Borrowed and almost destroyed a car

[Muffette]

Before Christmas I was having car trouble and needed to get some work done on my car. My father generously loaned me one of his cars. He is generous like that and I was extremely grateful. He told me several times that the car needed a service at 30k miles and he would take it back from me then. He is very careful with everything and gets his cars serviced every 10k miles. I felt very secure driving his car knowing that it was so well cared for it was unlikely to break down (unlike my own jalopy).

As the car reached 30k the service light came on (a spanner light), I told him and we arranged to swap cars a week or so later. l didn't do much mileage in that time and so handed his car back with thank you's and so on. When he got home he dipped the engine to check the oil and discovered that it was nearly empty, he called the garage and they came with a tow truck to collect the car and bring it to their garage. He is beyond livid with me and will not speak to me. Now I know I should stick more rigorously to "neither a borrower nor a lender be" but I was in a pickle and he insisted at the time.

The thing is, should a car which is serviced every 10k run out of oil? (assuming the oil is changed at every service) and secondly, am I really thick not to have dipped the oil myself? Honestly, it never occurred to me. I checked the manual to make sure the light was an automated one and not something more sinister. At no time did the oil light come on. I am really upset at being so thick but at the same time my father is often very angry with me (i am in my 40's btw, not 19) and I really didn't need this excuse for him to turn on me again. However, I feel that his reaction to me is extreme, AIBU? (would you have thought to check the oil?)

I don't think the dipstick is in the car.
Either he's got advancing dementia,in which case he shouldn't be driving and he needs some professional intervention,or -more likely-he's a controlling bully who has been allowed to get away with this behaviour all his life.

You don't need to be a part of that, op. Your mum's either scared of him or she's got Stockholm syndrome and goes along with it.

It's very difficult to stand up to a domineering parent but you need to do that or reduce drastically your contact.

Toyota serviced every 10k miles/annually as per Toyota's recommendation, never even think about checking oil.

OP, your father needs to get a grip. And if his car used up enough oil to cause problems in the space of a month, it was faulty. Oil consumption should be less than a quart per thousand miles even if it's a well-worn engine.

Checking the dipstick might have caught the oil use, or it might not, something could have broken recently. Anyway a recent car in good order with no known faults shouldn't need its fluids checking more than once a month or so.

A three year old car shouldn't be losing oil like that, and if it is it certainly isn't likely to be your fault if you only used it for 5 weeks. What sort of mileage were you doing?

My car is just over 3 years old, and I only check the oil before a long journey, when I also check tyre pressures and screenwash etc. A car that age shouldn't need the same sort of maintenance that an old banger needs, but even my 25 year old fiesta would have run for more than 5 weeks without a top up.

Either your dad's car was already fucked when he lent it to you and he wants to blame you, or there's nothing much wrong with it now and he wants to blame you anyway. Nice. Either way, don't borrow anything from him again.

What a prick.

Tell your mum to tell him not to worry about not speaking to you because he's a cunt and to tell him that

My very nice mechanic mansplained to me that I should put in oil every so often when I buy petrol as I hadn't ever done it and my car was 6 years old . I thought they just put oil in when servicing it every year

Your dad's obsession is really over the top.
Is he well ?

A three year old car shouldn't be losing oil like that, and if it is it certainly isn't likely to be your fault if you only used it for 5 weeks

Let me spell this out again for the hard of thinking. IT IS PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE FOR AN ENGINE TO USE 1 LITRE/1000 MILES. In 5 weeks the OP has likely done sufficient mileage for the oil to drop from max to below min. Let’s just get it straight that the OP’s story is entirely feasible.

Haven't read the full thread only your opening post OP

Just about to get off train.

What leaped out at me? He's lying. Oil was good. He's lying.

I don't know how big the oil tank is on the car in question but to go from max to below Mum in 5 weeks would be quite some miles. If we assume as low as 5000 miles per litre you' d still be looking at 20000 I'd guess.

reddington 1litre per 1000 miles. You're having a giraffe mate!

Even when I worked in a garage 30 years ago that would have set alarm bells ringing for all but the most elderly vehicles. Though we used to sell it by pints, you understand.

DH just helpfully commented that after the last oil check he did, he put in 50 litres. But that was for a ship's engine.

Your dad sounds really quite unpleasant. My DH reversed straight into the side of my dad’s car. He was pretty embarrassed, but my dad was really gracious and wouldn’t even let us pay for the repair while my mum and I stifled our laughs as DH won’t let me drive him as he thinks he is an excellent driver and feels unsafe being driven. That’s how a pleasant father acts.

"Let me spell this out again for the hard of thinking. IT IS PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE FOR AN ENGINE TO USE 1 LITRE/1000 MILES. In 5 weeks the OP has likely done sufficient mileage for the oil to drop from max to below min. Let’s just get it straight that the OP’s story is entirely feasible."

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Some older Toyotas used around this much.

Toyota got sued and issued a free repair. www.classaction.com/toyota-oil-consumption-defect/lawsuit/

A 3yo Toyota that uses this much oil is FAULTY. It's BROKEN. No such new Toyota exists, unless it's BROKEN.

Suggest you check your facts elfy, most manufacturers will be in the 1l/1000 miles ball park. Take a 1 year old car to VW for example and tell them it’s using 500ml/1000 miles and they’ll politely tell you to fuck off.

I don't know how big the oil tank is on the car in question but to go from max to below Mum in 5 weeks would be quite some miles. If we assume as low as 5000 miles per litre you' d still be looking at 20000 I'd guess.

Most cars have a difference of approx 1 litre between minimum and maximum (Total capacity usually somewhere between 3 & 6 litres). If it was somewhere between the two when the OP picked it up and did 1000 miles then it’s completely plausible that it could be below minimum. Obviously I’m working on worst case figures here, a more reasonable scenario is that OP picked the car up with oil 1/3 of the way above minimum (approx 300ml). Car uses a little bit of oil, maybe 200ml/1000 miles and OP does a couple of thousand miles in 5 weeks, cue oil below minimum. Easily done!

Oh FFS, please.....

This is not about a car or oil. That's a red herring. No more gas lighting, OP has had enough.

No such new Toyota exists, unless it's BROKEN.

Just for you I looked up the oil consumption tolerances of a couple of current Toyotas and a BMW. The Toyotas were both 1l/1000miles and the BMW 0.7l/1000miles. The Americans seem to be able to litigate for all sorts of things that just wouldn’t happen here, take VAG and their oil consumption, if its below 1l/1000miles they will tell you to jog on. “Normal sir”

Ooh! Fight between reddington and elfy

I agree. More than enough gaslighting already.

StellaTins - What a prick.
Tell your mum to tell him not to worry about not speaking to you because he's a cunt and to tell him that

This ^, just do this.

The general principle is that most engines with under 50,000 miles on the clock shouldn't use more than a quart of oil per year. Obviously that will vary between cars, but there's no reason why it wouldn't apply to a three year old Toyota.

Your dad sounds like a controlling abuser in all honesty.

My Mot falls in the summer and my garage always carry out a Summer Check for me which is like a mini service check list. I only get it serviced every couple of years because I don’t do the miles. It’s a seven year old Landrover and hasn’t failed me yet. No warning lights, no leaks and no black smoke. I think I have checked the oil levels but they’re always fine. I know how to top it up and the coolant and washer fluid too. I give the tyres a kick occasionally, they look alright to me. It’s got a 15,000 mile service interval and it seems to cope.

limitedperiodonly

No fights, sorry.

But on Honest John there is a suggestion that the 1lt/1000miles may be a way to make it nigh impossible to claim for bad oil usage under warranty. 'Hey let's quote this, and it can't come back to us.'

But who are they to know? It's not like they research stuff, investigate stuff, try stuff out etc.

Your dad sounds like he might have some kind of ocd to me... Complete overreacttion about oil, very controlling over the car and of you to be honest.

Elfy I think you reddington, bash and Titty who was droning on about their Evo long ago should just take it outside.

Thrilling though oil changes might be for you, it's not really about that and never was.

limited, since when was it your function to tell people what to post where?