We understand why you might buy socks at Walmart. We even understand why you might buy food there, god help you. What’s the worst that can happen? Salmonella peanut butter? Cold feet? A Walmart oil change, however, is something that gives us pause. Reader Jason writes:
The employees and their manager spent most the time spraying each other with air hoses and windshield fluid. 3 hours later, after seeing other folks come and go, we were told our vehicles were ready. We paid and left quickly, trying to avoid any other confrontation that would delay us even more. Flash forward to last week, my wife told me that her check engine light came on while going to work and the same on the way home.
We have to admit we didn’t know there was such a thing as a Walmart oil change before this letter.
Walmart’s website claims that the most basic oil change package costs $18.88. For that price Walmart’s technicians will:
•Add up to five quarts of oil
• Install new oil filter
• Lubricate chassis (when applicable)
First of all, we hope they meant “change” rather than “add,” but we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. The real question is whether it’s a good idea to cut costs when it comes to your car. From Jason’s email:
I’m no mechanic by any sense of the word, so I was pretty clueless as to what was wrong. I called the local mechanic and made an appointment for today. I get a call from my wife, said that she spoke with the mechanic, fearing the worst, I braced myself for a huge repair bill. The mechanic said that when the oil was changed, oil was spilled all over the engine compartment, after the tech at Wal-Mart realized their mistake they washed the compartment with water, allowing water to seep into the engine where the spark plugs are housed, thus causing the engine sputtering. Our bill ended up being $80.00, not too bad I guess. Should’ve been nothing. Damn you Wal-Mart!
Was it worth the savings? We say the best way to save money on an oil change is to learn to do it yourself. If your lease won’t let you, borrow a friend’s driveway. Cars are fun! If you don’t like getting dirty, consider the fact that car repairs are expensive. Find a qualified person and give them your business. Save 10 bucks on Cheerios or toothpaste, instead. —MEGHANN MARCO
Jason writes:
My wife and I made our first mistake by going to our local Wal-Mart (Kansas City, Missouri) convieniently located among the sprawl near our apartment. We needed to have the oil changed on our cars. I would’ve done it myself, but our lease prevents us from doing any kind of car maintenance in the parking lot. So one fine Saturday afternoon a week or two ago we drove to the automotive side of the building, parked our cars, and went inside. Once inside, we decided on what oil change “package” we wanted. Trying to save a little money, we went with the basic package. I inquired about the wait time and was told about a half hour. While I was sitting in the waiting room I had a good view of the garage bay. The place was a dirty, messy, clusterfuck. The employees and their manager spent most the time spraying each other with air hoses and windshield fluid. 3 hours later, after seeing other folks come and go, we were told our vehicles were ready. We paid and left quickly, trying to avoid any other confrontation that would delay us even more. Flash forward to last week, my wife told me that her check engine light came on while going to work and the same on the way home. She said that it sputtered while accelerating. I’m no mechanic by any sense of the word, so I was pretty clueless as to what was wrong. I called the local mechanic and made an appointment for today. I get a call from my wife, said that she spoke with the mechanic, fearing the worst, I braced myself for a huge repair bill. The mechanic said that when the oil was changed, oil was spilled all over the engine compartment, after the tech at Wal-Mart realized their mistake they washed the compartment with water, allowing water to seep into the engine where the spark plugs are housed, thus causing the engine sputtering. Our bill ended up being $80.00, not too bad I guess. Should’ve been nothing. Damn you Wal-Mart!
Walmart Lube,.Oil & Tire
(Photo: Brave New FIlms)
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Just another reason not to go to Wal-Mart. About 6 months ago, a Chevy Blazer showed up at the shop I worked at. The lady who owned it just had her oil changed at Wal-Mart. The sticker in the windshield said it was changed less than 300 miles ago. We changed the oil and found it to be a tar-like substance. Long story short, they billed her but didn’t do anything. The engine had no compression because of the sludge that was in the engine. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING AT WAL-MART, NOT EVEN SOCKS.
I’ve got a question about changing your own oil…once you change it, what can you do with the used oil?
Back in my day (15-20 years ago), the gas station at the corner would accept the used oil for a small recycling fee. Do places still recycle oil?
I once had my oil changed at Walmart (in Denver). I never shop there, but this time I was really pressed for time and my friend needed to go there for some reason.
1) Apparently the washer fluid they use does not contain enough alcohol to keep it from freezing. Not a problem for some, but when you are stuck in traffic, going out to Vail on a Sunday morning, it kinda sucks. After some inquiries, I learned that people who know this always pump their washer fluid dry and replace it, post oil change.
2) Even though they had one other car, it still took over an hour and a half to change. So much for saving time.
3) The guy who drove out my car managed to not only park it in two spaces (crooked), but with one wheel on the curb. Additionally, he neither put the car in first (manual tranny) or pulled up the parking brake. He did, however, have plenty of time to scoot my seat all the way up and raise the steering wheel. It was also, so crooked that I had to do an n-point turn to get it out (the end was diagonal to a corner and a shopping car return). It was so messed up… it was like a professional “bad parking” hit.
Thankfully, when I took it to the dealer two months later, they said it was ok. I think I lucked out.
@DaveInTheCorn: Yeah, go to a Checker/Autozone/etc with your milk jug of gunk.
@DaveInTheCorn: it’s required by law in California. And no fee is charged as long as it is 5 qts and not a 50gal drum.
@DaveInTheCorn:
Lots of places will take your used oil. Just about any of the quickie-lube style oil changes places have a used oil receptacle available without a charge. I used to take mine to Autozone, who had a dumpster sized oil trap in the back behind their new oil. I’ve been tempted to just change my oil at the Autozone before, but I fear the hot pavement.
I, like many people, choose not to give Wal-Mart my business for many reasons. However, I think mopar_man is jumping too conclusions regarding Wal-Mart.
First, 2005 was the last year that Chevrolet produced a blazer. It wasn’t as though she was bringing a brand new car into the dealership. For all we know that car could be as old as the hills.
Second, who’s to say that the woman had changed her oil on regular basis before going to Wal-Mart and then to his shop. She could have been driving that thing for a year or longer on the same oil. The damage was likely already done.
My suspicion is that it was no Wal-Mart’s fault. Let’s look at the evidence:
1. She is a woman. Women know as much about cars as straight men do about fashion.
2. She is driving an American SUV. The only people who drive these vehicles are rednecks, Latinos and deep-south dwellers.
So what we’ve got here is a dumb, redneck woman from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line.
@jendomme: holy canoli, the jokes write themselves! All the comments I’ve read from you have been baseless and ignorant. Can we get a ban here?
Back on topic, our girlfriend had her oil changed at walmart once when the situation was dire and options were limited. When the work was done, the employee summarily backed the car into a row of shopping carts. Sam Walton, what disease hath thou wrought?
>>2. She is driving an American SUV. The only people who drive these vehicles are rednecks, Latinos and deep-south dwellers.
oilman looks in the mirror then out at his American SUV in the driveway and makes a mental note to determine how much damage the bush bar will do to jendomme’s import…
sure there’s a lot of potential loopholes in the Chevy Blazer story but I don’t care what sort of damage was done it doesn’t account for sludgy oil in 300 miles. Dunno maybe your import does that…
Um, this is theft. It’s illegal! It also makes consumer prices rise. How can anyone encourage this?
I used to take my car to Wal-Mart for oil changes until one time I decided to do it myself. I found that they used the wrong filter. It was smaller in diameter so it barely covered the machined surface of the filter mount. I thought I picked up the wrong one from pep-boys but I double checked FRAM’s site and I had bought the correct one. The filter they used was undersized. However, it was designed for use on other Honda engines – motorcycle engines, that is. I have never gone back.
@jendomme:
Wow. I have to agree about the ban statement.
As for the loopholes, I’m not sure there are any. She had the last 2 services at Wal-Mart and at/around the 3000 mile mark (overkill but she was dilligent about it). So not only had they screwed her once but twice (maybe even more, there were only 2 service records available).
Regarding Wal-Mart’s great oilchange policy… Part of their “policy” is to roll the window down so they don’t lock your keys in the car. No problem there, but they should know when to stop rolling down. Long story short, I had a broken driver side window, a terrible oil change, a dirty air filter, and NO APOLOGY. “We sell for Less… including our souls!!!”
“Don’t Get Your Oil Changed At Walmart” is just a knee-jerk response for failing to assume some responsibility. Here’s why;
First, the couple watched for hours while the mechanics played. Horesplay is not allowed in any workplace like this. Why wasn’t the manager alerted? As they couple left the store, just what confrontation were they trying to avoid?
Secondly, if you had a mechanic indicate that water was sprayed to wash oil off of the engine, then WalMart could have been held responsible for any damage. I find it hard to believe water got in the engine (I assume it simply created a misfiring on the outside of the engine).
So, step up, speak up, and don’t let shoddy work be performed on your vehicle! Jason is at fault for letting anyone get away with this. I hope he can manage to avoid all “confrontations” in the future, so that he won’t be inconvenienced. Stop whining if you don’t want to take care of business.
@jendomme: “She is a woman. Women know as much about cars as straight men do about fashion.” You are one ignorant S.O.B. It’s that attitude that makes it hard for the women who do know about cars to be taken seriously. I know my car inside and out – better than my husband and every other guy I know combined. I second the ban!
I recall reading a similar story a few months back. While googling for it I came across so many I couldn’t find it again.
Given all the quick-lube horror stories Consumerist has run in the past, I find it hard to believe that anyone familiar with this site would even consider trusting Wal-Mart to do an oil change. Change your own oil – it’s the only way to make sure an inept 16-year-old won’t ruin your car (unless, of course, you are an inept 16-year-old.)
@mopar_man: You didn’t mention that she had two services at Wal-Mart, nor that they were at 3000 mile intervals. That does shed a different light on the situation. It is quite scary to think about what might happen if Wal-Mart was to get into the brake business.
for 18 bucks it sounds like all they do is ADD oil.. and it is going to be cheap ass oil. (One of the best things you can do for your engine is use a high quality synthetic oil and get it changed regularly) if she had her vehicle serviced there before then she could have gone 10k+ miles without a “real” oil change, just adding new oil which would certainly cause sludge and “tar like” substance
I suppose it depends on the Wal-Mart you go to. I’ve been getting my oil changed at my local Wal-Mart in Indiana for years and never had a problem. They’re fast, courteous and even alerted me to when my car was unusually low on oil a few times. Now I check my oil every week and it does slowly lose oil but not because of anything Wal-Mart’s done. It’s just an old car and has lots of miles on it.
@WhatThe…: Oh please. It is a generalization. I love it when women claim to know so such and such or can do this and that. These generalizations come from the public repeatedly observing these events take place in daily life. Of course people don’t take women seriously. Try having a conversation with one.
My family is super cheap and love the walmart oil changes, but stopped going after numerous problems, like being given the wrong oil weight, being given too much/too little oil, getting terrible oil filters, and having oil filters overtightened to the point where you need a screwdriver to pry it out. yeah. walmart bad.
yeah, i made the mistake of getting a Wal-Mart oil change once, since it was only a block from my house and I was pressed for time. About an half an hour later I noticed the temperature gauge was getting a bit high, so I pulled over to see what was wrong. The dipshits had removed the hose-clamp that kept one of the coolant hoses attached, and all the coolant had leaked out as it got hot and expanded. Let me point out that there is NO REASON WHATSOEVER to touch anything related to the coolant system when changing the oil. Had I not been watching the gauge, I could have burned up my engine. While I briefly considered going back to Walmart with a baseball bat, I haven’t let them touch my car since then.
@oilman: I would imagine any internal combustion engine might produce sludge. However, I am willing to argue that a precisely engineered German engine will produce less than an equivalent domestic engine following manufacturers maintenance schedule.
I cannot comment about how much damage your SUV might do to my G55 AMG.
I know how to do oil change but it’s totally not worth to do it yourself.
The cheapest oil are like $2.xx a quart and it only cost my local mechanic $15 to change oil + filter change.
You might go at, they put crap oil in your car, I will use Synthetic Oil as comparison. They are like $35 from walmart and a filter is around $5. It only cost $45 for synthetic oil change.
When you do it yourself, you got to drive to somewhere that will dump your oil for you which is extra work.
The right thing is to find a shop that you can trust and do it there.
@Type-E:
When you do it yourself, you got to drive to somewhere that will dump your oil for you which is extra work.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a Jiffy Lube in my driveway. Getting to one requires driving there.
Heh. That was entertaining. Thanks for the laugh.
@jendomme: I’m lucky or unlucky enough to own one of those “precisely engineered” German engines and have gotten myself knee deep in sludge.
Volkswagen owners receive sludge warning
I’m stuck having to use Synthetic Oil per VW’s recommendation and waiting until my engine dies a slow painful death.
I have to question the validity of Walmart at fault here. I’ve sprayed my engine compartment with water before which shorted the electronics (spark plugs, distributor, etc), but after an hour or so of drying the car runs fine. The fact that they drove the car away from the oil change fine but then it did some funny things later in the week makes me wonder how water could be the problem. There is no way water is going to be left inside a 280° engine compartment after driving around Maybe your CEL was telling you to change your oil.
@guroth: you should disclaim here. ATTENTION: if you have an older engine that leaks/burns a bit of oil, DO NOT USE SYNTHETIC.
@jendomme: g55 amg? let’s all say it at once…SUCKER!
@Type-E: i have a mechanic friend that i trust w/ my car for repairs. he unequivocally denies the ability to oil/filter/lube with any oil you’d want to put in your car for less than $25. if you’re paying less, you’re getting less.
& for the rest, come on. it’s wal-mart. does anybody think they’re hiring ASE mechanics here? i don’t even trust my car to monroe b/c an old friend lost an engine to an oil change there. turns out gomer forgot to put the plug back in. WHOOPS!
@mopar_man: anytime, douche bag.
@jendomme: A Ben’s g55 amg – oh, you’re a rich prick. I guess that generalization explains it all.
Bragging that you drive a $110,000 tank that hasn’t been updated for a decade (and hasn’t been colorably changed in 25 years) really doesn’t give you much street cred. as a savvy consumer.
@bambino: can I second that nomination? I checked through the comments and I am all for being offensive and such, however I dont think I could find a single positive or constructive comment from this fool. Then I go and fall for the troll by responding like this.
Dont trolls go away if we ignore them? How does it go?
Dont feed the trolls.
@jendomme: Fuck off.
The true sign of an intelligent debate is when one of the parties involved starts name calling. Oh wait, that happens when one can’t defend their viewpoint. Bring forth the ban!!@WhatThe…: ^5
@WhatThe…:
jendomme actually gets off on letting people know what a rich prick s/he is.
s/he is a B-School grad that expected to make $145,000 per year post MBA.
s/he doesn’t have time to polish his/her own shoes…who does??
jendomme also likes the gawker approved put-down douchebag. Try and find a thread where s/he doesn’t directly call someone a douche bag, or a group collectively douche bags. It’s about a 50/50 shot.
What puzzles me? Who is the real jendomme? Jendomme claims to be going into his/her fifth decade on the planet, yet claims his/her B-School loans will be paid off in 8 years with very little interest paid. Can we assume jendomme is a recent business school grad? A B-school grad in his/her late 30′s rocking $100K truck and having little people deal with his/her shoes? Who in the fuck is making enough at that advanced stage of their career to afford such a truck, but needs to head back to B-school for that extra bump? Are you in it for the love of learning? You know an MBA doesn’t actually teach one much, right? er du dansker?
Will you clear up this mystery for me? For the children? Please?
My favorite part is when they used water to wash the oil away. lol.
The fact that someone just bragged about driving a mercedes was a real lol moment.
Also, he needs to find some other women to talk to besides the escorts he hires.
Can I charge Walmart with ‘Arsehole and Battery’?
I went to a Walmart to get one of their Everstart Maxx batteries because it was ranked highly by Consumer Reports, but I made the mistake of also letting them install it. It probably took only an hour to get it installed, but for an extra two hours the guy at the counter kept saying it wasn’t ready because his query of the ‘completed’ pile of orders had a search depth of one. But lucky me, at least I got an insincere ‘I appreciate your patience’.
Oh yeah, then I had to wait in line at Customer Service because they charged me for the ‘core’ even though I left my previous battery with them.
My sister got her oil changed at Wal-Mart when they first opened in San Diego. Turns out the tech (if you can call them that) forgot to tighten the drain plug correctly. After about 20 minutes of driving, the vibration loosened the drain plug, the drain plug and all the oil were now on city streets. By the time the engine light came on and she pulled over, the engine was already wrecked.
Luckily she was able to get them to pay for the cost of rebuilding the engine (fun!), but it was a pain in ass (not fun!).
Needless to say she never took it to Wal-Mart for an oil change ever again. I still shake my fist in the air every time I drive past a Wal-Mart.
Walmart uses recycled oil. A friend of mine had his old Buick Regal serviced at WM, and a few days later the oil pump gummed up and killed the car. A jalopy succumbing to old age, or substandard oil/filters used by Walmart? You decide…
I swear by Valvoline quick oil changes. Been using them, at various locations, for about 7 years now and never once had an issue with them.
@mac-phisto:
I have an old car that leaks a little bit of oil. Switching to Mobil 1 actually halved the rate of leakage.
Just to continue beating the discount dead horse:
Don’t get anything at Wal-Mart.
I dont’ know what the big deal is…I have had my oil changed at wal-mart many times and I have never had a problem. It’s actually pretty nice. I go there and drop off the car. Do all my shopping and then pile in the groceries and leave.
Unless you have all the equipment and time and good weather (or a garage) then it makes more sense to go somewhere. It dosen’t take a rocket scientist to change oil, might as well get it done cheap. Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldnt take a brand-new Lexus there, but my 98 Saturn feels right at home in Wal-Mart!
@Bay State Darren: I just wnt to go ahead and apologize for my above remark. It was way out of line. This site deserves much more intelligent discouse than I contribute and tonight even more so.
@Bay State Darren: I was typing in response to the douche bag reference. Your post was kind of funny, but I’m a little jaded, I think your remark while a little harsh, was direct and to the point, and spoke what I can assume others may have been thinking.
FishingCrue, I wasn’t bragging. Just stating that the vehicle I drive is large and heavy thereby calling into question the damage some other SUV might inflict on my vehicle.
@RowdyRoddyPiper: Good, you’ve been reading my posts. It was an EMBA for clarification. Yes, it was for the love of learning and, yes, it does not teach much. School wasn’t for the career, rather it was for the fun of it. Happy now?
As for the car, it is a company car.
I hate to jump into this thread, because it is getting nasty, but…
My problem is that I regularly catch them _not_ checking the tire inflation. Last time, I brought it to the attention of the service manager, who came up with all sorts of excuses how his people actually did it, just their gauge was wrong or something. “His people absolutely did everything they were supposed to.”
I caught them because one of my tires has a very slow leak. Part of the package I purchased included tire pressure check. It was marked off on the paperwork as done / 30psi. So after it was serviced, I checked the tire with the slow leak. 20psi. Should have been 32. The rest of the tires were at 30ish.
If I can’t trust them not to cut corners on the tires, how do I know that they haven’t cut corners elsewhere in the work? That they actually changed the oil filter? Or done anything else properly unless I watch them like a hawk?
I know, my example is very specific. But I need to trust a place that does work on my car. I just can’t trust Wal-Mart.