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Fun at Jiffy Lube

I learned hands on mechanical work starting with my two first lawn mowers. A $50 riding mower with a blown engine, ended up costing about $350 to replace about 75% of everything on it. Then my first car, a 72 Gran Torino, that was fun to build an engine, then the trans died, and I learned that next.

Working on cars saves a ton of money, and I happily never had many of the horror stories. But I worked at many dealers over a few years, so I saw lots of them, and then some.

Save your money and do things yourself, you will work much harder to learn to do it right.
 



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Several years back, when I was much younger (around 60) I had the "opportunity" to be deposed for a case involving a previous employer. Guess I did okay because they paid me enough that I bought a Rotary lift that is in my shop. Now that I'm in my early 70's, under car inspections, oil changes, diff and PTU refill, tire rotation and all the other things I enjoy doing are performed with me in a vertical position. Best result of a deposition ever - the company got what they wanted and so did I.
 






When I purchased my Explorer brand new 5 years ago they gave me the option of the oil changes at the dealer or doing them myself, I told them that I would do them myself.

They cut off around $500 from the purchase price. The dealer oil change monkeys are no better than the quick lube ones. I had a friend who took in a 2015 F350 with the 6.7 diesel in it. They changed his oil and if he hadn't checked it before he left the dealership he may of been in some trouble. There was only 6 quarts of oil in the oil pan only 7 quarts low.
 












I traded in my 2010 XLT for a 2017 Sport, so I swing by Jiffy Lube for an oil change. I've been a customer for years so I'm in their database. The tech asks to scan the VIN in the door, and I say that I'm an old customer with a new vehicle, and I switched the plates off the old truck and put them on this one. She scans the VIN and asks if I'm "Bob Smith" while showing me her tablet. I say no, that must be the old owner, and then I repeat what I had already said: old customer, new vehicle, same plate. She enters the plate number instead, my correct info comes up, and we continue. She asks for the mileage, and I say 31,x...

I say I'm here for an oil change, full synthetic oil please. She says, "So just a regular oil change?" I say, no, full synthetic oil please. She gets a laminated menu card with all of their oil change options and at the top I see two full synthetic oils, one about $20 more expensive. I ask her what the difference is and she says "I don't know." Cool, I'll take the cheaper one then, thanks.

Another tech does the actual work, then she comes back to get my credit card. I ask her what services have been performed, and she says "An oil change." I ask what other services, what fluids were checked, etc. She said, "Well, your oil, obviously, and your wiper fluid, and like that." Apparently she had never heard of transmission, brake, power steering, or differential/transfer case fluids.

It's been a long day, it's hot, and I want to get home. I pay, she brings me a receipt, I go home. I check the receipt. Even after I told her at least twice I was driving a new vehicle, even after she had scanned the VIN, even after telling her that I wasn't some guy with an address 2,000 miles from her shop, she put the old vehicle info (including the wrong VIN) on the receipt. She had also added an extra hundred-thousand miles to the odometer reading. A Jiffy Lube receipt shows the vehicle service history, so I can see the last several oil changes for the wrong vehicle, and the mileage magically goes down from 167,x.. in April to 131,x.. now.

Wrong vehicle, wrong mileage, wrong history, no idea what the difference is between two oils, no idea what service was provided, and I got to see the personal information for the previous owner.

I go back and explain to the nice young lady what the situation was. She calls over... someone. Manager? Senior tech? Dude who happened to be walking by at the moment? No idea, and he didn't say. She tells him that I'm not happy because the receipt doesn't show all of the fluids that were checked. I blink, twice, say "Uh, no" and then I relate the actual situation. He proceeds attempting to fix the receipt and update my info in their database. No dice. No matter what he changes, it changes back. He tries entering a new service visit for a free service (tire check); goose egg. The computer won't print a new receipt with the correct information. He picks up the phone and calls... someone. Explains. Listens. Tries whatever they tell him. Zilch. Bupkis. Nada.

He says, "Sorry, these are old computers. It may take a couple of days for the information to reset." Asks me to come back in two days and he'll print me a new receipt with everything perfect.

So... I got my oil changed.
I hereby suggest that you change your own oil from now on. It's easy enough and cheaper and your peace of mind comes at no additional cost.
 






I guess I've been living a charmed life. 58 years of driving and never had any issues with oil changes or repairs at independent garages or dealerships. :thumbsup:

Peter
 






I guess I've been living a charmed life. 58 years of driving and never had any issues with oil changes or repairs at independent garages or dealerships. :thumbsup:

Peter
Maybe you were lucky to get honest dealers. Can't speak I had experienced honest mechanics to trust. Even less service advisors. Maybe the mechanics are OK, but we interface service advisors, and most of the time they ruin the experience. Sorry, take it back, there was a positive experience when service advisor called the mechanic to answer my questions, as he could not. They really helped me. For that, I asked their manager's email, emailed him directly and praised their help. Only time I did that in my life. But they deserved it.
As for negative experiences, I have a never-ending list. Just to list the last one, @FORD dealership, I asked how common was the waterpump failure on explorers. They told me they barely see that in their dealership. And it is more likely to be hit by lightning rather than an explorer to have a waterpump failure. That answer came after reading the forums about the problem and law suit.... Decided I will do it as preventive measure. Did it, but guess what. It was really leaking... Cannot forget the ironic cheeky grin of service advisor from the dealer I bought the parts when i told him I will try to do it myself. He handed me his business card in case I need to tow my car to him. I am thinking to pay him a visit and return him his business card with the note i do not need it anymore as I could finish it myself.
And that was just the last experience, all previous were different topics same tone...... sad
 






I guess I've been living a charmed life. 58 years of driving and never had any issues with oil changes or repairs at independent garages or dealerships. :thumbsup:

Peter
We don't hear about the billions of successful oil changes. Just the very, very low number of unsuccessful ones.
 






We don't hear about the billions of successful oil changes. Just the very, very low number of unsuccessful ones.

But it is those unsuccessful ones that can cost you a engine if you are not on top of them.

And it makes you wonder who take the quick lube shops at their word that everything was done proper and they just drive away never to know if it actually was done proper or not.
 






But it is those unsuccessful ones that can cost you a engine if you are not on top of them.

And it makes you wonder who take the quick lube shops at their word that everything was done proper and they just drive away never to know if it actually was done proper or not.
People don't think about it because the odds of something going wrong is infinitesimally rare. I learned a long time ago that a large percentage of members here are OCD about vehicle maintenance and repairs. I am one of them. We are a very small percentage of vehicle owners. Quick lube shops have very low rates of doing work that causes catastrophic failures. If they didn't then there wouldn't be so many of them. Think about it. No one is going to come here and praise a quick lube shop for doing a proper oil change. The rare visit with a mishap is what we see here. It skews our perception of reality about the risks of using these places.
 






I've worked on cars long enough to discover the real things to worry about. For taking a vehicle to someone else to work on, I worry about them stripping bolts, the drain plug threads for instance.

I bet you huge money that they almost all tighten the drain plugs too tight, because they are in a hurry, and they don't have much care for other's vehicles.

That also means I hate having someone else R&R my wheels for any purpose, they will over tighten the lug nuts. That's the one thing I am very familiar with, I have had new tires put on tons of times, and later discover how hard the lugnuts are to remove. One will come off easily, and the one next to it will take almost all of my might with my long breaker bar to loosen.

I have only had one big issue with those with one car, I had three of the locking lugnuts strip trying to remove them. I didn't have a press to remove the socket I had to use to remove the lugnuts. It took a 3/4" 12 point socket pounded onto the stripped lugnuts, to get enough grip of them to break them loose. Each time the socket had to be put in a press to force the lugnut out of it, which I did at a friend's house a month later(I didn't get the brakes done at the time I began that job).

People who do a lot of car work will understand all of the things a shop can do to mess things up. It comes down to how much they care about you and your vehicles. That's why when I do have to deal with a shop of any kind for help, I try hard to be friendly and let them know I understand their business and what they do, and tell them I appreciate them. You may have to go back to them again, so be nice if possible.
 






I literally just changed the oil pan on the 2004 yesterday because
Someone with a impact
Literally yesterday

Both boys will never let anyone work on their cars now
Because I made them buy the parts nd install them

Hehehe :popcorn:
 






That will teach them, or learn them, or both.

I started with a riding lawn mower, and then my first car, and not long after, my first engine. With help from a friend I learned about a torque wrench and what bolts were very fragile etc. It takes time, but in general, try to do it yourself. You will be happier.
 






My second car was a Triumph Spitfire. Buy your kid one of those if you want to force them to learn about wrenching. I swear I was under that car more than I drove it.
 






My second car was a Triumph Spitfire. Buy your kid one of those if you want to force them to learn about wrenching. I swear I was under that car more than I drove it.

Weren't most of us who enjoy wrenching on vehicles always under the first few that we purchased?

I know that I was until I was able to afford a close to new one, and even then I was the one fixing it when something failed. Not to mention all of my friends who knew that I liked doing it and would show up in my driveway with a broken down truck or car for me to take a look at.
 






Weren't most of us who enjoy wrenching on vehicles always under the first few that we purchased?

I know that I was until I was able to afford a close to new one, and even then I was the one fixing it when something failed. Not to mention all of my friends who knew that I liked doing it and would show up in my driveway with a broken down truck or car for me to take a look at.
Back when I was a new driver affording the insurance was easy but buying the vehicle was expensive (today it is the opposite). This meant I bought beaters that needed work. I drove the Triumph through college and a few years after I graduated. One reason I had to wrench on it was because nearly every mechanic in my small isolated midwestern town wouldn't touch it. Every part was a special order too.

I was lucky that my father was very mechanically inclined. He could take a pile of parts and build the coolest things from them. One that sticks in my mind was when he took parts from a Pinto, Triumph and a riding lawn mower and made a mower on steroids that was so fast it should never have been made. He used the transmission and rear end from the Triump and front suspension and steering parts from the Pinto. I think the engine was an English V4 of some type. The number of things he fabricated over the years taught me a lot growing up. He ended up getting cancer in his mid 40s and the treatment for it physically hampered his ability to do the larger scale creative stuff as much. He ended up "supervising" me, my brother, the grandkids and many others to do repairs on any number of other things after his bout with cancer.
 






I’m sure there are a few guys at jiffy lube that care and know what they are doing. But seems to me this is about the equivalent of taking your vehicle to McDonalds to have the oil changed. A few times I have broke down mostly out of lazieness and took a vehicle to a jiffy lube type place to either have transmission or transfer case fluid changed, I get out to talk to them and watch them. I’m an easy going guy so I try not to be a dick about watching them but I want to see what they are doing.
 






I’m sure there are a few guys at jiffy lube that care and know what they are doing. But seems to me this is about the equivalent of taking your vehicle to McDonalds to have the oil changed. A few times I have broke down mostly out of lazieness and took a vehicle to a jiffy lube type place to either have transmission or transfer case fluid changed, I get out to talk to them and watch them. I’m an easy going guy so I try not to be a dick about watching them but I want to see what they are doing.
Another thing about these quick lube places is that it encourages people to get their oil changed and perform other routine maintenance. The number of cars this has kept on the road is several orders of magnitude greater than the rare problems they cause.
 






Another thing about these quick lube places is that it encourages people to get their oil changed and perform other routine maintenance. The number of cars this has kept on the road is several orders of magnitude greater than the rare problems they cause.
Yes.… Sort of like how McDonalds encourages people to eat food?
 



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