O'Reilly Auto Parts

I am posting this as a response to the O'Reilly Auto Parts district manager having just called here claiming O'Reilly received the defective pump back from me, will not produce it, and therefore will not take responsibility for the damage their defective pump caused to my engine.

May 12, 2012

O’Reilly Auto Parts
325 East Cloverland Drive
Ironwood MI 49938

Request for payment from O’Reilly Auto Parts

The following chronology lists events caused by negligence of O’Reilly Auto Parts store, located at 325 East Cloverland Drive, Ironwood MI 49938:

Dec 12, 2011 - I noticed small amount of engine coolant seeping from the water pump on my 1996 Lumina APV minivan with 3.4L engine.

Dec 13, 2011 - I went to O’Reilly Auto Parts store at 325 East Cloverland Drive Ironwood, MI to purchase a water pump for my 1996 Lumina APV minivan with 3.4L engine. I gave my detailed vehicle information to O’Reilly clerk 45169, who then did a lookup and sold me a water pump (see O’Reilly invoice [protected]).

Dec 15, 2011 – I removed the leaky water pump from my minivan and noticed it had nine vanes in it to circulate engine coolant. I noticed the water pump O’Reilly sold me the day before had only six vanes. I immediately phoned the O’Reilly store to inquire about the difference and reached the same clerk who had sold me the six-vane water pump the day before. I give him my vehicle information again, and the invoice number from the sale the day before; he looked up the information and reassured me that he’d sold me the correct water pump. I then went ahead and installed it along with new engine coolant, then bled the engine cooling system per the GM-specified process.

The new water pump initially appeared to be working properly in the driveway, but after driving the van about 7 miles the engine temperature suddenly started rising well above the halfway point. I let the engine cool down, returned home and re-bled the engine again. I then resumed driving to Ironwood and the engine temperature suddenly started rising well above the halfway point again. I drove straight to O’Reilly’s store to show them the problem and also to return the core of the nine vane water pump which I had removed from my van (see invoice [protected]). I noticed the person who had sold me the water pump one day earlier at the counter, and asked him to look at the situation and give me his idea of what might be wrong. I told him that the water pump he had sold me had only six vanes and showed him the core of the nine-vaned one I’d removed. He again did a lookup, and insisted that he’d sold me the correct pump. I informed him I’d never had any overheating problems with the pump I’d removed, only that it had just developed a slow seep of engine coolant. He stood by his claim that the newly-developed overheating was not caused by the pump he’d sold me.

The overheating problem continued. I took the van back to repeatedly, and showed the overheating problem to Scott, Casey and George, each time explaining the replacement water pump purchase from their store and newly-developed overheating problem. They didn’t recommend any solution. I kept re-bleeding the engine.

After a few weeks of this overheating problem my van suddenly began purging the coolant out of the reservoir bottle and onto the ground. I continued going to O’Reilly and showed them this newly developed problem. They still offered no ideas.

I then attempted some Internet research on the water pump required for my van, and discovered the APV minivan required a nine-vane pump, and not the six-vane pump O’Reilly had sold me. I also learned that the coolant purging from the reservoir while the van engine was running indicated that a head gasket was failing and allowing combustion gasses back into the cooling system, and the combustion gas pressure was thus pushing coolant out of the engine. I started adding Bars head gasket sealer from Wal-Mart. This did not help the problem.

I went back to O’Reilly on Jan 20, 2012 and informed the George his store had sold me a six-vane water pump when in fact a nine-vane one was required. The store did another lookup and sold me yet another water pump, this time with nine vanes instead of six (see invoice [protected]). George also informed me that clerk who had sold me the first water pump had been “let go” because he’d been looking up and selling incorrect parts to other customers as well.

I returned the six-vane water pump to O’Reilly as a core later on Jan 20, 2012 (see invoice [protected]).

The van now ran much longer without overheating with the proper nine-vane water pump installed, however, on longer drives the engine was still losing enough coolant internally to eventually run out of it and overheat.

So the minivan had now developed an overheating problem caused by internal coolant loss. The problem continued, so I kept purchasing more and more head gasket sealer and coolant from O’Reilly’s store and other stores (see invoices [protected], 2218, 181404, and Car Quest # 123977).

Eventually the engine began misfiring and blowing coolant directly out between the head and block and onto the ground.

I had to have the heads removed from my minivan and the engine repaired, the damage determined to have been caused by the insufficient coolant circulation directly due to the incorrect water pump sold to me by O’Reilly’s store. (The second pump supplied by O’Reilly is still installed and working properly.) The repairs cost me $1263.81 (see Broadway Automotive invoice #21124). The ongoing purchases of new engine coolant and assorted head sealer additives exceeded $50.

I hereby request that O’Reilly Auto Parts refund my out-of-pocket repair and cooling system antifreeze-head sealer costs of $1313.81 within 10 days of their receipt of this itemization. If O’Reilly Auto Parts does not honor this request, I will add to my request the cost for recovery of court legal action expenses to secure my damages.

Sincerely,

Leland Sarmont,
11881 N. MacKinnon St.
Iron Belt, WI 54536