and, against the advice of his wife, decided to save money by taking it to a Jiffy Lube.
After they'd finished, he drove it a few miles to get something from Lowe's. Came back out and noticed oil all over the ground. Opened the hood to see the whole engine bay, engine and ancillaries, covered in oil. And the oil filler cap lodged on top of the engine. Long story short: he started getting charging system error warnings, and various other red lights on the dash display. He took it to the dealer, who spent a day & a half cleaning it up, & replacing the ruined alternator: $1,500.
This is what my dad used to call a false economy.
Quote from: Morris Minor on January 03, 2020, 09:57:09 AM
and, against the advice of his wife, decided to save money by taking it to a Jiffy Lube.
After they'd finished, he drove it a few miles to get something from Lowe's. Came back out and noticed oil all over the ground. Opened the hood to see the whole engine bay, engine and ancillaries, covered in oil. And the oil filler cap lodged on top of the engine. Long story short: he started getting charging system error warnings, and various other red lights on the dash display. He took it to the dealer, who spent a day & a half cleaning it up, & replacing the ruined alternator: $1,500.
This is what my dad used to call a false economy.
Seen things like this happen a few times, sometimes resulting in engine replacement. 20% of what I do is clean up after incompetent technicians.
I have pulled to oil caps off of numerous vehicles while they were running and I have never had them spew out oil. Nonetheless, it sounds like somebody at Jiffy Lube missed a check list item and cost their store a bunch of money.
Quote from: RomanChariot on January 03, 2020, 10:26:57 AM
I have pulled to oil caps off of numerous vehicles while they were running and I have never had them spew out oil. Nonetheless, it sounds like somebody at Jiffy Lube missed a check list item and cost their store a bunch of money.
At idle is one thing, running at 3-4000 RPM is another.
Quote from: RomanChariot on January 03, 2020, 10:26:57 AM
I have pulled to oil caps off of numerous vehicles while they were running and I have never had them spew out oil. Nonetheless, it sounds like somebody at Jiffy Lube missed a check list item and cost their store a bunch of money.
I used to use a Havoline oil change place and they were fine - I remember hearing the techs yelling checklist items back & forth - never had a problem.
Then last time I took the G in for an oil change & tire rotation, the dealer over-inflated the tires, by a lot.
So I think a quick visual inspection & checkup is worth it, no matter who's been working on your car.
I miss my small town local mechanic since we've moved back to the big city. Oil, filter, tires, all fluid levels checked for less than 60 $cdn while standing around and chatting about cars with him.
So there we were, getting ready to go to Iraq (2004). Specialist (SPC, E4, one step below Sergeant, it's automatic after being in the Army a couple years and not screwing up) checks oil on his 5ton truck which has a mission critical satellite package in a box on the back of it. He sees it's a little low and goes to get some more. Can't find any, can't find mechanic, so he says it'll be ok and gets ready to roll out.
No lie he forgot to put the the oil filler cap back on, which is pretty low on the motor. Then drove out the gate. Completely ruined the engine. On the German Autobahn.
The Autobahn has 100% guardrails on both sides and barely a breakdown lane on the right side, maybe 2ft between paint and guardrail on the left.
So there they were, with a crane to get the satellite package off and another truck to put it on, with traffic whizzing by at 100km/h+ (62mph lucky it's an area with speed limit).
In the end they shipped all our stuff to Turkey to invade Iraq but we didn't give them as much money as they wanted so my Unit(s) didn't go. They shipped our stuff back and it had lots of kids throwing rocks through windows and other damage. Before they started up-armoring everything.
800 Series 5 tonner or an MTV?
I know the old ones can run fine even like 1/4 full.
Learned this a few times. It always pays to go the dealer for pretty much any service. The sole exception IME is for tires - all the (chain) tire shops around here are all well-run operations.
Last time I didn'tgo to the dealer due to time crunch, the idiots rotated tires and apparently put the lug nuts on with an impact wrench, and so over torqued them that they warped the lug nuts (they're soft, and designed to warp otherwise the stud will break) to the point the correct socket wouldn't fit over them. To change them out for new lug nuts I had to beat a socket on with a small sledge hammer. Never again. Would've royally sucked if I had to change a flat out on the road - no way I could get a standard lug wrench on by hand. Idiots.
I tried to help an elderly couple change a flat on their Subaru last winter on the side of the road. For the life of me, couldn't get the lugs off. Got 'em loosened, but they were so clearly cross-threaded that I threw my hands up and said nah, call a tow truck, I can't be responsible for this.
A Mazda dealership managed to strip the oil pan threads one time and got to replace the pan on their own dime. So I don't necessarily trust dealerships completely either.
Although I changed the Mazda's oil last weekend and almost forgot to tighten part of the filter housing. :mask:
People doing oil changes and tire rotations pretty much anywhere are usually just people hired off the street with about an hour of training.
It's hard to find anybody that gives a shit, or knows anything anymore.