A car owner in Memphis, TN, decided to have her oil changed while she was at a local car wash. Unfortunately, the wrong oil filter was installed resulting in her being stranded in the middle of the road when the engine shut down. The repair bill to have the engine replaced was more than $3,000.
Below is the article as it appeared on the WREG-TV Channel 3 website.
Cheap Car Care Could Be Costly
By Keli Rabon
February 16, 2011
(Memphis – 2/16/2011) A simple car wash can be more trouble than its worth, just ask Steve Jackson.
"When the car wash caught my windshield wiper blade, it caused it to go up and centered right here. It left a deep scratch right there," Jackson said as he pointed to his windshield. "You can feel it. I tried to buff it out, I tried to do everything I could to get it out, but it wont come."
Jackson says took his car through Sunshine Car Wash on Highway 64, and left with a $500 scratch. He says he called the company for weeks, but the manager refused to help.
"He told me there was nothing they were going to do for my vehicle and he told me to just chalk it up as a loss," Jackson said.
Melissa Hass is at a loss too. She went to the Sunshine location on Goodman Rd. in Southaven. Three weeks later, her morning commute to work at WREG-TV came to a screeching halt.
"All of the sudden the engine shuts off, the steering wheel freezes, I can’t move it, I can’t even turn it to get into the emergency lane," Hass said.
Mechanic Allen van Landingham says the wrong oil filter caused the car’s engine to lock up. The engine cost more than $3,000 to replace.
"It’s definitely the wrong oil filter," Van Landingham said. "It doesn’t take but a very, very short period of time for it to do some damage."
"You go in, get a $40 oil change, and now I have $3,200 work of damage to my car," Hass aid.
To read the entire article on the WREG-TV Channel 3 website, visit http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-carwashcomplaints-story,0,7789899.story.
