Can I Sue Quick Car Maintenance Services Like Oil Changes, Tires, and Brakes?

Many of us have used a quick-service auto maintenance shop at one time or another. While these services are usually uneventful, complications can occur. These high-volume operations sometimes prioritize speed over training and upselling over long-standing client relationships.

This business model can lead to faulty repairs and poor service delivery. Technicians pressured to move fast may install the wrong part or mistakenly disable a critical safety feature like airbag alerts. When something goes awry, understand your right to take legal action.

If you suffered injury or losses as a result of working with one of these shops, you may want to discuss your options with an attorney. You may be able to handle the dispute yourself if you only have small losses. If the damage is extensive or someone was injured in an accident caused by substandard service, speak with an experienced personal injury lawyer or car accident lawyer in your state.

In the meantime, learn about the key principles and general legal questions you’ll want to keep in mind below:

• Can I Sue If My Car Is Damaged at the Shop?
• Types of Auto Repair Shop Services in Lawsuits
• Should I Choose the Dealership or a Car Maintenance Service?
• An Example of Grounds To Sue a Mechanic
• Negligence Claims Against A Car Maintenance Shop

Can I Sue If My Car Is Damaged at the Shop?

Yes, you can generally sue a car maintenance shop like Valvoline or Jiffy Lube for causing injury or property damage to your vehicle. Common legal actions taken against these types of auto shops include claims under negligence and consumer protection laws.

Negligence

If a body shop or other quick service company failed to exercise reasonable care in their vehicle repair or other services, you may have a negligence cause of action. These claims focus on the harm caused by careless work.

Depending on state law, negligence claims often allow for recovery of broad damages, especially if injury is involved. Still, they must be direct, foreseeable, and tied to the injury or property damage.

Recoverable damages in a negligence case might include:

• Property repair/replacement
• Medical bills
• Lost wages

You may also be entitled to further damages for pain and suffering when serious injury or wrongful death is involved. We’ll review a detailed example of an auto mechanic’s negligence later in this article.

Consumer Protection/Breach of Contract

Consumer protection laws or breach of contract may provide additional protection if a shop fails to deliver the service promised or misrepresents the repair work they provided. Depending on state laws, you may be able to file a consumer protection lawsuit if you ran into engine damage after an oil change due to improper mechanic work.

The damages you might recover in these actions are generally limited to financial losses. This might include:

• Refunds
• Repair/replacement costs
• Diminished value

These are financial remedies and penalties set by state law. It’s not uncommon for plaintiffs to combine a negligence claim for unsafe repair with a consumer protection claim for deceptive practices. Depending on whether a crash was involved, either a personal injury or car accident attorney licensed in your state can help you sort through the damages to which you may be entitled.

Types of Auto Repair Shop Services in Lawsuits

Auto repair and car maintenance shops don’t just do oil changes. They advertise all sorts of services, from tire rotation to engine repair, windshield wiper replacement, and transmission work, similar to what you’d find in a car mechanic shop. 

Some advertised services include:

• Brake pad replacement
• Air filter and oil filter replacement
• Wheel alignment and other tire services (some even sell new tires)
• Brake fluid, motor oil, and other fluids (like coolant) replacement
• Brake repair
• Air conditioning servicing
• Gasket and seal replacement
• Hoses and rotors servicing
• Tune-ups

Many of these services could result in a lawsuit against the mechanic if they cause damage. Some services, such as brake repairs, may involve a higher risk to your vehicle or safety than others. A judge would assess whether the service went wrong and how you suffered from it. 

Should I Choose the Dealership or a Car Maintenance Service?

Where you go for car repairs depends on a few factors. You’ll likely want to compare the costs and reviews of each place. You should also check to see if your vehicle’s warranty is still valid. 

You have options when the check engine light goes on. You don’t have to bring your car to the Honda, Ford, Dodge, or Chevy dealership just for preventative maintenance or regular service. 

According to federal law, basic vehicle maintenance and vehicle service do not void any warranty you may have (in most instances). That would include tasks such as oil changes and tire rotations.

Your choices are more limited if you rely on an extended warranty. An extended warranty is not included in the price of your vehicle. It is a separate service contract that you pay for in addition to the price of your new vehicle.

Read the language of your service contract with care. Most say that certain work must be performed by approved repair shops, such as those certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). If you don’t use an approved shop, you breach the service contract. Any damages you experience as a result of the work done will not be covered.

Both dealerships and quick maintenance shops may fail to provide adequate service. Either option can be sued for the damage caused by poor work.

An Example of Grounds To Sue a Mechanic

Here’s an example of what can go wrong and what you can do about it.

Suppose you’re taking your family on a summer road trip to Yellowstone. You bring your trusty, reliable Toyota in for an oil change at Big Bad Car Service, Inc., an oil change company. While the car is up, you ask them as an afterthought to rotate your tires. In a few minutes, you’re ready to go. Or so you think.

A Bad Tire Rotation

You drive away. After going over a pothole, the car feels off. You attribute it to uneven wear on the tires, as it had been a long time since you last had them rotated.

However, it doesn’t get better. The car begins vibrating as you drive through North Dakota. You initially think it’s the road, but you wonder if you may be getting a flat. You pull over at a rest stop and check. Nothing looks wrong. So back on the road you go.

Discovering the Car Problem

Now you’re driving the speed limit on I-94 across Montana. All of a sudden, the car violently shakes. You’re certain you have a flat, so you get off at the next exit, which is about 100 yards away. You pull over, hop out, then check your tire. It looks fine, but you notice that you are missing a lug nut. Something is wrong.

This time, you have your adult son hop out and watch as you drive up the exit ramp. Sure enough, the tire rocks back and forth, as if the lug nuts had been tightened only about halfway. When you reach the top of the ramp, pull out your trusty tire iron and check if the tires need to be tightened. You quickly discover, when the bolts shear off, that they had been overtightened.

That leaves you stranded without a workable car in blistering heat.

Fixing the Bad Maintenance Issue

You call for a tow to the nearest repair shop and spend the night at a local motel. A skillful and talented mechanic has you back on the road by noon the next day. You had a paid reservation at a place about an hour and a half away, but they let you cancel with a refund when they heard of your plight.

What Are Your Losses?

While the most important thing is that no one was hurt, you’re dealing with many consequences, including:

• The cost of the tire rotation
• The towing and repair fees
• The motel room fees
• Food costs during your unplanned stop

Worst of all, however, you lost the afternoon you had intended to spend the next day hiking in Yellowstone. To top it all off, you now have a migraine. At least you caught the problem before things got too dangerous.

What, if anything, can you recover from Big Bad? You might start a negligence claim to find out.

Negligence Claims Against A Car Maintenance Shop

A negligence claim is one way to recover losses. Although state law varies a little, you usually have to prove four things to make a legal claim for negligence.

Duty of Care

The first element is duty. You would need to show that the car maintenance shop owed you a duty of care. In this context, this element is easy. In exchange for money, a vehicle maintenance shop assumes a duty to you.

That duty is to act with reasonable care. This means that Big Bad must perform the tire rotation as a reasonably prudent vehicle maintenance shop in the same or similar circumstances. They don’t have to be experts, even if they advertise themselves as ASE-certified. They just have to act reasonably.

Breach of Duty

The second element is a breach of that duty. This means that you have to show that the car maintenance shop failed to perform the work in a reasonably prudent way. In other words, you have to show that they acted with negligence.

This element is more difficult to prove. You must be able to present proof that the shop was negligent in the work they did.

In the example story above, the shop could offer up numerous possible reasons for the tire problem. Maybe someone sabotaged your car while it was parked at a rest stop. Who knows?

A judge won’t just take your word for it. Most times, you’ll need a mechanic or some other expert to show that the service work was done wrong.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Another legal theory may also be applicable in our example. It’s called res ipsa loquitur. That’s Latin for “the thing speaks for itself.” To rely on this theory, you would need to show:

• The incident does not ordinarily happen in the absence of negligence
• It was caused by something that was within the shop’s control (some states require it to be within the shop’s exclusive control)
• You did not contribute to the cause

You would need to present evidence that the tires were fine before you brought your car to Big Bad (which they were), that your car was under Big Bad’s control (which it was), and that you didn’t touch the tires (which you didn’t).

Res ipsa loquitur allows a court to presume that the shop acted negligently. The shop could still offer evidence that it did competent work, but this theory would give you a leg up by putting the burden on Big Bad. Since the law varies from state to state, you may want to consider consulting a lawyer if you need to rely on res ipsa loquitur.

Causation

The third element of negligence is causation. You would need to show that the damages you suffered were a direct and foreseeable result of the shop’s negligence.

In our example, you would show that the reason your tire almost fell off was that Big Bad did the tire rotation wrong. Assuming you could demonstrate that Big Bad breached its duty to act as a reasonably prudent car maintenance shop, either through expert testimony or by applying the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, you would be able to establish a connection between Big Bad’s negligence and your losses. In the example story, causation is not too hard to prove.

Damages

The fourth and final element is damage. The law will not compensate you for everything you believe you’re owed. It will only allow you to recover for “legally cognizable” damages, which depend on the nature of your claim.

Let’s go back to our example. Thankfully, no one was hurt. You could have been killed. You could have hit another car and hurt someone else. Had a personal injury claim been involved, the shop would be liable for reasonably foreseeable damages, including medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Nonetheless, you have a lot to complain about. You may believe that you should be able to recover for everything bad that happened to you because of Big Bad’s negligence. That could include:

• The cost of the tire rotation
• The towing and repair fees
• The local motel room fees
• The cost of your meal at the motel
• The time you lost from Yellowstone
• The migraine you got from having to deal with all of this

You may be able to recover for some, but not all, of these. Expenses such as food, a hotel, or lost vacation time are typically not compensable unless they are directly related to a physical injury. Migraines without medical documentation are rarely compensable. While recoverable damages can vary by state, you should be able to get the cost of the tire rotation, towing fees, and repair fees.

As for the cost of food and the hotel, you needed to eat and sleep somewhere. Those expenses aren’t necessarily a result of Big Bad’s negligence. You would be very lucky if you could recover for the time lost, let alone your headache. A lawyer could help you determine what your legally cognizable damages are and what you may be able to recover.

Get Legal Advice After Bad Repairs or Maintenance

The stakes in our example aren’t all that high. The bad tire rotation proved to be an inconvenience, nothing more. You are not out a lot of money, and you are planning on going back to Yellowstone next summer anyway.

Just as a matter of good customer service, Big Bad might compensate you without an argument. You would follow up by sending them a demand letter when you got home, along with receipts and any pictures or videos you may have taken — save the sheared-off lug nuts, if you can. If they don’t agree to cover your out-of-pocket costs, you could get a mechanic to testify for you and bring them to small claims court. You might be able to handle this yourself.

If someone was injured, however, you should give strong consideration to consulting an experienced personal injury attorney in your area. A good attorney can help you better understand what your rights are and at least give you leverage when you are negotiating with the car maintenance shop or its insurance company.