Discuss : Worst oil change places

[zerosoma]

Who rips you off the most? What are your experiences?

The reason I started changing my own oil was because I was sick of paying $30-40 for an oil change or someone messing with my car and having to bring it back for them to fix it.

Back in '07 I bought a really nice '03 Grand Am GT. I babied it except for when it came to oil changes - because I had never really let it soak in that oil changes were a frequent necessity. I knew it needed to be done, but you know, hey...once a year, get the cheapest stuff put in, whatever I can get away with for the least money. The last time I had it changed I took it to a Valvoline Quickie and spent an arm and a leg. After that I thought, this is stupid. I don't have to change my oil, it's way too expensive. I remember my oil change light came on and I ignored it for 2 months. I can't believe I did that!

So later I took my vehicle to a Tires Plus. The first time they changed my oil they were extremely rude to me and kept trying to upsell me on services. I declined. I paid $32 for the oil change and was on my way. Next time I took it to a Tires Plus I couldn't remember if I liked it or not. They were super extremely rude again and the mechanic kept trying to upsell me. I said no, and I got the basic oil change again. But this time my A/C and fan on settings 1-3 did not work anymore. Someone had screwed with my car. I took it back and told them what happened. They said "you can't prove that" but offered to fix it for me for around $65. I told them 'you guys are jerks' and I left.

When I met my wife we took a road trip and she said she needed her oil changed because she hadn't done it in awhile. We took it to a Valvoline again, me fearing the worst for cost, and she ended up paying $50 for her oil change and fluids when it was all said and done.

She was upset, even though they did a good job, and I said okay, that's it...if I'm going to be your husband, I'm going to learn this stuff for us! And so my adventure began...


So, worst experience - Tires Plus
Worst prices - Valvoline Quickies
Best experience and prices - Firestone and Cenex Co-Op (ironically they are pretty independent shops)

 

[weebl]

There's a place here in Alberta called Lube-X. When we first moved here, we had a "Welcome Wagon" free change coupon. I took advantage of it, but supplied my own filter. I looked at their prices in the shop, and my jaw hit the floor. Seemed higher than stealerships, but it was free so no cost to me other than I substituted my own filter for theirs.

Another chain when I lived in Vancouver, called Great Canadian Oil Change, had a shop put on a different filter than normally cross-referenced to what my brother's car needed, and also installed the air filter on backwards after "checking" it. I had the backwards air filter thing happen at a Pennzoil quick change place too.

Then there was a Mr. Lube that I'm sure ruined a tranny of mine with the wrong fluid.

I really don't think any one of these quick change places is better or worse than the other. I am now sworn off them completely, and won't even take advantage of any free changes (unless I can find one who'll give me the jug of oil and filter to take and do myself).

I simply refer to these places collectively now as "iffy lubes," named after one of the biggest names in the business, and of course reflective of the practices of these places in general.

 

[electrolover]

what bothers me most(besides the high prices and cheap filters) is all oil change shops over torque the drain plug! i bought my truck used and the previous owner used walmart. my pan is stripped out and soon i will have to pull it and repair it. all because someone wanted go nuts on the drain plug

 

[accent2012]

Jiffy Lube. Heard bad things from both customers and workers. The key to surviving a JL experience is to keep your eye on the techs. They are required to make a sale

I always have to deal with an over-tightened drain plug.

ALL SHOPS USE AIR WRENCHES! WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?

When i do it myself I always hand tighten it and it holds well and never had an oil leak.

Otherwise, good experiences I've had:

Tire Kingdom
Mobil lube express
Firestone
Tires Plus

In no particular order. It really depends on the manager. They will always try to sell you something, but they back off if you say no and don't deliberately break something.

 

[TFB1]

Originally Posted By: zerosoma
Who rips you off the most?


No one, I've changed my own oil since the first vehicle I bought in '66...

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: zerosoma
Who rips you off the most? What are your experiences?


I couldn't really say. I've changed my own oil ever since I started driving. The only time I haven't is one time when a Toyota dealer did it on a new Camry because it came free, and because it came free, I couldn't say whether it was a rip off or not!

 

[HerrStig]

I had a drippy lube halfwit tell me that my front drive car "didn't HAVE a differential, it had a transaxle" over and over. It is a Toyota product with a separate fill and drain for the diff (Gen 4 Camry I4 automatic) which is hard to get to without a lift. . I didn't want the tranny fluid changed because it is easy to do, I had just done the tranny myself with Mobile One fluid which I didn't want the morons to dump "by mistake" , and got that "answer" when I asked for the differential fluid ONLY to be changed.

 

[zerosoma]

Originally Posted By: electrolover
what bothers me most(besides the high prices and cheap filters) is all oil change shops over torque the drain plug! i bought my truck used and the previous owner used walmart. my pan is stripped out and soon i will have to pull it and repair it. all because someone wanted go nuts on the drain plug


I cannot agree with you more. When I attempted my first oil change, I couldn't get the plug off and thought I was doing it wrong. I got discouraged and said I'll never be able to do this. Turns out it was not my fault. Once we got the plug off, the next challenge was the filter. If I didn't have to destroy that filter to get it off, it never would have come off.

WHY????

 

[JZiggy]

Good reason to find a good independent mechanic you trust and get him to change your oil!

 

[HerrStig]

I wouldn't hand tighten a drain plug, but I don't use other than a 3/8 drive or a torque wrench. I'm thinking I might need a 1/4 drive torque wrench for cetain bike plugs. .

 

[tommygunn]

Been to a certain Mr Lube in Canada a few times and my experiences were as follows:

First time they discovered I recently bought the (used) car. They recommended a transmission flush and a coolant system flush. Both were >$100 services. I'd commented based on the fact they didn't have it in their computer and it had a competitor's decals on the windshield.

Second time I went in and they commented that the engine and transmission had gasket leaks. Fair enough, but I didn't get either of the first two services done, and not a peep was said about it on my receipt.

Third time in I stopped the technician servicing my car. He said my battery tested fine but I asked further about what the actual CCA was because they tested it with a digital tool. He was very helpful actually and told me everything he could (my battery was good but getting worn out, winter was coming). But I'm convinced the rest of the service was done with the understanding I knew my car. Comments listed a possible oil pan gasket leak, which turned out to be true (it weeps oil which sometimes gets dirty enough to be noticeable).

And every time after that I've just started doing all the service on my own. No complaints, but as you can tell situations greatly vary. I find it funny when people have one little bad experience and write off a place; fact is every place has a few oddities. Some are worse then others though obviously.

All I can say though is the first time I changed my own oil I ended up punching a screwdriver through the filter to force it off the car. Mr Lube's techs obviously had no sense of how tight the filter should be. It was basically fused to the car.

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: accent2012
Jiffy Lube. Heard bad things from both customers and workers. The key to surviving a JL experience is to keep your eye on the techs. They are required to make a sale

I always have to deal with an over-tightened drain plug.

ALL SHOPS USE AIR WRENCHES! WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?

When i do it myself I always hand tighten it and it holds well and never had an oil leak.

Otherwise, good experiences I've had:

Tire Kingdom
Mobil lube express
Firestone
Tires Plus

In no particular order. It really depends on the manager. They will always try to sell you something, but they back off if you say no and don't deliberately break something.


They use whatever tool is quickest to get the job done, plus it insures that the drain plug is tighter then a...

Besides, it doesn't bother them one bit. You come back to the same place to get your oil changed next time, he uses the gun to get the bolt off without a hassle.

I always hand tighten all my plugs and have NEVER had an issue. It's always nice and tight when i go to change the oil next time.

Same with the oil filters (the installation instructions are written right there on the filter itself! Turn it until it's nice and snug.

 

[Bandito440]

My girlfriend was paying $80 for synthetic at a Pennzoil location. That's for six quarts in her V6 Fusion and no other fluids or services. Yikes. They did a number on the drain plug too.

I've used the local Toyota dealer. $45 for their service that included conventional oil and tire rotation. They were always so slow though. I averaged 90 minutes in their waiting room, even when there was nobody ahead of me. Sometimes I just got lazy when it's cold out.

I had a Dodge stealership in NM leave the fill cap off once. That was nice.

 

[bigblumer]

I guess I've never had a problem with a quick-lube place, aside from the cheap bulk oil and cheap filters. (Just because the tapping plate fits, doesn't mean that's the correct filter for your car.)

I also can not agree more with the over-torque on the drain plug. You don't need to install it with an impact wrench.

Before I got a garage of my own, we took the car to any quick-lube place that had a good deal. Sometimes the dealer, sometimes whoever sent us the best coupon in the mail.

The local NTB was pretty rude to my wife, and tried to sell her some snow tires(not a terrible idea, but not necessary as the tires that were on the car were less than 10k old, and handled quite well), and said she was putting her kids in danger (we don't have any kids). Talk about your hard sell!

Once place actually tried to up-sell us on some Silverstar Headlights. They called them HID. 90.00 for the lights, and 35 for the install. I said, "NO"

 

[GumbyJarvis]

Goodyear here, lol
35$ for a Carquest Filter + Valvoline White Bottle
55$ for a Carquest filter + Valvoline Max Life
65$ for a Carquest Filter + Valvoline SynBlend
75$ for a Carquest filter + Valvoline Synthetic.


Places charging more for HM Oil are stupid, same filter, same price oil usually. Last time I checked Walmart had Defy, PHM, Maxlife, and all other HM oils the same price as the regular conventional OR like 1-2$ more, no need for the 20+ add on price IMO.

Needless to say, I got the OC done at goodyear after my accident in my truck knocking my tires out of alignment, they offered it free since the Filter cracked in the accident plus I paid out the wazoo for the alignment/shock/ every other undercarriage issue after the wreck. Good ol Bosch filter cracked, but you know, it could of been an STP or other cheaply made filter and totally broke off lol

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Our Local Toyota dealer (Hurlbert) and Chevy dealer (Deluca) are OK. EVERYWHERE else you may have non-qualified, barely trained personnel working on the car.
(Pet Peeve as a M.E.: Bad practice to torque drain plugs that utilise a new crush washer. Just "crush" the washer and thats it - stop tightening when the torque ramps up.)

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: JZiggy
Good reason to find a good independent mechanic you trust and get him to change your oil!

+1

I brought my oil and filter and paid $10 for labor.

 

[SatinSilver]

Last oil change I took my toyota to the Ford dealer after confirming they use Motorcraft oil. Had a coupon for $20 normally $25 no appt needed. Plus they use a quality motorcraft oil filter. After 5k miles normally the oil is black. This time after 5k miles the oil is a medium honey color. Looks and even smells fine. I'm now at 6k miles and it still looks good. I know color isn't a tell all but I thought it was somewhat interesting. No oil consumption either. Just received another $20 coupon in the mail.

 

[exranger06]

I try to avoid having other people "fix" my vehicles and try to do as much stuff myself as possible. I almost always find something they screwed up while trying to fix something else afterward, and I have to go back and fix it myself anyway. I've been doing my own oil changes even before I knew how to drive.

 

[Dakota1820]

Places that I know are bad Walmart and jiffy lube but I've never let anyone change my oil.