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Comments
In a small claims court you would have a very good chance of winning, but if the number of miles come up, you might win very little. Any judge worth his salt would temper any judgement accordingly. With that many miles, that truck was nearing the end of it's life.
That truck has probably had 50 oil changes in that many miles, who knows how many filters may have been overtightened?
If I were the judge, I might ask the Quickie Lube to pick up 10% of the cost of a new engine.
But, then, I'm not a judge.
My gut feeling is that the lube shop probably WAS at fault.
It's also possible the filter housing was cracked or weakened from repeated oil filters being screwed on and off.
I've spent a LOT of time in courtrooms and I've seen and heard a lot of judgements.
If this went before a jury I think the chances of getting a bigger settlement would be much higher than with a judge.
The lawyers for the lube shop would make a HUGE deal over the number of miles that car had.
I really don't know what the outcome would be here.
Oil Change Instructions For Women
1. Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3,000 miles since the last oil change.
2. Drink a cup of coffee.
3. 15 minutes later write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.
Money Spent
Oil Change $20.00
Coffee $1.00
Total $21.00
Oil Change Instructions For Men
1. Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree, write a check for $50.00.
2. Stop by 7 - 11 and buy a case of beer, write a check for $20.00, drive home.
3. Open a beer and drink it.
4. Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5. Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7. Place drain pan under engine.
8. Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9. Give up and use crescent wrench.
10. Unscrew drain plug.
11 . Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process. Cuss.
12. Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.
13. Have another beer while watching oil drain.
14. Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.
15. Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.
16. Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties. Drink a beer.
17. Buddy shows up; finish case of beer with him. Decide to finish oil change tomorrow so you can go see his new garage door opener.
18. Sunday: Skip church because, "I gotta finish the oil change." Drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car. Cleverly dump oil in hole in back yard instead of taking it back to O'Reilly to recycle.
19. Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during step 18.
20. Beer? No, drank it all yesterday.
21. Walk to 7-11; buy beer.
22. Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.
23. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
24. Remember drain plug from step 11.
25. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
26. Remember that the used oil is buried in a hole in the back yard, along with drain plug.
27. Drink beer.
28. Shovel out hole and sift oily mud for drain plug. Re-shovel oily dirt into hole. Steal sand from kids sandbox to cleverly cover oily patch of ground and avoid environmental penalties. Wash drain plug in lawnmower gas.
29. Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor. Throw kitty litter on oil spill.
30. Drink beer.
31. Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes. Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame.
32. Bang head on floorboards in reaction to step 31.
33. Begin cussing fit.
34. Throw stupid crescent wrench.
35. Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit Miss December (1992) in the left boob.
36. Beer.
37. Clean up hands and forehead and bandage as required to stop blood flow.
38. Beer.
39. Beer.
40. Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.
41. Beer.
42. Lower car from jack stands.
43. Accidentally crush remaining case of new motor oil.
44. Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during steps 23 - 43.
45. Beer.
46. Test drive car.
47. Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.
48. Car gets impounded.
49. Call loving wife, make bail.
50. 12 hours later, get car from impound yard.
Money Spent
Parts $50.00
DUI $2500.00
Impound fee $75.00
Bail $1500.00
Beer $40.00
Total $4165.00 -- But you know the job was done right!
It also totally outlines exactly why I will no longer cahnge my own oil.
I love it!
5 qts $6
Filter $2.08
25 minutes time.
Get exercise, good for physical health, being busy good for mental health.
Take waste oil to local shop that burns it for heat, glad to see me come.
6 quarts at $.59/quart (those monthly Checker rebates and coupons are great-Chevron brand usually)
Oil filter about $3.50 at most (and this is the Motorcraft OEM filter)
Total cost a bit over $7 after I pay the state their sales tax.
I use ramps and an oil change combined pan/container I have had for about 25 years, so those are well amortized.
I recycle my oil at our city recycling facility, so no environmental damage done.
More convenient for me than any oil change place as I do it when I want and the elapsed time per change is about 1/2 hour.
At those costs, I can afford to never stretch an oil change. I change at about 3K miles just for general peace of mind, though I know I could likely go longer with little negative results on engine life.
Also, I don't have to listen to the song and dance sales pitch for add on services I don't need.
Now that cars require no ball joints greased, it's evey easier to do changes myself. Otherwise I'd jack up each wheel and grease it every 2nd oil change or so.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The rest of us have to make a special trip to either a dealer or independent oil change shop, so for many of us it is less of a PITA to do it ourselves!
I guess I just figured I had done enough of these. I had spilled enough oil, dropped enough drain plugs into the drain pan, etc.
I've just taken a break to warm up while I'm hanging the outside Christmas lights. Another huge PITA!
And a couple of times recently, we didn't even bother with a tree. Just put out a few decorations...easy!
I still change my own oil though. I'm lucky in that my employer has lifts and we're allowed to do it after hours. Plus, the old oil goes into a big container that gets taken away by a recycling service.
dealer who diagnosed the problem as a loose oil filter, as a precaution he changed the filter. Problem solved. Because this has happened I plan to use either the GM dealer or a Chrysler dealer that I have purchased cars from in the past. MY QUESTION IS: The oil changes at the GM dealer are done by a separate department of lower level of car training staff. While at the Chrysler dealer the oil changes are done by the highly trained mechanics
who I have known for many years in that they worked on my
Chrysler cars. The cost will be slightly more at the Chrysler dealer but it's my inclination to go with them in that they also do other routine checks and I have never had anything like this happen to me when they did the oil changes. A recent model car is of course an investment of several thousands of dollars and having highly trained mechanics look the car over when changing the oil just makes good sense to me especially after the recent fiasco.
I would appreciate any advice and input to help make this decision.
JR
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Where did you get the oil changed when it leaked? What type of car do you have? A number of folks online can probably teach you how to change your own oil. then you know it is done right.
So, someone goofed up and didn't tighten the fiter? Stuff happens to the best and most experienced people who work on cars. Probably never happen again.
Sorry, but i have to override and disagree.. your statement doesn't seem very attentive and it is very unpredictable.
I believe if they are the "best" or the "most experienced", they would know how to do things carefully and do it with patience. SOME dealers/shops i go to, the mechanics are in such a rush to try to cut down the work load that they are not doing it carefully. To them, time is money. That's why there are horror stories out there about loose/warped drain plugs, loose/overtightened oil filters, etc.
I hope i didnt get you the wrong way, but from your statement, there's just too many if's or but's.. and just too many possibilities without one's own control.
-highroller
after which I needed to have the tires re spun and balanced due to a vibration that occurred in the steering wheel, also
the oil leak occurred after the same oil change. When I shared these problems with the owner he said they would do my next oil change free and apologized for the behavior of the employee. My thought is, if the employee doesn't want to do this work he should be dismissed (this is not the first time he has been rude). About two years ago the owner said he was thinking of replacing the employee due to
his personality problems. Bottom line is that the employee was in a temper fit when he worked on the car and the poor work was affected by his attitude. No need to risk that again.
Change the oil myself? I don't think so in that I am a generally healthy senior but getting under the car is not something I would easily do and there is no lift in my garage. Reason for picking the Chrysler dealership is that
I have known the highly trained technicians there for over ten years and their attitude is both courteous and friendly. The GM dealer has an oil change section that does this work but I suspect the training level of the workers is not nearly as good as at Chrysler where they have no oil change section just the senior technicians to do this. Also the the GM dealer oil change section did some damage to a bumper the one time I had them change the oil some years ago.
I am on GM's mailing list for TSB's so they know where to reach me, I will also be checking with the GM dealer for TSB's from time to time.
Summary: At present I will plan to do routine oil changes at Chrysler given the fiasco at the last oil change appointment. I have both owned Chrysler products in the past and may be replacing my GM sedan with a Chrysler 300C
in a year or two. I made them aware of this on a recent visit to ask about there doing the oil change work so there is every incentive for them to do quality work.
If I have failed to use a logical approach in dealing with this issue I would welcome further comments. Many thanks for all the helpful comments that have been made so far.
The places I really would avoid are the drive through quickie lube stores. They goof up a lot and constantly push "flushes" and other things!
Just something else i would like to share and tell...
My previous vehicle was a small car, my new vehicle is a 1/2 ton pickup truck. The difference between these two? The car needed jack stands and needed to be jacked up for oil changes (can be dangerous and very inconvenient for some), where as, my truck doesnt need any jack ups... one of the advantages of having a truck and doing oil changes on it :P
If I do a diy, 5 minutes to lay out the ramp, tools...etc. Take a 5 minute drive to warm up the car, get up the ramp and start working on it. Another 15 minutes tops to get the car back on the road again. And I can pick my own time to do all this.
Even as I type this, I probably have 4 gallons of used motor oil in my basement in 1 gallon jugs, waiting to go back to Advance Auto for recycling.
And it's not impossible to screw up the job yourself. A friend couldn't get the old oil filter off - turns out he was turning it the wrong way. I thought we'd never get that thing off. That filter looked real bad when it finally came free.
When I was a kid, a buddy had the old filter gasket stick to the engine block while removing the filter. He didn't notice and had oil go everywhere shortly after the first start-up.
My own personal "best" happened when I was kid - I don't think I was even allowed to drive yet. I drained the oil, pulled off the filter and forgot to replace the drain plug before adding the fresh oil. You only forget that once...
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
In my area in SW Pennsylvania, it seems that every auto parts store has a tank for recycled oil. You just walk in back and dump your oil. The problem is they don't want the oily containers. I just reuse the same 1 gallon jugs.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
There is a gas station near my house where they have drums that you can dispose your oil, drive by it everyday on my way to/from work.
OTOH, I wouldn't have done it this way if disposing the used oil is a hassle.
One spring, we cut it back, drilled holes in the stump, added root poison, and soaked it with about two gallons of used crankcase oil. All summer I watched that stump for any signs of life. Nothing. Thought we had finally ridded ourselves of the problem.
The next spring the tree came back faster, bigger, and straighter than ever. We gave up. The folks now have a large healthy Tallow tree growing with a fence fully embedded in the trunk.
Let's see now, where did that oil originally come from???
Let the flames begin!
I also can schedule my DIY oil changes when I want to do them with no waiting, and since I watch the sales and rebates on oil and filters, I usually only have about $7-$8 out of pocket cost per oil change.
We used to dump the old oil in any nearby vacant lot. Just poured it on the weeds! Sometimes we would light it on fire to get rid of the weeds.
We poured antifreeze into the gutter drains and the Pacific Ocean was mere blocks away! We didn't know.
We cooled down choke housings with R12 freon.
And, we didn't wear bicycle helmets...horrors!
inclination is to give more credence to the oil life gauge in the car and as an insurance do the changes when the oil life indicator is down to around 40% or 5000 miles or five months which ever comes first. In the past I have changed
oil evry four months or 4000 miles whichever came first.
1) Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 miles since the last oil change.
2) Drink a cup of coffee.
3) 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.
Money spent:
Oil Change $20.00
Coffee $1.00
Total $21.00
==
Oil Change instructions for Men:
1) Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree, write a check for $50.00.
2) Stop by 7 - 11 and buy a case of beer, write a check for $20, drive home.
3) Open a beer and drink it.
4) Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5) Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6) In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7) Place drain pan under engine.
8) Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9) Give up and use crescent wrench.
10) Unscrew drain plug.
11) Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process. Cuss.
12) Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil
13) Have another beer while watching oil drain.
14) Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.
15) Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.
16) Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties.
17) Drink a beer.
18) Buddy shows up; finish case of beer with him.
19) Decide to finish oil change tomorrow so you can go see his new garage door opener.
20) Sunday: Skip church because "I gotta finish the oil change."
21) Drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car
22) Cleverly dump oil in hole in back yard instead of taking it back to store to recycle.
23) Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during step 22.
24) Beer? No, drank it all yesterday.
25) Walk to 7-11; buy beer
26) Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.
27) Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
28) Remember drain plug from step 11.
29) Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
30) Remember that the used oil is buried in a hole in the back yard, along with drain plug.
31) Drink beer.
32) Shovel out hole and sift oily mud for drain plug.
33) Re-shovel oily dirt into hole. Steal sand from kids sandbox to cleverly cover oily patch of ground and avoid environmental penalties.
34) Wash drain plug in lawnmower gas.
35) Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor.
36) Throw kitty litter on oil spill.
37) Drink beer.
38) Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes.
39) Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame.
40) Bang head on floorboards in reaction to step 39.
41) Begin cussing fit.
42) Throw stupid crescent wrench.
43) Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit bowling trophy or beer.
44) Clean up hands and forehead and bandage as required to stop bloodflow.
45) Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.
46) Lower car from jack stands.
47) Accidentally crush remaining case of new motor oil.
48) Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during step 47.
49) Beer.
50) Test drive car.
51) Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.
52) Car gets impounded.
53) Call loving wife, make bail.
54) 12 hours later, get car from impound yard.
Money spent:
Parts $50.00
DUI $2500.00
Impound fee $75.00
Bail $1500.00
Beer $40.00
Total - - $4,165.00
But you know the job was done right!
$19.90 out the door.
And they provide coffee and breakfast snacks while waiting.
The oil life monitor does not measure your oil. It calculates how much strain your oil has been under, by measuring things like engine temperature, number of start-ups, etc. It's not an exact science, it's guesstimating your oil's condition.
Generally, I tell customers: do what you feel comfortable with. I have many customers who do the 3/3000 interval.