Man, I hate those quick lube joints.

whiskywizard

whiskywizard

New member
I was on a Maritime roadtrip vacation and need the oil changed before I got home. The dealers were either too far or too busy, so I stopped at Mr. Lube in Moncton NB. The guy in the pit ("downstairs") was unable to find the filter. He called up to the guy at floor level ("upstairs") to look. No joy. Then they called in another guy, no luck, but he called the manager. 10 minutes more and they finally found it. It would be funny if it weren't kinda sad. :shrug:

All this after the "upstairs" guy suggested I should also have the engine flushed. I reminded him that the truck only had 16,000 km on it, and even the old oil looked perfect. That's when he started on the benefit of N2 in tires.

Man, I hate those quick lube joints.
 
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Never! Never go there again! They are notoriously incapable and incompetent.

A couple more days or a week with your original oil would not have killed your engine.
 
I have a 'One Stop Oil Change' near me and they are great!!! (I don't take the 4R there, just all of my work trucks). They are fast and actually do the job the right way. I think a lot of it has to do with the employees (duh). They have 3 bays and all of them men working there are 50+ and seem like they are all retired military. "hello sir", "yes sir" (I'm not the age to be called 'sir' by any of them either!) I've never had an issue with any of their service. Now.....I also know a friend who took theirs to a 'quick place' in another state, they forgot to put the drain plug back in, friend ran without oil till all the 'bells came on'. They are all not the same, but there are a few diamonds in the rough.
 
Why do people believe the dealership is any better than an oil change shop. I understand the familiarity that employees at a dealership have, but if you fact or in complacency and the fact that a job is only done as well as an employee wants to do it, there isn't really a difference.

My opinion is this...if you don't like how a place washes your car or changes your oil, do it your damn self and stop being a whiner.

Question: If you heard this conversation going on, why didn't you just tell them where the filter was? I'm guessing because you don't know either?
 
I'd be surprised if the lube techs at the dealership knew where the filter is located. I know for a fact they didn't change my filter the first time I went in for a change, even though I paid for it. Same thing happened to my gf at a Nissan dealership. They're either too lazy to change it or they keep the new filter to sell later.
Best bet is to find someone you trust or do it yourself. I would have drove the 2k miles before I let anyone change mine.
 
Grape Ape said:
Why do people believe the dealership is any better than an oil change shop. I understand the familiarity that employees at a dealership have, but if you fact or in complacency and the fact that a job is only done as well as an employee wants to do it, there isn't really a difference.
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Disagree. At least for a 5th Gen, most of which will still be in warranty. If a 3rd party service screws up your engine you are going to have a serious finger-pointing issue to make it right. OTOH, even if incompetent, a Toy dealer cannot point the finger elsewhere.

As long as I'm in warranty, noone else will be touching mine for this reason alone.
 
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philsey said:
Disagree. At least for a 5th Gen, most of which will still be in warranty. If a 3rd party service screws up your engine you are going to have a serious finger-pointing issue to make it right. OTOH, even if incompetent, a Toy dealer cannot point the finger elsewhere.

As long as I'm in warranty, noone else will be touching mine for this reason alone.
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Agree, but that's not what I was saying. There are people who believe that just because the guy works at a dealership, he has a better work ethic or knows more about the truck than someone at Jiffy Lube and the job will be done right. Then you find out the guy at Jiffy Lube has been driving and working on 4Runners for 20 years and the guy at the dealership drives a Hyundai and has been at the dealership for 3 weeks. That's what I was getting at, in terms of warranty, absolutely agree.
 
Had a quick lube strip my oil pan on an old civic I had once. They just siliconed it and put it in. Didn't find out about it til the next oil change.

The thing about dealerships is if you always take it there, then you have someone to blame (and hopefully get a fix) if something like that happens. Obviously doing your own maintenance if you are so inclined is your best bet.
 
You might think this but the dealer and service tech will lie to your face just as bad as the sales team.
 
Grape Ape said:
Why do people believe the dealership is any better than an oil change shop. I understand the familiarity that employees at a dealership have, but if you fact or in complacency and the fact that a job is only done as well as an employee wants to do it, there isn't really a difference.

My opinion is this...if you don't like how a place washes your car or changes your oil, do it your damn self and stop being a whiner.

Question: If you heard this conversation going on, why didn't you just tell them where the filter was? I'm guessing because you don't know either?
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Yeah - I guess should have had my oil drain pan and a few tools with me and done a quick change in the hotel parking lot. :thanks:

Was it you under my truck that couldn't find the filter, or beside my door trying to sell me on the merits of nitrogen gas in tires? ;)

p.s. - Not sure where you heard any whining in my post.
 
Grape Ape said:
Question: If you heard this conversation going on, why didn't you just tell them where the filter was? I'm guessing because you don't know either?
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It is not his 'job' to know where the filter is, that is why he took it to the people who are getting paid to know where the filter is. It is like if you knew nothing about computers and took your computer to a 'computer service center' and the techs stood at it scratching their head wondering where the hard drive is and how to get to it. If you work at an oil change place you may not know exactly where every filter for every car is but you should be able to find it quickly and easily and if you can't you better not ask the customer!
 
westwind77 said:
It is not his 'job' to know where the filter is, that is why he took it to the people who are getting paid to know where the filter is. It is like if you knew nothing about computers and took your computer to a 'computer service center' and the techs stood at it scratching their head wondering where the hard drive is and how to get to it. If you work at an oil change place you may not know exactly where every filter for every car is but you should be able to find it quickly and easily and if you can't you better not ask the customer!
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AGREED! That's why I change my own oil. Took one of my other vehicle's to a Jiffy Lube and they tried up selling me on a new fuel filter, differential fluid change, transmission flush, coolant flush and new wiper blades. Just for **it's and giggles I had them run a total out the door pricing for all this...HA! Can't remember the exact cost but it was alot. In the end, just the oil change and my receipt was all I drove away with. God know's what could've gone wrong had I let them do all that other work. I did end up watching em' like a hawk though. I guess I have trust issues!

-Ted
 
westwind77 said:
It is not his 'job' to know where the filter is, that is why he took it to the people who are getting paid to know where the filter is. It is like if you knew nothing about computers and took your computer to a 'computer service center' and the techs stood at it scratching their head wondering where the hard drive is and how to get to it. If you work at an oil change place you may not know exactly where every filter for every car is but you should be able to find it quickly and easily and if you can't you better not ask the customer!
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Exactly, its not his job, that's why he took it there (an also an obvious admittance that he doesn't know how to do it so why say its sad that someone else couldnt figure it out, maybe it was his first 5th gen to work on). Like I said, if you don't like the job others do for you, do it yourself, don't complain or whine about it.
 
Grape Ape said:
Exactly, its not his job, that's why he took it there (an also an obvious admittance that he doesn't know how to do it so why say its sad that someone else couldnt figure it out, maybe it was his first 5th gen to work on). Like I said, if you don't like the job others do for you, do it yourself, don't complain or whine about it.
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The fact that I went to a quick lube joint does not suggest I can't do the job. It was a choice, based on my location, far from home, traveling on vacation.

BTW, in addition to more challenging mechanical work, I assure you I change my own oil on all my vehicles and toys. In fact, today was pre-winter layup oil and fuel filter changes on my boat - twin diesels and the generator- almost 50L of oil. If I can get home early enough, tomorrow night I'll change engine oil on the zero-turn mower and the hydraulic oil with its two hydrostatic drive filters. Changing oil is not rocket science.
 
Grape Ape said:
Exactly, its not his job, that's why he took it there (an also an obvious admittance that he doesn't know how to do it so why say its sad that someone else couldnt figure it out, maybe it was his first 5th gen to work on). Like I said, if you don't like the job others do for you, do it yourself, don't complain or whine about it.
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Are you serious? It is 'sad' because it IS their JOB to KNOW! I don't care if it was his 1st 5th to work on, if he was a properly trained employee or someone who had training in the auto industry I'm sure he would have found it pretty quickly, not have to ask everyone and the customer where it is. I deal with customers all the time in my field, they ask me questions I EXPECT them not to know (as it is not their field of expertise) because I am EXPECTED to know the ANSWER, and I do. If I looked as clueless as they do when they asked the question I'm sure they would take their business elsewhere, just as this gentlemen will/has done!

Just because he does not like how one person did the job does not mean he has to do it himself, just needs to find a person who is qualified to do the job properly. If you were building a house and you did not like the way the builder was doing things would you do it all yourself? No, you would hire another person.
 
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whiskywizard said:
The fact that I went to a quick lube joint does not suggest I can't do the job. It was a choice, based on my location, far from home, traveling on vacation.

BTW, in addition to more challenging mechanical work, I assure you I change my own oil on all my vehicles and toys. In fact, today was pre-winter layup oil and fuel filter changes on my boat - twin diesels and the generator- almost 50L of oil. If I can get home early enough, tomorrow night I'll change engine oil on the zero-turn mower and the hydraulic oil with its two hydrostatic drive filters. Changing oil is not rocket science.
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Makes it even worse when you know what's going on...or not going on. Doesn't it?
 
I'm pretty sure anyone who has a mechanical inclination has a story from one of those joints. My one and only time I used them was when I had a F150 with nearly 100k on the odo. I took it in to have the oil and rear end oil changed. They changed the oil successfully, and drained the rear end fluid...the problem was...they forgot to put differential oil back into the rear end!

I developed a loud noise after about a week, pulled the plug myself, stuck my finger down in and it was as dry as a bone. :wtf:
 
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