Service garage forgot to put oil in engine

Will19868

Hi All

My car is Opel insignia 2011. I have never missed a service and take great pride into looking after my car.
I usually get the car serviced in Bandon at the the dealer. However for the first time I had to get the car serviced in Carlow by the dealer because I'm working in this area.
After the service which includes the oil change, the car travelled max 15km where the oil service light came on. I immediately stopped the car to avoid further damage, if any? I checked the dip rod and its bone dry. I checked under the engine no leaks.
The dip rod was roasting but engine water temp gauge on the cluster was okay.

1. Should I send it back to the dealer
2. How will I know if there is damage to rings bearing oil pump, timing is not affected and scoring of engine parts
3. Do I get an independent inspector will this void the service guarantee - must I contact the garage first?
4. Do I need to get a lawyer?
5. Should the dealer inspect replace the engine
5. Can you advise any steps I may have left out?
I'm quite upset and don't want to accept the risk? My car is very well looked after and I'm absolutely gutted this has happened :.(

Doublebusy

Hands up who never put the oil cap back on after topping up their oil.. I did yeeaars ago
But to forget about putting oil in all together is a fairly stupid school boy error.
Have you not even told the chap who done the work for you

Atlantic Dawn

Yes go back to the dealer first, I suppose best case it could be just below the minimum on the dipstick and perhaps 20-30% below recommended amount, may not be fully dry so damage if any could be minimal. Would be a crazy error for a dealer to make but it could happen. I'd get the dealer to collect or inspect the car where it is, don't drive it until you establish what happened. Perhaps getting them to open the sump at your house to see if any oil is present and get them to measure it before they add oil so you know where you stand with possible damage.

Purple Mountain

I once bought a car at a car sales place that serviced it the day before.
Drove the 100 miles home. Next day, there was an oil patch in my yard under the parked car.
My mechanic friend looked at it and said the sumpstud hadn't been screwed back on properly.
Could that be the issue?

PsychoPete

It's something that shouldn't happen but it does unfortunately, could be as easily as whoever was working on it got pulled off it to do another job and simply forgot to refill the oil. Obviously don't drive it unless you want to put in oil and take the chance driving it but call the dealer that serviced it and let them sort it

easygoing39

There'll be no need to drop the sump.Remove the oil filter,it'll be bone dry inside if no oil was added to the sump during service.However,if this was the case the low oil pressure light would have been on from the very start of the trip,not after 15km.

NCC1701

If there was no oil, surely the oil warning light would have been on from engine start up? It could be as simple as a sump nut washer not being replaced and the oil leaking out. First time I changed the oil in my car (loooooooong time ago in the late 80's in my youth), I thought I was the bees knees at accomplishing this task. Only problem was that I had failed to fit a new washer on the sump nut and the next morning, the driveway had a pool of new oil under the sump that had dripped down past the sump nut.

Have you noticed any leaks under the car or in the engine bay? My Qashqai's engine blew about 5 years ago when a valve in the oil system failed to open and the engine literally blew apart despite me stopping the car immediately when the oil warning light came on. The engine bay looked like a dirty oil bomb had gone off!

And as others have said, do not attempt to drive the car until the source of the leak (as it must be a leak otherwise the oil warning light would have been on from the start up) is identified.

Dirty Nails

Will19868 wrote: »

Hi All

My car is Opel insignia 2011. I have never missed a service and take great pride into looking after my car.
I usually get the car serviced in Bandon at the the dealer. However for the first time I had to get the car serviced in Carlow by the dealer because I'm working in this area.
After the service which includes the oil change, the car travelled max 15km where the oil service light came on. I immediately stopped the car to avoid further damage, if any? I checked the dip rod and its bone dry. I checked under the engine no leaks.
The dip rod was roasting but engine water temp gauge on the cluster was okay.

1. Should I send it back to the dealer
2. How will I know if there is damage to rings bearing oil pump, timing is not affected and scoring of engine parts
3. Do I get an independent inspector will this void the service guarantee - must I contact the garage first?
4. Do I need to get a lawyer?
5. Should the dealer inspect replace the engine
5. Can you advise any steps I may have left out?
I'm quite upset and don't want to accept the risk? My car is very well looked after and I'm absolutely gutted this has happened :.(

Oil service light or red oil pressure light?
Petrol or diesel?
Not unknown for people not to visually see hot syntethic oil on a dipstick,especially on petrols because the oil would be so much cleaner. You'd need to run the dipstick between your fingers.

n97 mini

If the engine in my car has been running there'll be no oil on the dipstick as it's distributed around the engine instead. It takes some time for it to settle back into the sump, where the dipstick is.

markmoto

- Visited dealer for service they have lost dipstick.
- Visited another dealer for service they put semi synthetic instead of synthetic oil as require.
- Visited another dealer for timing belt change, end up with damaged injector.
- Visited independent garage for service rusted oil filter fitted.

barneygumble99

Wouldn’t have gotten even 1km with no oil in the car. Could be that they didn’t top it up after the service and the oil that filled the filter is now causing a low level. If there’s no oil underneath I’d top it up and see how much it takes to bring it to the max level.

We always dip cars for oil before they’re serviced just to see what condition the car has been maintained at in the interval. I would say at least 5/100 cars have no oil on the dipstick. Which is careless but no harm done either and for example, my own car takes 5.4 litres of oil, if I put in 4.5 and start it , let it run and dip it , no oil on the dipstick, takes 0.9 of a litre to go from no oil on dipstick to max. No harm to the engine but obviously unadvisable.

Doublebusy

Pity not many come back with an update of the scenario