skewba98z28

iTrader: (14)

That's Wal Mart for ya. Beside's that. I wouldn't even let them change the oil in my Pinto if I owned one.

YoungGunLs1

I worked at a fast lube shop and the people who were cheap and went to wal-mart would come in and ask us to look over their vehicles after they had it changed there (who would have thought . And of course the nice people we were, we looked over their car and sometimes found all the things wal-mart forgot to do or did wrong, which finally led to them coming to us and spending the extra $15 and getting it done right and in under 10 minutes instead of 3 hours. I also recomend spending the extra cash if you can't change it yourself for whatever reason and get it done somewhere with a reputation.

spy2520

iTrader: (3)

some of those lube shops are suspect, i have friends who have seen first hand stupid thngs like if the guy cant reach your oil filter easily he, will make it look clean like its a new one, all the stories i've heard just in the past week, i'm the only one touching my car.

todddchi

iTrader: (3)

I spent a couple summers working at quicklube shops. I can tell you that the quality of the work you get will be purely random, based upon the tech, your attitude, the moods... anything.

I generally did a good job, but there are a few things you should avoid:

1.) If you have a car with a VERY difficult filter to get to... I'd make sure I knew what was on there and what is going on there. There are some cars that can be a real bitch. Lincoln Mark VIII's stick out... and GM in-pans suck... A good thing might be to ask for the old filter because you want to do an oil analysis or something. Pretty harmless.

2.) They are going to at least dump your oil and fill it back up with bulk crap. 99% of the time the filter will be changed. The only times I can recall the filter not being changed are when: we didn't have one in stock to use or the customer was a dick or yelling at us to hurry...

3.) If your car is a POS, we will treat it like it is a POS. Many, many people coming back saying we broke things we didn't touch. If your car is nice and in good shape, mechanics will respect it more, in general.

4.) There are a few common things to look out for:

A.) Stripped oil plug. Might have come in like that. If we caught it, we'd point it out before touching it. If we did it, we'd either tap to use an oversize, or in the worst case, use a last resort plug. If we actually did it, we'd fess up and the customer would be taken care of.

B.) Leaky oil filter. There's a small chance, that the gasket from the original filter will stay seated. In a rush sometimes the tech would put a new filter on... so two gaskets. This happend twice over 6-7 months. One the customer came back noting oil leak and we fixed. One... we bought the customer a new engine.

Finally, I personally would not have a quick lube shop do any chassis greasing. They use pressure guns and are likely to bust your seals. Do that yourself. Gear oil changes are bad too... because it's sucked out with a tube and refilled.

I do think, that the inline systems used to fully change transfluid and coolant can be good. Better than at-home partial changes.

fyi... I won't go to them because I like a particular oil in my ride and you pay too much to bring your own oil.

But if you have to... find a friendly, well kept shop, and go there and only there, and BE NICE.

00formLs1

i know what your talking about, i work at the lube center at wal-mart and they have a bunch of crap policys, things like no quick drain plugs, if the pan has the a small dent they will decline it, if there is any mechanical nosie that sounds suspiciouis, as for taking you car to pep boys, nows thats asking for trouble. am sure all places have some studip people, we had this one guy who could not tell the difference between a oil drain plug and a tranny drain plug. this guy was a idiot, ricer, every time a honda would come in he would talk about his vtec he had in cali. he was talking **** about my car once and i told him theres no replacement for displacement and he had a blank look on his face. i asked him if he knew what that meant and he said ya if it breaks you can't fix it. i get my oil channged at the wal-mart i work at but only by someone i know will do a good job, i do it there because i get a very very good discount on mobile 1. There have been some pretty cool cars come to my work , things from z06, c5's f-bodies m3's cobras, and i always think to my self why the hell are you coming to wal-mart.

XLR8TOR

Wow. Since you put it that way, there are obviously no other solutions. He had no choice but to go to Wal-Mart

Joker

Actualy its not all that uncommon...they're refered as oil outs. I worked at Firestone for about six months and we had ase certified mechanics (not knocking any mechanics at all...) who would forget to tighten the drain plug, the filter, one even left the filter off competely. This shop usually ends up paying for a new motor and apologizing their tails off.

Worse than that are wheel offs, which can cost the shop from a couple of grand for damage to the vehicle to several million dollars for hospital bills, property damage and even more if a death occurs. That happened just once while I was there and Firestone paid dearly. Someone had spun the lugs on by hand and not torqued them down at all.

Not even two miles down the road the owner notices the severe viration and is about to turn around and come back when the left rear tires goes flying off, bounces several hundred feet into the air and lands in the windshield of a parked car, thankfully no one inside.

In both cases, the tech is fired on the spot.

My wife took her Hoinda to a Jiffy Lube as I was out of town and she thought that it would be cool to check off that chore for me to do when I got back, the tech there left the oil filler cap off and she drove it for a couple of days wondering WTF the smell was and all....no damage done but she was offered free oil changes for a year. She declined.

prince xizor

iTrader: (2)

Just a suggestion but find a dealership you like and just ask them to change the oil and filter and let you watch. My dealership does that for me. It cost like 8 bucks and I dont have to dispose of the oil afterwords or deal w/ the mess. Just tell them at 5.60 a qt, you want to make sure M1 make it into the car, because you have read about uncrupulious mechanics putting the m1 in their trunks. Like Todddichi says, "Be Nice" and they will try to take care of you.

spy2520

iTrader: (3)

i also know a dumbass that changed oil but didnt put any oil back in, he said the car almost made it out of the parking lot. new motor, fired on the spot...

Joker

I do everything myself, that way its gets done, gets done right, is cost effective, and allows me more time with my car. Anything I HAVE to take to a shop is done with my personal oversight. When it comes to my cars, I trust very few people.

paper doll

iTrader: (7)

actually walmart isnt the only place thatl'll do a **** poor job, NTB , big ten tire, and shelll lube, all did something or another to my car when changing the oil , NTB didnt even change the filter , so my suggestion is to find some way to change it yourself, if you HAVE to do somethign to your car you can't do yourself take it to a performance shop , i dunno where you live but i take my car to redline or finish line, but those are both locally owned and family operated, just try to find a place you trust next time, but i would try to save some cash nd do it yourself anyways, oh and to add to this NTB slammed my door on the side of the car lift and refuses to pay for the damage in the paint, so make sure you trust the ppl you take it to , cheap isnt always the best, actually cheap is never the best. and another thing, we bought ramps at o'reilly , and can get the formula up there and i can get all the way under the caar and move my arms, we used these ramps to change the headers, im sure the oil would be no prob

CashMoney

iTrader: (2)

My friend took his jeep in to get his oil changed at Jiffy lube (just hit 3k miles). Long story short they drained the tranny over-filled the block and is going through a hell of a time to get his money back from Jiffy-Lube.

jkichline

iTrader: (1)

$8 charge gets you $8 service....best bargain is to have someone you trust do the work.... yourself. Cuz, sometimes $50 doesn't get you crap either!

Rescue Ranger

iTrader: (10)

Exact thing happened to my sister's Grand Prix GT. Her husband found the filter sitting on the driveway. Luckily the car retained enough oil for the 25 mile commute and she had no idea there was a problem until he got to her office with a filter in hand! No damage to car, but could've been disastrous.

black01_WS6

iTrader: (13)

give me 8$ and I will change your oil. thats gas money. filter and plug are very close and easy access.

00firebird

iTrader: (3)

yeah i spend more than 30$ just on the mobil 1 oil and filter and dont really feel like spending another 20$ to have someone else do it so i do it myself.

spy2520

iTrader: (3)

looks like they owe him alot of money.

shudog

iTrader: (3)

I'm the same way, but occasionally I'll take my daily driver Jeep to a Jiffy Lube or whatever. I'm nice, and so far, no problems. It's convenient if I'm really busy. I hate getting under my Jeep when it's really crappy weather out, snowing or raining. This last time they pointed out that my belts needed replaced which was nice to know, plus they air up the tires, add washer fluid, check the diff fluids, etc, which would've taken me an extra hour.

gotjuice

I prefer to change my oil myself, I just dont trust other people to work on my car.

1994Z28Lt1

iTrader: (1)

yeah when you take your car somewhere to get stuff like that done its a real tossup what kind of service you will get i used to work in the auto center at fleet farm and i was amazed at how the techs treated some of the peoples cars total disrespect the idiots would strip out drain plugs only change the filter if it was easy to get to etc not only that but moving them in and out of the bays there was total disrespect for other people's ride breaking the tires lose doing nuetral drops withs peoples car i was amazed i chewed their ***'s for it i for one always did a good job on other peoples vehicles i work on other vehicles as they were my own i cant believe some of the worthless people that work at some of these shops