Man drops car off at Walmart for a routine oil change. What the tech ‘accidentally’ did next goes horribly wrong

Getting an oil change is supposed to be one of the easiest car maintenance tasks. You drop your car off, wait a bit, and drive away with fresh oil. But for TikTok user Scooter, a trip to Walmart’s Auto Center turned into something much more serious and his video showing what happened has been watched over 166,000 times.

Scooter brought his car to Walmart for a regular oil change. Instead of a quick in-and-out visit, he ended up filming a conversation with Walmart workers who had to explain a big problem. The employee told him they were now checking his transmission and looking at his tires to make sure nothing else was wrong.

What happened next was the real issue. “So, the tech accidentally mistook the drain plug for the transmission plug,” the worker told Scooter in the TikTok video. The technician thought he was draining the oil, but he actually pulled the wrong plug and drained out at least a quart of transmission fluid. He put the plug back in right away once he realized the mistake.

You really don’t want this happening to your car

The Walmart worker tried to reassure Scooter that the mistake didn’t cause the different fluids to mix together. He said the transmission fluid didn’t get into the oil or the filter. The team was checking to see if the transmission fluid level was still okay and would add more if needed. They were also making sure the plug was tight enough and watching for any leaks.

This kind of mix-up can really hurt your car. The transmission drain plug and the oil drain plug are two separate things, and mixing them up is a problem that shouldn’t happen. Your transmission needs that fluid to stay cool and work right. If there’s not enough fluid in there, the whole transmission can overheat. When that happens, you could be looking at repair bills in the thousands.

Walmart does tons of oil changes every year at its auto centers around the country. Most of them go fine, but stories like this one make people wonder about how well the workers are trained. People who saw Scooter’s video weren’t happy. One person who said they work as a mechanic couldn’t believe someone would get those two plugs confused.

This isn’t the only time someone has had trouble at a Walmart Auto Center. A woman in Louisiana said workers forgot to put her oil drain plug back on after changing her oil. She said it wrecked her engine and would cost almost $10,000 to fix. Walmart only wanted to pay around $6,000, so she took them to court. Cases like hers and situations similar to another incident where a woman’s car was destroyed show how quickly and easily a simple service can turn into a nightmare.

If you want to skip the stress of wondering if your oil change was done right, you have options. You can learn to do it yourself at home if you have the space and tools. Some people hire mobile mechanics who come to their house and do the work right in their driveway, where you can watch. 

You can also go to auto parts stores that let you rent space to work on your own car. Just make sure you show up during normal hours because arriving right before closing at auto parts stores can cause issues. When you do the work yourself or watch it happen, you know it’s done the right way.