TA Petrol - Oil Change Failure & Refusal to Honor Warranty

I got an oil change including new gasket for oil pan at the TA in Paulsboro, NJ. Total cost: $1,146.

Three days later, my oil pressure was low and I couldn't start my truck. Noticed a huge puddle of oil under the truck and my dipstick was bone-dry.

I called the TA in Paulsboro NJ who informed me that the work would be covered only if a technician from a TA or Petro can come to verify that oil had leaked from the oil pan so I requested roadside assistance
from the nearest TA.

The mobile technician confirmed that there was a missing bolt in the back of the oil pan and the gasket wasn’t properly seated causing massive amount of oil to leak out.

I relayed this information to the TA in Paulsboro, who claimed that two bolts were never there in the first place, and I was made aware of this. Thus there’s no warranty. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The bolts were not missing when I brought the truck to the shop because I had done an inspection of the oil pan a month ago, and no bolts were missing. Additionally, my instructor from North American Trade Schools, Mr Hyde, confirmed that all the bolts were in place and there was only a slight leak from a couple of bolts that were over-torqued causing the gasket to leak. (I was only losing about a gallon every two weeks – compared to 12 gallons in 2 days).


To the left is the shiny spot, were a bolt was in place prior to the oil change. You can also see that the gasket not seated and is squeezed out resulting in oil to leak out.
Before the work was started, I mentioned to the mechanic in TA Paulsboro, NJ that my gasket was leaking (showed her a video of the inspection completed. She confirmed that there was some leak on the bottom of the oil pan, so she recommended changing out the gasket.

The technician claims that only after dropping the oil pan did she realize that 2 (out of 8) bolts were missing. I stayed in the cab of the truck most of the time and also around the truck, so there was plenty of opportunity for the techs to inform me of this discovery. But instead of notifying me, they decided to reinstall the oil pan with the two missing bolts, and thus the gasket wasn’t properly seated.

From the video above, the mobile technician stated that the bolts were on there before because the metal is shiny under the bolt, and that the gasket sticks out and isn’t properly seated.

Then they decided to pull a fast one on me by sneaking a note to the bottom of the invoice that the 2 bolts were missing and that their work is not under “warrenty” [sic]. The manager never went over this issue with me – she was hoping I wouldn’t catch it. The invoice and inspection report were 3 pages so there was a lot of fine print and they assured me that everything was ok.

In reality, I would have never left the shop knowing I had 2 missing bolts especially after I just spent $1,145 for Mobile Delvac synthetic oil and gasket. In fact the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act provides an implied warranty for consumers. Both goods and services are protected – when a reasonable customer purchases a service, he/she should expect a certain result. If not the company should remedy the situation.

Likewise, the TA should have never let me go on the road with the missing bolts. All they had to do was wait till the following morning and purchase the bolts from the International dealership for a couple bucks a piece and install them. I would have easily approved this delay, especially since it was past 8pm when the work was done , and I didn’t need to leave until the next day.


Replacing the gasket for oil pan for International Prostar Maxxforce 13
As an owner operator, I would never authorize incomplete work and would never get on the road knowing that I have missing bolts. Doing so not only guarantees leaking oil all over the roadway but also put the lives of many others at risk.

Very disappointed at the TA to not take responsibility for their mistake, not assist with my tow, and shifting the blame on me.

Missing Bolts on Oil Pan - Trucker Runner

 

Correction: There are 20 bolts in the oil pan. The manager never mentioned that 2 bolts were missing. I was inside the cab for a couple of hours while the oil was been changed, and the techs talked to me frequently, but never mentioned the missing bolts (that's because they were either lost or broken and they didn't want to inform me because they wanted to wrap up the work). In the picture, the two missing bolts were on the short side of the oil pan towards the rear. This resulted in a huge gap and the gasket get squeezed out. If they wanted to get by with missing bolts, they could at least have left them on the long side of the pan and spaced them on both sides.

The leakage was only when driving on the road. I didn't see any leakage on the first night. It was only after the 2nd night that I noticed the leakage.