Low Oil Pressure Stop Engine

[falcons75scp]

Greetings,

On my way home from the airport last evening in my 2010 Jetta Sportwagen TDI, I got a caution light with the subject message. Now that I've read some older posts on this subject, I know that it was stupid to attempt to drive the remaining 1.5 miles home. But the engine quit after about 3/4 of a mile so I didn't make it home anyway.

I had AAA tow it to the dealership where I had just had the 40,000 mile service on Wednesday last week before driving to the airport on Thursday. I just got a call from one of the service managers who told me that the drain plug was not properly tightened when they did the service and all my oil dumped at once, and the "automatic shutdown" prevented the engine from destroying itself. I told him after reading some forum messages that I guessed that I was lucky. He said "No, we were lucky."

Is it possible that he's right? Or ... are they just hoping that I'll sell it or trade it before a problem surfaces and I won't attribute the problem to what happened and their negligence during the 40,000 maintenance? Finally, after I go pick up my car should I go have it checked my a non-dealer to see if there REALLY is no damage?

Steve
Tulsa, OK

 

[belome]

Wow, second post in the last few days where the service department was too stupid to do a simple oil change... amazing.

I highly doubt that it shut down to 'protect itself' becuase its such a safety concern, but I'll let those that really know answer field that question for you.

 

[South Coast Guy]

The only way to tell if there is damage would be to pull the heads and cylinders and look for damage to the cylinder walls and bearings. Curious about the "automatic shutdown"?

 

[Mechnurse]

I would be concerned about the turbo bearings they are very sensitive to oil pressure loss and when you shut down how fast was the engine running?

 

[falcons75scp]

I don't know that I was paying attention to the RPM when all this happened. However, I was driving at or near the posted speed limit of 40mph. At this speed, I usually use 4th gear with my 6 speed manual transmission. However, even more stupidly, when the engine quit I tried to downshift with the clutch out and then re-engage to restart the engine. That did not work.