cam bearing breaks after Walmart oil change

pluto5

cam bearing breaks after Walmart oil change

Mr_Shiftright

That's weird. I could see a cam breaking after a timing belt or chain was replaced, but after an oil change?

What happened exactly? Was there actually oil in the engine when the problem was discovered (I hpe not for your sake).

fwatson

When I was shopping for a used car, I found a beautiful Grand Marquis on the local Mercury lot. As soon as I started showing interest in the car, the salesman referred me to the sales manager for some "important information".

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.

pluto5

I find your story almost incredible in this day and age. You must live in a great town where nobody locks his doors at night. I think most dealers would have sent the car to auction if they had any doubts about it.

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.

fwatson

LOL I don't live in Mayberry or Lake Woebegone, just a small town in Central Florida.

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.

andre1969

About 11 years ago, we had a 1985 Chevy SIlverado pickup. It was my Granddad's, but after he passed away, the truck mainly just sat around. I'd drive it once in awhile, and so would my uncle. Well, one day my uncle took it to some quickie place to get the oil changed. He brought it home, parked it on the grass, and let it sit. About a week later, I was going to drive it to school. Hopped in, started it up. The oil light came on, like they always do when you first start up, but it never went off. So I turned it off after a few seconds. Checked the dipstick. Nothing. Checked underneath, and the drain plug was loose and there was a slick spot on the grass.

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.

joffficer

I know 'I'' did a very good job when changing oil/tires, etc. I do my own oil changes at home now... take that for what it's worth!
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!

joffficer

I enjoyed working at Wal*Mart. Got lots of stock through there investment program! The problem (I feel) is they have problems hiring anyone with any kind of mechanical knowledge for $6-8 per hour. I'm sure this goes for any business. Although few business's, hiring low wage employees, can affect your life style so quickly!

vidtech

i know of someone who worked for an instant oil change establishment.he said that the customer treated him with much disrespect.he then proceeded to drain the oil.just before he reinstalled the drain plug,he pumped chassis grease into the oil pan drain hole.the guys then filled the engine with oil.they could not understand why the oil showed overfull afterwards.they let it go that way.i do not know the outcome.i'll never let someone else change my oil.

swschrad

maybe the dealer is using that Grand Marquis as his customer glue... even if we screw up, we will make our customers whole.

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.

fleetwoodsimca

I paid Walmart to install a set of 4 special shocks in my 1990 Ramcharger. My local Super Waldo has a walkway bounded by chain link fencing that acts as a "cat walk" for customers like me that want to observe the work in progress on their vehicles. They did an excellent job.

andre1969

...but part of the problem with the quickie places like WalMart, Firestone, Jiffy Lube, etc, is that they have a very high employee turnover. Often the good, hard workers go somewhere else where they are appreciated and paid properly, so you get people who just don't give a damn in these jobs. Of course, at the same time, you get hard-working people just starting out in the workforce that are putting forth some extra effort, so they can get ahead in life. But overall it's still just too much of a mixed bag.

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 ;-)

zueslewis

I love Wal-Mart. I've shopped there for years. I also know that when I was a service manager, especially while serving in Medford, OR, I was kept busy by Wal-Mart, Penske (K-Mart), Jiffy Lube and Q-Lube, the four primary quickie oil change places in town.

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........

andre1969

...took his '95 Grand Marquis to a local automotive shop because the tranny was acting up. Turns out that was just a $50.00 fix (they blew something out with an air hose). But then they said he needed new front brake pads and rotors. The car seemed fine to me in that respect when I drove it, but it is possible, as it had about 100K miles on it by this time.

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!

zueslewis

and as long as they resolve things immediately, I don't take issue - when I hear that "s*** happens", I then have a problem.

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.

artwis

with 10's of thousands of oil changes done by quick change places each day that there aren't hundreds of seized up broken down cars sitting along every roadway. LOL

vwracer

It's not just the $6 an hour guys that forget to put oil in. Last year at an NHRA drag race one of the big top fuel dragster guys took his car to the starting line , fired it up, and had to shut it off and forfit the race because of no oil pressure only to discover that his crew forgot to put oil in it. This is a $250,000 race car and this happened on National TV.

zueslewis

with thousands (possibly millions) of dollars on the line based on points standings, that's ugly. That crew guy is probably working at Jiffy-Lube in your hometown now.

opera_house_wk

and they forgot to tighten the drain plug. He got about 10 miles before the oil light came on. Luckily, he was by a real automobile shop when it happened. A lot of people know someone that this has happened to. With that many oil changes, it has to happen.

rbruehl

Back in the early 1990's, I had a Nissan Maxima in for an oil changes at one of those "Quick Lube" places. I always made sure they poured in oil from the bottle and not the bulk drum. Had a real good manager and mechanics that listened to you. One day I drove in and noticed they had a new manager and mechanics. Felt a little uncomfortable but went on with the oil and filter change.

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!

arkainzeye

i actually knew someone that had their New Grand-am's oil changed at the dealer to where he bought the car at. It didnt take long for them to change the oil. but when he started the car and drove down the street, warning lights Instantly came on. and the car turned itself off. So he called dealer and they towed it in. and found out that there was NO oil in the car at all. but yet they insisted that they put it in. and my buddy was like OK now what about the wear and tear that just happened to me driving my car 55mph withno oil in it. and they just blew it off and said there was NO damage. NOW how can there be NO damage with DRIVING with no oil. when you ALWAYS hear that most of a cars engine wear happens @ start-up when the oil is in the pan. WELL! at least in that case you would at least have oil in the pan !! lol

andre1969

...that they make cars "smart" enough nowadays to shut themselves off when they have no oil pressure. When did they start doing that?

krzyss

was always built in feature.
Do not you know ?
;-)

Krzys

bobistheoilguy

since at least the 70's. The have a oil pressure switch that when it was low would turn off the fuel pump and cause the car to die. you could restart but would only run maybe a mile of two then die again. excellent idea. funny thing is when you tell someone to check the oil for that problem people thought you were nuts.

fleetwoodsimca

Buying a Vega was nuts? I can see that.
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

jlflemmons

Friend of mine was leaving on vacation and took her Suburban in for an oil change. Got in the car to leave and accelerated up the freeway ramp. Before she got two miles, the engine seized. No oil. Now, she not only has oil, but a new engine.

zueslewis

you're right on the money. In the service side of the car business,we use the word "sensuous" - the guy brings his car is for a repair on the radio, and "sensuous" working on it, it doesn't run right and the engine smokes!