Heres why you do it yourself!

[jnelson]

About a week and half ago I went to one of the car wash places our terminal has an account at. Been there before with little or no problem.



Well anyway, this afternoon I decided to change my fuel filter, clean the air filter wash the engine etc... . I checked the oil and it was WAY over full. checked it again and again and again. Somethings wrong. Went and dug out my charge receipt and they put 4 gallons of oil in my truck instead of 3. I am KILLIN mad . I drained it down to level and called the guys and ofcourse all I get is a refund on the extra gallon. But they lost a customer for life... . not to mention all the bad PR #@$%! Im gonna give them.



Thats why I need to do it myself - all the time.

 

[RandyHamilton]

A few years ago

My sister had a new 1996 F-150 (less than 10k miles on it)that she took in for an oil change at one of those quickie oil change places. When they tried to start her truck after completing the process it would not start,, it made starter noises but there was no indication of it turning over at all. She had to have it towed to the dealer.



The dealers' mechanics ended up dismantling the top end and found that one of the cylinders was FULL OF OIL!!! It seems that the nozel they used was stuck in the hole and turned on at a higher pressure than it was supposed to be set to which forced oil into the cylinder via a valve.



The Ford service manager contacted the quickie oil change manager and told him the story and if he didn't pay the 1500 bucks it was going to cost that their certified Ford Mechanics would be in court to testify as to what they found.



Starter, flywheel and a few other things had to be replaced.



Couple years later she noticed a strange noise and it turns out that the push rods were in need of replacement. She went back to Ford and Ford went back to the quickie oil change manager who again forked over the dough.



She doesn't use the quickie oil change establishments any more. .

 

[ACoyle]

I'm only curious - howcum the flywheel?

AC

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

My backpacking partner took his Toy Tacoma to a quick lube joint. They didn't get the drain plug back right and it was toast. Now he is driving a newer Tundra.

 

[JApol]

I'm only curious - how cum the flywheel?

AC

My bet is that the hydro locked cylinder caused the starter teeth to take a chunk out of the flywheel teeth

 

[Dieselnut59]

There has never been an oil change done on ANY of my vehicles (including my service truck, the 1998, at work) that I have not done myself. One exception was the first "complimentry" oil change on my 1996. I do them myself, know it is done right and with only quality parts. This is the same reason I doubt I will ever personally buy another used vehicle. I am ANAL about good service. If I don't KNOW a vehicle has been properly serviced, I dont have much interest in it.



I saw a WAY worse situation than yours on a customer's forklift one time. The seal had blown on the input shaft of the hydraulic pump. This particular lift had a hydraulic pump that, similar to our Cummins, was engine gear driven. The seal blew, allowing hydraulic oil to go into the engine. A four cylinder gas 9propane) engine that holds 1 gallon of oil had almost THREE gallons in it before the customer reported "something's wrong". They kept running it until it lost power and blew oil everywhere. Luckily for them, I removed the hydraulic pump, replaced the seal and serviced it with new oil and filter and it was ok. It had just blown out the dipstick. It smoked for a while too because the crankcase ventilation system was full of oil.

If I ever had to take a vehicle to be serviced, it would ONLY be to the dealer and ONLY if I were for some reason unable to do it myself.

 

[RandyHamilton]

Flywheel

Good Guess JApol,,



my understanding was that the flywheell was somewhat less than optimal being caught between the starter and the cylinder...

 

[GAmes]

With almost 493k on mine I'll have to sit down and count how many oil changes it has had. I know exactly how many of them that were not done by me... 2... . and only because I was not at a place I could do them myself.

 

[Fireman Dave]

My sister got just a few miles down the highway after an oil change in her Suburu before realizing there were "problems". The problems were a result of the guy who worked on it forgetting an important step in a basic oil change - putting new oil in after draining the old out. My sister got a "new", lower mileage engine out of the deal. I think she also got 4 tires thrown in too. It was an expensive day for that place. Of course, if she would have been paying attention to her idiot lights or gauges (whatever Suburu has), all of the hassle of an engine swap could have been avoided.

 

[ACoyle]

Fireman Dave - My daughter had a similar experience.

She had a new Checy Sprint (A while ago). I heard a rod knock in a car with only 1,000 miles on it. Checy said they would only replace the rod and bearing. I objected saying the crank probably was not good either and c'mon, it only has 1K on it. They had their way. As fate would have it, they only finger tightened the drain plug. Engine gone - Enter new car.

 

[DLausche]

Similar experience here. About 7 yrs ago we brought our brand new Subaru (2K miles on it) in to have the oil changed cause were headed out of town for the afternoon and I didn't have time to do it myself. Well, towards the end of the service I happened to glance through the window at them workin on our car and notice one of the guys filling up the washer fluid. Only problem with that was he was putting it in the crankcase. I immediately went through the door and said "that is not right". The guy then had the gall to tell me "oh, that won't hurt it at all, no biggie". Engine had not been started yet so I made them drain and flush it completely and then do another complete change and flush again the next day after one trip to work. I have done all oil changes on my vehicles since then!



-Deon