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cam bearing breaks after Walmart oil change
pluto5
Member Posts: 618
cam bearing breaks after Walmart oil change
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What happened exactly? Was there actually oil in the engine when the problem was discovered (I hpe not for your sake).
I went along with that, and the "important information" turned out to be that a customer had had their oil changed at this dealership, and the mechanic failed to put oil back into the engine. According to the sales manager, the Mercury automatically shut down about a quarter mile down the street, with no damage (overheat sensor?). But to soothe the irate owner, they gave him a new car, and now can't sell the almost new one without informing the potential buyer.
I did not buy the car, but am relating this to show this can and does happen at probably all volume oil change facilities. Thankfully I was dealing with an honest dealer.
Another reason to do your own oil changes. I found that I can do two cars myself while doing other chores in less time it would take to go to the quick change shops and I know that I got the grade I wanted rather than whatever the shop has in their 50 gal. drum.
As a matter of fact, my house was burglarized about 8 years ago, so no unlocked doors for me. The dealer is a local owner. Pretty good sized business, with one lot. He is very civic minded though, sponsoring youth baseball etc. And the story really did happen in 1996.
I started taking my car to Firestone to get the oil changed when I bought my '89 Gran Fury. At the time, they were offering specials so good it was almost cheaper fo have them change the oil than do it myself. Plus, that car had all the suspension fittings that needed to be greased, and I always hated doing that. The first couple times I took the car there, I always reminded them that the car takes 15W-40 oil, because I just had a gut feeling that they'd pour anything they had onhand down there otherwise. After a few times, I figured they'd gotten it.
Well, one morning I bring the car in, and they have this new, know-it-all arrogant manager in there. The mechanic hadn't showed up yet, so they were getting quite a backlog. Finally, the mechanic does show up, with a very obvious hangover. I mentioned the 15W-40 thing to the manager, and she said they put 10W-30 in all the cars. When I reminded her that all cars don't take 10W-30, she got a bit testy. "Look, we don't have the time to memorize all the oil requirements of every car out there!" Needless to say, I haven't been back there!
I let my dealership change my Intrepid's oil. Twice. The first time was a courtesy oil change that they gave me when I bought the car. I took it in, they changed the oil, no mess, no fuss. The second time though, the car was in for some minor warranty work, and I had 'em change the oil, since it was already in there. I was leaving on a long trip that weekend, and it was cold and nasty outside, so I didn't feel like messing with it myself. Well, that oil change ended up costing me $26.95. On the receipt it said bulk oil. Now I don't know what, technically that means, or if it's really any worse than the Castrol GTX 10W-30 I buy at Trak Auto by the 12-pack. I guess when I think "bulk" though, I think cut-rate. Also, they dumped a goodly portion of the oil all over the engine, making sure to get an extra dose on the exhaust manifolds so that it would smoke really good once it heated up. Oh well, at least they got 5 quarts IN the car, I guess that's the most important thing!
Now I'm sure there are plenty of reputable places out there that can change your oil. I just haven't found one yet. Well, there is my regular mechanic, but he's more concerned about doing repair work on cars and really isn't set up to do quicky stuff like oil changes, so it's still easier to just do it myself.
Years earlier I worked for Goodyear... again, I wouldn't take my car/truck there (especially if I were elder and/or female)! Find a good, honest,reputable mechanic in town (spend the extra $5). Everyone makes mistakes, but from my own experience the chain oil change places make more!
ain't a bad plan, and eventually he can put a remanufactured engine in the car and send it to auction, or donate it to a trade school for the tax writeoff and it will be a good way to train some future mechanics.
One thing I'm actually impressed with is our local K-Mart. They've had a few of the same mechanics in there for the 6-7 years I've been dealing with that store. I've had some work done there, because they're right around the corner from where I live, while my regular mechanic is about 10-11 miles away. They've never done anything bad or stupid (well, at least not to me ;-)
I really had a good relationship with the lube station manager at Wal-Mart and K-Mart. I ran the "heavy line" section of the shop, dealing with engines and transmissions, using a total of 6 technicians. During the entire year and a half I was at that store, I had at least one engine replacement in the shop at all times - victims of the forgotten oil drain plug or oil input.
The reason for this is two fold and simple. You can't get good help for $6 an hour, and because of that, there is high turnover. Even if a guy cares about having a job, it's hard to get him to care about other people's cars for $6 an hour. And at $6 an hour, he's looking for his next job the whole time he's doing your oil change - I can't really blame him. He could go align cars and install shocks at Firestone or Midas for $8 an hour.
BTW, I had one of my $18 an hour techs screw up and forget to put oil in a '96 S-10 4.3 before he fired it up. The motor seized, and we replaced that one right alongside one from Wal-Mart. He was just thinking about his girlfriend........
Well, he picked the car up, and driving home, he noticed that it was braking horribly. He turned right around and took it back. Turns out that they forgot to put the new pads on the front, and the calipers were just sitting in place! They'd just bolted the wheels back on before finishing the job! I'm sure it was just one of those honest, dumb mistakes that can happen to anyone, but something like that just doesn't give me a quality impression! It's just a little different than the time my mechanic left a loose spark plug wire when he changed the distributor in my Gran Fury! Driving a V-7 isn't quite the same magnitude as a car with just about no brakes!
I'm glad your friend wasn't in an accident. Be kinda'interesting if his name now appeared on that shop's sign out front and he was signing the paychecks.
Told the mechanic that I wanted oil from the bottle and he complied. I watch him pour the oil in. Unfortunately, I didn't watch the idiot in the pit that stripped the oil drain plug I later found out when I parked it in my garage. The next morning, I saw a huge puddle of oil under my car. Took it back and the manager told me the drain plug was stripped. I showed him yesterday's receipt and they said they would have someone come in and re bore the hole. Left the car there and around two hours later, I got a call from the manager and they told me it couldn't be done and they needed to buy me a new oil pan and gasket. They tried to locate one at the Nissan dealerships in the area but it was an "order only" item. The car was there overnight and they overnight shipped the oil pan. They hired a mechanic to do the replacement work the day it arrived. It cost the Quick oil change place over $300.00 to replace it plus the mechanic's fees.
Even though they corrected their mistake. That was the last time I ever took a car to a quick change oil place. Ironically, that was the only Nissan I ever owned. Usually bought Honda Accords up until Honda had to replace the transmission in my V-6 Accord TWICE this past year. Now I only will buy Toyotas and the oil change at the dealership is only $21.95!
Do not you know ?
;-)
Krzys
Best I can figure out, the title of this thread might just as well have been, "Exhaust pipe hanger bracket breaks after Walmart oil change." Are there any logical connects in any of this? (:oÞ