I dropped my car off at Pep boys for an oil change and when I went to pick it up, it wouldn't start. I got a message that said "battery saver active" and all I heard was the starter hitting the flywheel. We tried to bump start/pop the clutch, we tried jump starting it, charging the battery, putting in a new battery, and nothing worked. It did stop saying "battery saver active." I've had the car since February with no issues (aside from a dying key fob battery), drove it to Pep Boys, they drove it into the bay, and they couldn't get it to start after they changed my oil so they pushed it into a parking spot.

What could possibly have happened? It was literally just supposed to be an oil change because I didn't have the time to do it myself.

 

Your first problem was going to pep boys. But seriously. Check codes
Don’t trust pep boys

 

As per the owner's manual:

BATTERY SAVER ACTIVE: When the vehicle has
detected that the battery voltage is dropping beyond a
reasonable point, the BATTERY SAVER ACTIVE
message will display. The battery saver system will start
reducing certain features of the vehicle that you may
not be able to notice. At the point that features are
disabled, this message is displayed. It means that the
vehicle is trying to save the charge in the battery.
Turn off unnecessary accessories to allow the battery
to recharge.

So the low down, the battery got low in charge, freaked the system, and the system just needs a hard reset instead.

With battery charged and a quick amp test to make sure it still fine, (since they ran down the battery when they had it in the bay), need to get it charged to begin with off the car. Once the battery is charged off the car, then install the battery like normal, hence positive first, then negative last.

If installing a new battery instead, then once the battery is removed from the car, hold the positive and negative terminals together so they make contact for about 10 seconds, and this will drain out any charge left in the modules, so they will do a hard reset once the new battery is installed and connected back up.

If there is still problems, then it's in your charging system wiring you have a problem isntead. Often times, its the battery cables at the starter solenoid connection point that need to be cleaned and reinstalled, as well as the ground to the engine block since they are often over looked since they are in a blind spot and you have to get under the car/reach up around the exhaust manifold to get to them.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...intenance.html

 

 

Oh no. Where are you from.

 

 

NJ

My key fob was dying and my battery MIGHT have been on its way out but it's hard to say. The car always sounded like it had a tiny bit of trouble starting for the first second, but it never got worse or changed in the time that I've owned it, and I've never had an issue with anything other than unlocking/locking and my car not detecting the key fob because the battery was dying. Car has always been reliable, it's always started, and it never gave me any cause for concern.

I didn't see a valve cover hole so I'm pretty sure they put it in the tank. They told me they only got 1-2 quarts out when they drained it, which is what happens when you drain the residual and not the tank. They also tried to say it was my fault because I didn't have enough oil in the car, yet the car blew up as they were backing it out of the garage and they didn't even make it out of the garage, so logically that doesn't even make sense. The next day (yesterday), one of the mechanics was looking at it and saw oil coming out of places it shouldn't have been coming out of, and he took apart the throttle body and oil poured out, so we know oil had been sucked into the intake. Next step is draining the oil again and measuring it so we can prove there was way too much oil in the car, and then they'll owe me a new motor. But I'm away this weekend so that won't happen until Monday.

What gets me is they knew the problem wasn't the fob battery or the car battery because the bay literally filled with smoke, and it's on video. So we spent 3+ hours trying to do **** with the battery, they even gave me a new battery. They even bump started my car.... Knowing my motor was blown. They didn't even mention that the car was smoking until the next day and then everything started to piece together. It's just lie after lie and giving me the wrong information, and they called me to pick my car up when they knew it wasn't running. It's just shitty.

I wouldn't trust Pep Boys to do even an alignment but this should have been a simple oil change.

 

Problem is that both the dry sump and the wet sump motors both use the same valve covers.

On the dry sump, the passenger side does have a closer cap that can be removed and oil can be added to the motor incorrectly . Hence there is not hole through the fuel rail cover on a dry sump motor, but if you remove the fuel rail cover on the passenger side of the motor, you can get to the valve cover closer cap instead.



Hence on a wet sump motor, the passenger fuel rail cover does have a hole in it, so the funnel section with its oil fill cap extends above the cover instead.





So the low down and what sounds like what happen,
the tech did not remove both the drain plugs, hence one of the side to drain just the quart'ish of oil that dripped down into the motor to the dry sump pan when the motor is shut off, and the one of the front of the pan to drain the tank and the majority of oil in the system. Which only drains what oil was in the dry sump pan that had dripped to the pan when the motor was shut off, plus the oil from the filter that was pulled.

Then, instead of only adding oil to the reserve tank only, pulled the passenger fuel rail cover, and proceeded to add oil into the motor incorrectly to over fill the dry sump pan that can only hold about 1 1/2 quart of oil max instead before it start to take the oil line up the point that the piston when moving will slap off the top line of oil as they are punching into the over filled amount of oil

So at start up with the way too much oil in the dry sump pump to start with, and reserve tank full of oil from it not being drained correctly via the front drain plug,
even if the motor did not see damage to begin with the dry sump pan over filled with oil and the bottom of piston slamming off the top of oil, The oil pump started to pull the excess amounts of oil out of the dry sump pan, over filled the reserve tank, and this causes the excess oil from the tank now over flowing with oil to be puked into the intake manifold via the clean side vent line on the top of the tank isntead.

So here, the oil is flowed into the cylinders on top of the pistons to first start the engine to smoke badly out of the exhaust, until the oil amount being pushed into the the intake manifold just hydro locks the motor to cause the damage to the motor that way instead.

Bottom line, your motor is trashed, and will need a new motor.
Not sure if you will even get the Pep boy tech to fess up to doing the oil change wrong, but when the service bay filled with smoke, it pretty much proved what happen isntead. To add, since they have admitted that they only got 2 quarts out of the motor to start with, more facts that the tech did not have a clue on how to do a oil change on a dry sump motor.

Simply, time to layer up now, since your looking at over $10K to have the motor replaced, and bank that Pep boys manager will be fighting tooth and nail to try to disprove that they did any thing wrong/take the hit for the replacement motor. Hence the sooner your lawyer can get the video footage of the service bay filling with smoke from the incorrect oil change and statements (before the video is deleted or the tech is fired), the better off he will in court winning the case for you to cover the lawsuit and cost of the replacement motor.

 

 

 

The mass amounts of oil in the TB and intake manifold and what flowed down the air filter, already tells the tail of the system over filled with oil, to over flow the tank in the first place.

Hence on top of the tank is the two vent lines that is used to pull the oil vapors from the tank and valve covers and send such to the intake manifold so the air like oil vapors are burnt by the engine.

When the tank was over filled by too much oil in the system, instead of just oil vapor be pulled into the motor to be burnt off from the top of the tank, pure oil was sent down the lines to the the intake manifold isntead.

If you look at the oil tank, you will see two lines that come off the top of the tank and note the position of the oil check dip stick which is much lower in the tank as well.


The back line is used to vent the valve covers vapors to the tank and the forward line is used to vent the tank vapor as well to the intake manifold, so the oil vapor can be burn by the engine.

https://doc-0g-3c-docs.googleusercon...2NQX3VOYVg2c28

If you look at the according rubber piece right in front of the throttle body, you will see a press down top cap with line to it in between the back side of the rubber acordian piece and air filter resinator box, and is the line in the diagram link above that vents the tank and valve cover vapors right before the Throttle body in the air intake system, so the motor can burn the oil vapors from the oil system.


So even if Pep boys tried to pull a fast one with draining the tank down to full line after the fact, the oil that over flowed from the tank when the system was over filled in the first place, with still will be in the tank vent lines, the air filter system, the TB, the manifold, and in the cylinders (oil soaked spark plugs) as well.


And again, if they just tried to over fill the tank from it oil cap fill port on the tank, it would have been pouring oil of the dip stick area.

So someone poured oil into the engine by removing the passenger fuel rail cover, the valve hole plug piece to incorrectly instead. As soon as the car was started, the oil dry sump pump, pulled that oil in the dry sump pan to send it to the tank since the pump is trying to keep the dry sump pan dry, which cause the tank to over fill instead.
Again with the motor running, the pump is pulling the oil faster than it dropping off the bottom of the motor, so the sump pan at most when the motor is running, will only have about quart of oil that has not reached/been sucked up by the dry sump pick recover tube.

Hence on a dry sump system, the oil is kept in the tank and sent to the motor via the tank,not the dry sump pan. So again, the dry sump pump is pulling the oil dropping off the motor as fast as its hitting the dry sump pan instead.

Its only when the motor is shut off, the sump pump no longer pulling the dropping oil from the motor out of the pan, and how you end up with about a quart of oil in the sump pump pan that dropped off the motor when you got to drain it.



So again, lawyer up/ get your insurance copy involved, then have a flat bed tow truck take the car to a GM corvette specific dealer, and get the ball rolling on the engine diagnostic and replacement. The GM tech will pull the air filter system,TB, and spark plugs so he can take a look at them and inside of the manifold and cylinders for the tell tale markers of the oil system being over filled and damaged the motor. At this point, you/your lawyer.insurance companey will be given the repair cost to replace the motor and your lawyer/insurance company can deal with pep boys for their fees,the cost off replacing the motor, and other costs like a rental car as you car is being repaired,

When I say it going to be over $10K to just replace the motor, I not joking, and as you can already see with pep boy playing the lets check the oil amount only that they may have already pulled from the tank before you got there before they want to do anything (and not the parts that the oil would have over flowed to from the tank when the system was over filled), you already know that your in for a fight with them to start with. Truth is, in the end with lawyer fees, car rental and a few other items, bank that pep boys will be writing a final check for over $20K isntead.

And Again, the dead give away that the system was over filled with too much oil in the first place, is all the oil in the TB when they check it to begin with. "All I heard was the starter hitting the flywheel" just confirmed that the engine has hydro lock damaged too, from all the excess oil as well.

 

 

Lets think about this, since if they did not drain the tank to begin with by removing the front pan oil plug, then why is the oil so low now?
The reason, they pulled oil from the tank before you got there trying to cover their tracks once the motor locked up. Hence we know that the tank pushed oil through the top clean side PCV line to the end up at the TB which you saw that oil, so once the motor hydro locked, they quickly sucked oil out of the tank so you would not see it had over flowed by incorrect oil change instead.

As for why the motor would not crank even with the spark plugs pulled.
When they first started the car, the oil level in the dry sump pan was way too high from pouring oil into the passenger valve covers incorrectly (pan only holds about 2qt safely before the oil level is it is too high in it), and as the pistons came down on the bottom of stroke, the bottoms of pistons where punching into the top of the too high oil in the pan at initial start up to damage them to begin with (block cylinder liners could have been cracked even at this point).

Now as the motor ran for about a min, the sump pump was recovering the oil from the sump pan to lower the oil level back down to almost no oil in the pan, transferring all the excess oil to the tank to over fill it past even the vent lines on top of the tank, and this drove the oil from the tank, through the clean side PCV line to the vent port right in front of the TB of the air filter system, and the intake sucked the oil into the cylinders to Hydro lock the motor from the top side of the pistons next.

So initial damage of the pistons/piston rod on the bottom piston skirt sides where punching into the dry sump oil line way to high in the pan to begin with from someone pouring oil into the passenger valve cover, then as the oil was sucked to the intake manifold/cylinders above the top of the piston next, this finished off the motor by hydro locking the motor above the piston tops next.


Again, get the car flat bed towed to a GM Corvette specially dealer now/out of Pep boys hands. The motor is toasted and there is no saving it with all the damage that was done by the incorrect oil change that caused it to hydro lock. The faster you can get GM to verify the problem and the incorrect oil change cause, the faster your lawyer will have the needed information to go after pep boys to get the needed funds for the replacement motor.

Trust me, you not the first one to end up with a Destroyed motor from an incorrect oil change on a Dry sump system, and half the time the oil shop will take the blame from the start to pay for GM to replace the motor, while the other 50% of the time, the shop tries to cover up the problem to try to get out from paying for the damage instead.

Since Pep boys did not have a flat bed trailer already in route before telling you the problem to take the vet to a GM dealer to begin with, they are trying to skate the blame so the shop does not have to pay for their mistake instead.


Again, such is not new to GM since they have see such many times incorrect dry sump oil change damaged motors, know the damage that happens/ know where to look to prove that the incorrect oil change caused the problem. With such documentation, slam dunk case for your lawyer to win the lawsuit against Pep boys, if Pep boy does not step up on GM findings to begin with.

Also, get your insurance company evolved now as well. This will get you the fund to pay for the motor if Pep boys does not step up from the start once GM documents their findings.

Or depending on the year of the vet since the motor, oil cooler/line and other items that have to be replaced when the motor went south to send derbies through them as well, may just total/write the car off so you can go buy another vet to wash your hands of the problem isntead (let the insurance company go after Pep boys for the entire resale amount of the car isntead)