Sears Oil Change

[AIbandit]

Dear Sears Employee,

When I saw you drive my beautiful Chrysler 300 up to and back up to straighten out. Which ripped of my poor cars splash guard I got a little Angry. Then As you placed the lift on what I assumed would be the appropriate lift points I notice something not quite right.

As I walked closer contrary to what your fellow employees were telling me to do for "Safety reasons". I noticed that you decided to you my cars plastic rocker panels as a lift point. I angrily informed you that this was a "Piss poor decision" (I believe you were lucky I only said this). I could tell this made you nervous especially when I started taking pics After this little happy incident I watched you like a hawk you continued to do your job and made no mistakes that I saw anyway.

After the change was completed you tried to help me find a "Rubbing noise" I was explaining to you which you couldn't. After having a short but sweet conversation with you and the manager I got 20$ off of the service which I felt appropriate being that the splash guard was repaired and the improper lifting left no permanent damage (Lucky!).


Anyway young sears employee I wrote this email not just to thank you for getting me a smoking deal on my oil change but on my way home I came to the conclusion that you ripping off my splash guard actually got rid of my rubbing noise... So I suppose It may of been hanging down a little when I came in... Well anyway thanks.

Sincerely,
Brian

 

[mopar440]

One of the main reasons I do all my own work! Don't get me wrong... alot of auto mechanics are a-number 1... but the bigger chains who hire kids with little or no formal training scare the hell out of me... point in fact... not long ago, while rebuilding a 440ci Chrysler, I found myself in need of a set of cam bearings... called a local parts store... gave year, model, tonnage, engine size, yada-yada... "camshaft bearings for this engine, please"... ordered 'em, went to pick them up and they were wheel bearings for a totally different vehicle... had her look them up again, she fiddle-f*&#ed around on the computer for 15-20 minutes, and then told me they were no longer available and to call dealer... her manager came over, openned a (GASP!) book and found them in 2 minutes... on the shelf... sometimes I just want to :explosion!!!

Nice 300, BTW

 

[Muddy Beast]

Wow... that is all.

~Scott

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

cool. tops jiffy pube

 

[MaxxXJ]

after doing 1 oil change with my honda civic, i think i may take my chances with honda =/ i only take my honda to the dealer, it seems safer to me, and the way my oil filter is set up, it is screwed into the back side of my motor just above my exhaust pipe... which isnt so bad if you got a lift or something, but get this... i drained my oil... and when i went to slide under with my creeper to take the oil filter off that MFer drained all down my arm down my shirt etc... the oil goes down the back side of the motor dripping onto the exhaust... splashes my face... to say the very least its one big hassle.

its not like my xj... even tho my filter lays sideways and still leaks everywhere but its not as bad as my honda, i'll change my xj's oil every 8-10K(full synthetic)...

 

[jeepcomj]

not as bad as my buddy's saturn.

the local shop he had do it (lois) pulld his TRANNY FILTER off after draining the motor, causing fluid to go everywhere. oh well, small mistake...free tranny fluid change.

of course, they didn't bother looking up the tranny specs to find that their drum-kept generic tranny fluid is NOT compatible with a saturn automatic transmission.

and of course, when it became undriveable after the tranny heated up (w/in 15 min of leaving lois)....they denied screwing it up and denied replacing what they broke.

....he used to work for them and left on OUTSTANDING terms. you'd think that they would give him a break. of course, they know what he paid for the car (knowing him they can guess it was less than $500...which would be true), and also figure they can abuse his good trust. and they're correct, because he doesn't have the money for a lawyer.

another reason why I do ALL of my own maintenance. I even did all my own maintenance on my brand new YZF600 when from when I bought it right out of high school in 2005, straight through when I parted it out after a semi truck ran over it while it was parked in 2007. insurance gave me MORE than I paid for it, so it's not so bad lol.

 

[mopar440]

after doing 1 oil change with my honda civic, i think i may take my chances with honda =/ i only take my honda to the dealer, it seems safer to me, and the way my oil filter is set up, it is screwed into the back side of my motor just above my exhaust pipe... which isnt so bad if you got a lift or something, but get this... i drained my oil... and when i went to slide under with my creeper to take the oil filter off that MFer drained all down my arm down my shirt etc... the oil goes down the back side of the motor dripping onto the exhaust... splashes my face... to say the very least its one big hassle.

its not like my xj... even tho my filter lays sideways and still leaks everywhere but its not as bad as my honda, i'll change my xj's oil every 8-10K(full synthetic)...

Yeah... dealer is the way to go, plus there is the added security that they keep all records for your warranty, to boot! It's the reletively untrained mass-market places that tend to f*^k up stuff... and then claim it was like that when you rolled in...

A few years ago my dad took his '77 Chev w/454 into Jiffy Pop to have oil changed, right before bird-hunting trip to Pendleton... halfway there the oil pan drain plug fell out, spun two rod bearings on same journal... I rebuilt the entire engine... went another 110,000 untill he finally put 'er out to pasture! Of course, when he went back to Jiffy Squish, they denied any wrongdoing, even after looking at record of oil change they did mere hours before the oildown and subsiquent rod bearing spinage...

On an up note, the engine in question was torn down by me and sent to a local machine shop, with explicite instructions... they ended up doing a whole bunch more work to the motor, without consulting my dad, and ended up eating most of it! We just wanted cleaning and clearance measurements at first, as well as estimate for turning crank and rebuilding/replacing damaged rods, then we would decide what to do, based on that info... they ended up pretty much rebuilding the entire bottom end, but ate the majority of the extra labor and sold us the parts at cost...

 

[MaxxXJ]

yep, i like dealer and they are the same cost if not cheaper than a lube chain...

 

[MaxxXJ]

whoops, i needed to also add that if it wasnt for me using royal purple in my xj i'd prolly take it to the dealer too.

 

[AIbandit]

I found myself in need of a set of cam bearings... called a local parts store... gave year, model, tonnage, engine size, yada-yada... "camshaft bearings for this engine, please"... ordered 'em, went to pick them up and they were wheel bearings for a totally different vehicle...
Nice 300, BTW

lol thats pretty funny. I think this is the problem.

she fiddle-f*&#ed

Nice 300, BTW

Thanks

whoops, i needed to also add that if

On the seventh day god said in a thunderous roar "Let there be edit buttons!!".

 

[BoringDave]

yep, i like dealer and they are the same cost if not cheaper than a lube chain...

I use to work for a Honda dealer. Honda takes a lot of pride in there techs and all the training also shop tools they can supply them with.

You are in good hands when you have them work on your stuff.

dave

 

[Motornoggin]

not as bad as my buddy's saturn.

the local shop he had do it (lois) pulld his TRANNY FILTER off after draining the motor, causing fluid to go everywhere. oh well, small mistake...free tranny fluid change.

I could see how that could happen. They tranny filters look just like an oil filter, and are easier to spot.

 

[jeepcomj]

I could see how that could happen. They tranny filters look just like an oil filter, and are easier to spot.

yep. BUT any tech/service person should ALWAYS look up recommended fluids before putting any fluid in a trans.

 

[kastein]

I used to work at one of those locations (valvoline instant oil change, not jiffy lube) - we usually canned idiots who did stuff like this. I think we might have screwed up about half a dozen cars in the 3 years I worked there and 4 of them were due to a single idiot who insisted on using "claw" style filter pliers to install the new oil filter no matter how many times we told him not to (in both english and spanish, most of the guys were bilingual). Everyone who got their car screwed up had it repaired for free and the guy was fired. The other screw-ups were mostly related to marginal stuff that we got unlucky with and broke (stripped oil drain plug threads, etc) and we also paid to have those repaired. Honestly the only thing I didn't like about that company was how much they pushed sales - extra services made most of the shop's income, not the base oil changes, so they were hyped pretty badly.

EDIT: Mr Claw worked for the shop for approximately one week. Most of that he was in training and apparently not listening.