watch out for texaco quik change oil places!

jimmysisson · Mar 6, 2006

A couple weeks ago we had one of our Chev 2500s auto trans rebuilt, by a regional chain. My guy took it in to our regular fleet mechanic (who doesn't do auto trans work) for an oil change Friday. They found the trans wasn't tightened to the engine; bolts were there but not tightened. And an external seal was leaking. And the trans was not cleaned. At least the AMCO guys cleaned theirs! The shop manager was not even embarassed, he acted aggravated when I called him on his kinda poor showing. Ach!

Bird · Mar 7, 2006

( local AMCO transmission place )

I think AAMCO is a locally owned franchise operation; some good, some not so good, and apparently some outright crooks. I know many years ago, my secretary and her husband were taken by one. So many people sued that one that it closed up, the owner disappeared, and a lot of people lost money. One of my brothers recently had an AAMCO transmission place replace the manual transmission in his '96 Chevy S10 with a "rebuilt" transmission. The new one was very stiff shifting and the truck had a vibration in it, so they replaced it with another one that seems to be OK. Is it actually a "rebuilt" one or a used one? I don't know.

varmint · Mar 7, 2006

Ah- the post about steam cleaning used parts and selling them as "rebuilt" reminded me of a German car shop I knew in the 70's- the kind of place with hundreds of wrecked VW's and other German cars out back, and a big parts department, where you'd go to buy parts for your own car for less than the dealer charged... they had a sand blaster and painting set up, and lots of unsuspecting people would buy "rebuilt" starters and such... you get the picture. Whatever happened to the golden rule??

buppy69 · Mar 9, 2006

When first reading these I thought "NAW". But last week I took my van to the same Quick Lube I've used for over 10 years. They had 2 minimum wage teenagers doing the work so one didn't know what the other one was doing. One changed the filter and thought the other one had drained the oil. It started missing extremely bad when I left. Took it to my mechanic and it had 9 quarts of oil in it. They still haven't been able to get it to run.

Eugene

hudr · Mar 9, 2006

I have read these posts and while I know there are horror stories out there I wanted to put in one positive one.
I have an Express Lube in my home town. I use it more and more often nowadays since the only time I have to do oil changes seems to be between the hours of 1AM and 6AM.
Anyway, this place is run very professionally. The owner is ALWAYS there. He has had basically the same help since he opened nearly ten years ago. He must be doing something right to have so little turnover. The guys know me by name and even know some of the quirks of my individual vehicles. They have even pointed out stuff that I might have overlooked doing the service myself. So, do they make mistakes...yes. Has my local Express Lube made one w/ me yet? No.

justanotherjoe · Mar 21, 2006

After paying to have my differential oil changed, on the very next visit, it "needed changing" again. That was my last visit there. Like Soundguy, the location was in the neighborhood, so I was trying give them my business.

RobertN · Mar 22, 2006

Last two rotations, I had to tell the dealer to check pressure, after the truck drove funny. My 3/4 ton 4x4 at working pressure uses more air in the back tires than the fronts. Turned out, they rotated them but did not check pressure...

RobertN · Mar 22, 2006

My Grandmother had been going to Jiffy Lube out here for a few years. She took her car in, had the change done, and was on her way. A couple miles away the check engine light came on, and there was smoke from under the hood. She stopped and called a tow truck...

Turns out, they had changed the oil ok, but had not tightened the drain plug. It had fallen out, and dumped all the oil. Fortunately, she shut it down right away, and the engine was fine for the additional 75k miles she put on it before selling it...

Hydraman · Apr 2, 2006

A trucking co. that I worked for had THEIR OWN shop for services, repairs,etc. I was in for a regular service, and when I left, I thought that I could smell gear lube, so turned around and went back and started questioning the company mechanic and found that he had inadvertantly replaced engine oil with gearlube. And he even kept his job!!! A year later they made him a dispatcher!!! Go figure /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Don

MikePA · Apr 2, 2006

...and found that he had inadvertantly replaced engine oil with gearlube. And he even kept his job!!! A year later they made him a dispatcher!!! Go figure 
Obviously, being a mechanic wasn't where his skills were. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Hopefully, he made a better dispatcher. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif