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wrong oil put in car

C

cherylb

Junior Member
Today the dealer put regular oil in my 2004 G35x instead of synthetic (which i have been using for 2 years now), I plan on going there first thing monday am, how serious is it?
 
If it's the right grade of regular oil for your car, and you're not planning on spending Sunday off road racing or driving 50,000 miles, it's brand new motor oil that shouldn't hurt your car.

If anything does go wrong, the dealer owes covering you for the repair. If not, they may at least owe you some free service or a nice dinner for the hassle. 😉
 
Synthetic oil is not necessary in a G35. It offers no benefits over conventional oils unless you are really stretching the drain intervals. Changing it at the dealer likely indicates regular oil change intervals, hence no benefits from synthetic oil. The wrong oil.
 
cherylb said:
Today the dealer put regular oil in my 2004 G35x instead of synthetic (which i have been using for 2 years now), I plan on going there first thing monday am, how serious is it?
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uh if its 5W-30 absolutly nothing, just change at the normal 3750 OCI.
 
Harvey said:
If anything does go wrong, the dealer owes covering you for the repair.
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Sorry, but that's wrong. If the dealer used the manufacturer-specified oil for the car, they won't be responsible for anything whatsoever.

Pretty much the only thing they could even be remotely liable for would be if they billed her for synthetic but used conventional, something that seems impossible given the fact pattern since she most likely only realised they used conventional oil from reading the bill.

ZV
 
Really now...

my 2005 g35x has been getting normal 5w-30/10w-30 and 5w40 every 5000 or so miles. Never had a issue. Sometimes i dont look when i take oil off my garage shelf and i find out by the 3rd bottle. Its not bad or anything.

Blackstone lab told me to try and go 6000miles on normal oil so at 3750miles it can run on w/e you want it to pretty much.
 
Zenmervolt said:
Sorry, but that's wrong. If the dealer used the manufacturer-specified oil for the car, they won't be responsible for anything whatsoever.
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Not if the OP explicitly specified synth oil for the job or her regular service history with the dealer shows she's used only synth oil in the past.
 
Vic Vega said:
It's typically on the bill...
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My point was I would be surprised the bill would actually say dino oil. If it doesn't say anything about synthetic you don't know if they put in dino, or put in synthetic but the bill just wasn't labeled synthetic.
 
i remember long before synthetics ever came out. Why do you think they make non synthetic oil anyway? change it regularly, they all work just fine.
 
Zenmervolt said:
Sorry, but that's wrong. If the dealer used the manufacturer-specified oil for the car, they won't be responsible for anything whatsoever.

Pretty much the only thing they could even be remotely liable for would be if they billed her for synthetic but used conventional, something that seems impossible given the fact pattern since she most likely only realised they used conventional oil from reading the bill.

ZV
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This.

It's not going to hurt the engine at all.
 
Nobody in the history of ever....if you count "ever" as being around the late-80's or so, (20+ years is a lifetime in the auto industry) has had an oil-related engine problem that was the fault of the oil. At least, not with the correct oil in the engine. I've seen plenty from using the wrong oil, or from not changing it.

So don't sweat it. You won't have a problem.
 
Harvey said:
Not if the OP explicitly specified synth oil for the job or her regular service history with the dealer shows she's used only synth oil in the past.
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Sorry, but no. Even if the OP specified synthetic, the shop has no legal liability unless they charged for synthetic while using regular.

As long as they used the manufacturer-specified oil, there's no possibility for a reasonable person to believe that any damage could be caused from using the manufacturer-specified oil. Even if the OP were fool enough to try bringing a suit, it would be dismissed for either failure to state a claim or simply on a judgement as a matter of law.

The only potential liability the shop would have is if they billed for synthetic but used regular. Otherwise there's no recovery.

ZV
 
Zenmervolt said:
Sorry, but no. Even if the OP specified synthetic, the shop has no legal liability unless they charged for synthetic while using regular.

As long as they used the manufacturer-specified oil, there's no possibility for a reasonable person to believe that any damage could be caused from using the manufacturer-specified oil. Even if the OP were fool enough to try bringing a suit, it would be dismissed for either failure to state a claim or simply on a judgement as a matter of law.

The only potential liability the shop would have is if they billed for synthetic but used regular. Otherwise there's no recovery.

ZV
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You're wrong, ZV. It's straight contract law. If the OP specifically ordered synth oil, or dealer should have known that's what she has always ordered, there is no way she can be construed as having offered to purchase anything else which means the dealer could not accept, let alone act on, the non-existant offer.

The dealer owes her what she ordered at the regular price for synth oil. We've already determined that the error won't cause any damage, but if the dealership has any class, they'll replace the regular oil with synth, either now or when a change of regular oil is indicated, or they'll offer some other free "make good" service to compensate a long time customer for the hassle.
 
I agree with a bit of what Harvey is saying, but don't think ZV is totally wrong, either.

First, yes...the dealership should have offered to replace the oil with synthetic. IF that is what the customer asked for, and IF the customer actually pointed this out while paying the bill and didn't just come home and gripe on the internet about it.

As far as whether the dealership "should have known" the customer always used synthetic.....I don't see any clear path here. It's up to the customer to remember what they want and see that they get it.

If I order "the usual" at my favorite restaurant and they make me something else, it's my fault if I don't point it out when I'm served and then specifically tell them what I want.

That's a bit different, but not a lot.

It's not going to matter, because there isn't going to be a problem.....you'd play hell proving that using dino oil instead of synthetic caused any problem, and then and only then would the issue of "did customer order synthetic" and "was customer charged for synthetic and got dino oil" come into play.
Also, you'll have other arguments, such as the dealership possibly saying "cust asked for an oil change, got an oil change, didn't specifically request synthetic" and you're down to "he said, she said".
Definitely arguing semantics on this one.

When I did that job, I did not check to see what type of oil a car got the last time it was there. Customer asks for an oil change, they got an oil change. If they requested something in addition, they got that, too. But checking to see what type of oil someone got last time is not standard procedure, no matter if car geeks think it should be. I can easily see someone making that mistake.
So the proving of the "dealer should have known that's what customer always ordered" would not be cut and dry.

Best to just call it a minor mistake and move on.
 
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