be happy. We found a '99 NBM WS6, leather interior, fully loaded, A4 with 52,000 miles on it and I fell in loooove. My mom really doesnt understand cars (im not saying im near knowing anything like an expert, i just know more than the average mom, haha) and she really didnt understand that it was slightly modded..having ARE stage 2 heads (2.08int and 1.60ext.), Lunati cam (226/226 with a .560 lift), Hooker long tube headers with custom Y-pipe and RT cats, Custom PCM tuning, BMR weld in sub frame connectors, Vigilante 3800 stall converter, Ported LS6 intake, 160 T-stat, ARE high volume oil pump, NGK plugs, SLP 85mm MAF, Spohn lower control arms, B&M tranny cooler, and Power Slot slotted rotors with hawk brake pads. It was a fast ************. I LOVED the idea of a fast car so we went ahead and bout it for 11,800 straight up (because thats what he owed on the car, he was the second owner and simply wanted a truck instead). I have the car for a month and all of the sudden the engine starts knocking. WTF. So i drive it home (about two miles, going EXTREMELY SLOW) and park it. A mechanic comes over and tells me my oil drain plug like...completely gave way and my oil leaked out and yeah. So i have a god damn near ruined engine im guessing and now i have the question of used engine, crate ls1, or rebuilding, all VERY expensive and i feel so bad for my mom laying this on her. She only spent all of that money because she knew i loved it, were by no means laying in money. So any advice would be nice...i dont know what to do! i Love my f-body but i really dont know what to do. I hope i didnt make a huge mistake buying it. Help guys! If you made it through this whole thing...congrats.

 

I thought there was an oil pressure idiot light when the pressure gets low?

If it means anything, my bro ran his 92 dodge dakota out of oil by accident once (double-gasketed the filter) and it was making a ticking noise afterwards. Found he just had a bad valve spring, fixed that and the truck is fine.

How bad is the knocking?

 

There is, and the day i got my oil change (about a week before this happened), and i mean the first time i started it back upa t the oil place the low oil light came on and they checked it and said dont worry about it and just forget about it. Im young and stupid so i went with that. Its like a punching bag almost...not really a metallic sound but its defiantely hitting something. Its loud..i dont know how to describe it.

 

OK, ignoring the light is never a good thing (unfortunately you learned the hard way ) especially if it had been off before the oil change.

I'd be tempted to go back to those guys and say "NOW LOOK - you said don't worry about the light and now my engine is shot thanks to you!" and demand a new engine (or however much it costs to fix yours if it is repairable). Not sure how far you could get though, others will be able to help more than me. That noise you have is worse than just a valve spring

 

Make them fix it. And that sounds like a main knock (pull the engine to fix)

 

wow, that sucks. Are you working? I'd suggest just getting a small loan to fix the engine or whatever is wrong if it really is that catastrophic. That's what I will be doing when I get to building up my engine, that way I don't have to get cheap on it.

 

I used to work for Valvoline doing oil changes and such and usually in cases like yours they (any oil change place) will try to claim that you did something during the week between when you stopped back to talk to them and your engine saying bye.

But, stick to the point that the oil light came on after THEY performed the oil change and they told you not to worry about it and a week later the engine blows. They will stand firm initially but if you threaten a lawsuit they will eventually cave. Trust me, I saw plenty of stores have it happen where it was borderline whether something the tech did caused the damage or not and they eventually pay it just because it's cheaper if they aren't 100% sure they weren't at fault.


Are you sure the drain plug was missing? If not how did this mechanic friend come to this conclusion?

 

Make em fix it!

 

they're liable IMO i wouldnt threaten them at first id talk firmly to em and tell them the situation. if they continue to be stubborn and put you aside.. then id threaten them.

same thing almost happened to me. this dude at midas forgot to mix posi lube with synthetic oil in my rear end and it started slipping and vibrating i took it back and they said theyll refund my money + fix it. if people are goin to work on cars they better know what that specific car requires... dammit

 

get a motor out of it!

 

It was their fault it broke, make them fix it. Threaten legal action, and maybe talk to a lawyer in the meantime.

 

Talk to a lawyer, use his advice on what to do against the oil change place. Get a new engine and then learn to change your own oil. I never let anyone but my dad or I touch stuff like that. Its hard enough to take my company vehicles to Goodyear to do this minor stuff. My buddy had a 92 Sierra and the idiots didn't even put fresh oil in...ran two days with minimal or no oil. They had to put in a new 350 crate in.

 

Jesus would I ever be mind-warpingly pissed if this was me. Definitely, if thats the whole story, then they owe you a new LS1. But I gotta know... if your drain plug "gave way" and drained all your oil... how in the world did you not notice a bigass pool of black fluid flowing from under the car?

 

Yea...gave way as in leaking, or completely gone? either way i would hold the oil change place liable

 

sounds like they owe you an engine. Is it a big company, or a small mom and pop installation?

 

Ya... These cars hold a lot of oil... You would have had no oil pressure at all... Make sure your stories match whatever happened... Because in a case like this.. chances are they will fight it... and end up spending more on fighting it then it would have been to just give you a new motor.