Reader Andrew says he’s certain that Jiffy Lube purposefully filed down his oil plug so that he couldn’t change his oil himself. Conspiracy? Or incompetance? You decide.
Andrew writes (to Jiffy Lube):
My wife and I purchased a home this spring with a nice garage. I could finally change the oil in my wife’s car. She needed her oil changed badly and had gone to you before. Your team had tightened the nut to the oil pan too tight (pneumatic tools I’m sure), so I mentioned to her to have your shop change the oil and to please ask them to not over tighten the nut so I could release it for the next change.
My wife spoke to a member of your team and asked them to not over tighten the oil plug if possible. Not only did she get a horrible look from both the team member and the employee standing next to him, the oil plug head was completely rounded off smooth.
In order to remove the plug without damaging the oil pan, I had to hammer a wrench head 1/16th size too small onto the plug head to kind of form it into the wrench. I then had to use that same hammer to hit the other end of the wrench in order to loosen the plug. I now had a ruined plug and ruined wrench.
The new Pontiac G6 has a new size plug different than most cars. I found this out when I had to run up to the car parts store to buy a new plug. They didn’t have any of the new plugs and I had to wait a week for a new one, thus rendering the car un-drivable.
Neither my wife, myself, friends, or family will ever use your services again.
We asked Andrew if he was certain the oil plug had been purposefully tampered with, and he says he’s sure:
Yes, they filed it by over tightening it with a pneumatic drill. The drill’s pressure was so high that the tool stripped the ridges off the bolt, thus making it almost impossible for me to remove without bringing it back into their shop.
You could say it was job security for them since they saw a potential customer about to leave and do it themselves.
He also included a picture of the ruined plug. Yikes. What do you guys think? Would someone do this on purpose?
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DO NOT EVER have Jiffy Lube change your oil unless you:
a) know for certain that your car’s oil-change is so easy a chimpanzee could do it. This means no cars that take fancy oil (turbos, etc) or uncommon oil filters. If you do go to Jiffy Lube or a similar place, know what type of oil and oil filter your car takes and have the tech show you what they’re going to put in it before doing anything to the car. Before you leave the parking lot, check your dipstick and the plug.
b) know and trust the moral and intellectual well-being of the techs who work at that store. All of them.
or c) have such a worthless car that you don’t care if they render it undriveable. Or if you have so much extra cash that a full engine replacement coming out of your pocket wouldn’t bother you.
Also, don’t let them do any additional services on your car. Some of the extras they try to up-sell are easy DIY projects (e.g. wiper blade and air filter replacement), and the rest just shouldn’t be done by a 17-year-old who took auto shop once.
My ex-boyfriend worked at Jiffy Lube. They messed up cars all the time and lied about it or refused to accept blame; the management at his store was corrupt (trading free services for drugs so you can get high on your shift, nice!); they violated labor laws left and right. He eventually took the fall for someone else’s mistake so they would lay him off. He couldn’t in good conscience continue working there knowing what was going on, and he did contact corporate after being terminated and report the store, resulting in several people being fired.
1: Replace plug with Fumoto oil drain valve
2: change oil on your own without a single tool!
3: …
4: PROFIT!
I dought it was on purpose because you were going to do your own change. These places typically use air tools for speed and tend to ruin most drain plugs.
Also don’t be fooled into thinking that a dealer will do a better job, the dealer isn’t going to have ther $20 ASE certified tech change oil. They are going to hire someone who has “worked for jiffy lube changing oil” on their resume at $10 per hour to do that kind of work.
When I got married I had to take a file to the plug on my wife’s car to make a flat spot on the plug then clamp a large vise grip on and hammer it loose then go buy a new plug.
Same thing happens at tire rotations, over tighten the lug nuts and strip them, same with vehicle that have grease fittings on steering or suspension components, they get too much grease or not enough and wear out. So many people have replaced tie rod ends and ball joints because of this. Minivan we bought has a tie rod end go bad and when I broke it apart after replaceing it it was dry and rusted inside, must have not had any grease in years despite the dealer service records.
vice grips?
On another note, I Swore off the quick-change lube places when they gave me the 1-2 of:
1: breaking my BroncoII’s air box by attempting to change the air filter without undoing all the bolts for said air box. Of course they never told me they broke something.
2: Sending me off with an un-secured drain plug. 5 miles later I’m stranded on the side of the road with the oil pressure light, and the engine needed a rebuild.
Now I do all my oil changes myself, except for the major service intervals which I take to Santa Cruz, as the local stealerships are ass.
@theRIAA:
brand name for big locking pliers
[www.irwin.com]
@Aeroracere:
No, those oil collection bins always leak. One destroyed the carpet in my bronco a few years ago.
We bought a used Cobalt last year, and earlier this year I wanted to change the oil. It was the first time I was going to do it myself, since my wife took it to an oil change place the first time the oil need to be changed since we bought it. I found out that the drain plug was rounded off, and I had to take it to a quick change place after calling them to make sure they could get it off and that they had a replacement. So I would believe it was incompetence that caused the problem. I got tired of the constant up selling when I used to take the cars in to Valvoline Instant Oil Change.
@timmus: I keep the jugs of windshield wiper fluid and put my used oil in those. I used to use milk jugs, but one day had a mess to clean up when the oil ate through one.
@zentex:
As others have mentioned, there isn’t always an area where you can do your own oil change. It is illegal in my city to do any non-emergency car repair at the side of the road. I don’t have a driveway either (and the landlord wouldn’t want me parking in the “yard”).
@Sian:
Fumoto’s are awesome and I’d consider one for my car if it wasn’t so low to the ground (<3″). Most folks with larger cars with more a bit more clearance would be wise to look into such a system. I also believe that FRAM makes a similar device, but I can’t vouch for the quality compared to the Fumoto which is excellent.
As for changing the oil yourself, it is also easy for many cars to replace transmission and rear differential fluids as well. Change intervals vary depending on the make and model, but Quikie Lube type places charge 2-3X oil change prices for something that is usually easier and quicker than an oil change.
Even if you over tighten you drain plug, helicoils are cheap and easy.
I personally use AMSOIL synthetics in my car, but would recommend Castrol GTX for a conventional oil based on availability, performance and price.
Oh, and change your own in-cabin air filter as well as intake air filter. Most places charge twice the price for what those things actually cost and both are <10 minute jobs on most cars.
make sure you hang photos of that around their neighborhood.
Worst I ever had happen was someone at Oil Can Henry wrote “big dog was here” on my oil pan in wax.
I told a friend of mine never to take her car to Jiffy Lube. So, she did. Even with an air ratchet I couldn’t get her drain plug off when I went to change her oil the next time it was due. So, I hopped in her car with her and off to Jiffy Lube we went. They were more than happy to do the following:
- Apologize for overtightening the drain pan plug (which took them an air impact wrench to loosen themselves)
- Replaced the drain pan plug (since they mauled it getting it off with air tools)
- Hand-tightened the new plug so that it wasn’t a hassle for me when I got it back to my house
I don’t have a wide variety of experience with Jiffy Lube, but, I can tell you the one I’ve visited does indeed use air tools. They also overtighten the hell out of the oil plug.
It might be incompetence or it might be that the literal grease monkey doesn’t want to deal with a shit heel customer coming back to complain about an oil leak “cuz you didn’t do yer jeeeob right!”. Either way, there’s no substitute for the joy of doing it yourself. Sure, it’s a messy job…(you should see my driveway), but, that oil will wash away after a couple good rain storms…right?
Oh, and if you are inclined to do this yourself…here’s a tip on a tool that I’ve enjoyed owning:
[www.mityvac.com] (see the 7201 model)
Calling BS on Jiffy Lube purposefully stripping the bolt. Them being incompetent and idiotic, yes.
If they had stripped the bolt on purpose, it would have been a pain in that ass for them to remove it the next time. As people that are probably making just over minimum wage, I doubt they care if you come back or not, and I highly doubt they would want to deal with a strip bolt.
But if the OP believes that they did it on purpose, shoot me a message, cause I have a bridge to sell you.
Never assume malice for things that can be explained with stupidity.
@mariospants: No, it doesn’t mean they will do it correctly but I think the thought may be that it could be easier to get them to take care of mistakes or be guaranteed that they have the parts and tools to work on your particular car. In this case, if the G6 has an oddly sized plug, taking it to a Pontiac dealer give you more of a chance they have the correct tool to remove it and if something happens, that they have the replacement part available.
I know that I just bought my first brand new car and will be taking it only to the dealer to get this stuff done so that 1) only one place works on it and 2) dealers generally log all maintenace and repairs on the car in their system so they can easily access it.
I swore of Jiffy Lube a few years ago, too.
I went in for an oil change, and though I knew I had a tail light out, I forgot to mention it when I gave them the keys. I figured it wasn’t a problem, as they do those routine inspections for stuff like that. After they were finished and they were ringing me up, they rattled of all of the things they had checked, and they told me that they had checked all of the lights and none were out. When I told them that I knew that I had a tail light out, they blinked at me for a couple of seconds and then told me they’d “check the car again.” Of course the light was out, like I said. I never went back. Reading the above comments, I’m glad that missing a burnt out tail light was the worst thing that they did to my car.
@timmus: I bought a great reuseable container for taking my used oil to AutoZone. It’s made of black plastic (the same kind used for plastic gas jugs), has a wide mouth, and holds 12 quarts, enough for two oil changes on my wife’s car (4.5 quarts each) or one for her car and one for my truck (6 quarts).
I use one of the oil catcher trays to catch the oil, I used to use it to take the oul away but I found that after a while the plastic caps don’t stay on tight enough to not drip.
Did You Know You Can Use Old Motor Oil to Fertilize Your Lawn?
to me it sounds like they overtightened it on purpose because the customer (the guy’s wife) ask them not to overtighten the plug.
I doubt they did it to get the customer to come back.
ugh…I totally wouldn’t put it past Jiffy Lube.
I hate Jiffy Lube. About 18 months ago now, I took our car in for an oil change. They tried to tell me I needed a new radiator cap. I didn’t, as I had just replaced it the week before. I drove an hour home from the Jiffy Lube I had our oil changed at, and my car overheated and there was antifreeze EVERYWHERE. I looked at the radiator cap. A chunk of the gasket had been CUT!!!!!
Absolutely, positively, never again will I ever give Jiffy Lube my business.
I doubt that was just the work of a pneumatic tool. It must have also had the wrong size socket for it to do damage. I use mine with way higher than recommended PSI and have never seen anything like that happen.
Also how can we distinguish damage done by them and damage done by you removing it? No before pic on the car?
You never, ever put in an oil plug with an impact wrench. That’s a tip off to mechanic incompetence. Ask them what torque they’ll tighten the nut to–if they don’t know, or act confused, leave immediately and don’t come back.
The dealership did it to my Toyota. I raised hell and, what do you know, the district manager happened to be there. They stripped out the threads of the oilpan. They had to replace the pan and give me a rental while it was being fixed. Having said this, all of this happened in the midwest where A) it was snowing and B) I had no place to do it myself.
No one touches my cars but me and mechanics I trust.
@zentex: “Excuse”? Good grief. Do you also grow the fiber for your own clothes? No? What’s you’re excuse? Some of us would rather not have to deal with disposing of the used oil, let alone the process of actually changing it.
I know how to do lots of things that I pay professionals to do faster and more efficiently than I would. Don’t you?
Like others wrote – there are superior methods of removing the plug. Half the battle…
I’m glad I know how to do all my own work on my car, but not so much when all my friends ask me to do maintenance on theirs…
I will never use Jiffy Lube. I went there to get my oil changed because I didnt want to wait too long. I mentioned to the attendant that I just changed my air filter and I just wanted the oil changed. They have a habit of showing you the condition of your air filter everytime you get your oil changed. While waiting for the service to be done the technician came and got me. He showed me my air filter and said it was ok. I told him that I mentioned it already to the attendant. He then continued to mentioned other services they could offer me. I denied the services and went back to the waiting room. The next oil change at Jiffy lube the technician told me that I did not have a air filter installed. My brand new air filter was never reinstalled back into my car and I drove 3000 miles that way. That was the last time I went there.
They probably wasted the oil plug with the air wrench not an “air drill”. This won’t tear out the plug from the oil pan as someone suggested. There are also fixes for stripped oil plugs which don’t involve rethreading the oil pan or replacing it. These are like a heavy duty rubber nipple like object that you get a plastic screw driver like handle to shove into the damaged oil pan bolt hole and the nipple expands to close the hole. This requires same plastic screw driver to remove in that the handle stretches the nipple out and allows you to removed it —while the oil drumps down your hand. Not the best solution but it is cheaper than a pan. My family had an old Ford rustmobile E300 van that was set up like this- same van had a plywood battery tray with the battery wedged in with a brick. You get the picture that you wouldn’t be doing this oil plug fix with your 2007 Honda…
As for changing oil in the street, it is illegal in some areas due to the safety issues. Plus idiot wildcat mechanics working in city streets (like north Philadelphia) where, over the span of 5 days, I saw a couple of guys remove and replace an engine by turning both the donar car and receiving car on their right sides. I do not see how it could be illegal in/on private property as there are even mobile oil change places. Best guerilla oil change places I have found are low use or out of the way self service car washes especially at nighttime. This is as long as the local law was cool with it- and it helped to have change ready to wash the car after the change. You have to be time efficient about changing the oil (having a jack and jackstands ready) plus you can not drain it into the car wash sump- you must be able to recycle bottle it. The best place I ever had was a car wash that the bays were perpendicular to the street plus there was an auto parts store next door that had their oil recycling tank unlocked behind their shop. I didn’t even have to tote the used oil but across the lot.
As for disposal I have used the 5 quart oil bottles, gallon milk jugs, etc but got a yellow three gallon oil jug from some restaurants trash years ago which works great for two car plus one motorcycle oil change before taking to recycling. I also pop a hole in the top of the oil filters and let them drain. You can take the filters to some quick lube places to have them recycle them.
You need to be very diligent when returning from Jiffy Lube, check under your car, listen for funny noises, etc. Kinda defeats the purpose of going to them. Twice they have messed up two of my cars (different locations). Once they didn’t put the oil plug on tight enough, so when I got home the oil was pouring out. In the other case they put on the wrong oil plug and stripped the threads of the oil pan, in that case I had to replace the entire oil pan.
Hanlon’s razor:
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Some good recommendations have been made here – let me add some:
1) When removing the oil plug use the right kind of wrench – if it’s a hex head, use a 6 – point socket of the correct size and type. Don’t use an open end wrench, or an adjustable wrench, or a 12-point socket or a SAE socket on a metric plug (or vice versa). Use the 6-point to keep that plug’s edges in good shape. Another tip is to use a short socket wrench handle, say a 6 inch handle vs. a 12 inch or an 18 inch – it’s harder to overtighten the drain plug with the shorter handle due to the less leverage you have.
2) The wide mouth 5-quart oil jugs are great for recycling, but I have several 5 gallon pails with lids/spouts that enable me to recycle used oil every other year.
3) One of the advantages of doing it yourself, is that you can also inspect the cv joint boots for rips or leakage, which if found fairly soon after a rip, can save you an expensive replacement of the joint.
4) When you take off the oil filter, make sure the gasket comes off with it. If it doesn’t, you won’t get a good seal and will get leaks if your put the new filter on with the old gasket remaining.
5) Follow the proper tightening procedure for the oil filter when putting it on – tighter is not better. Tightening too tightly can make it extremely messy and difficult to remove – e.g you crush the filter with the wrench and have to resort to poking a large screwdriver through the filter to spin it off.
6) If you already have a damaged drain plug, go buy a new one before the old one gets to be too damaged to remove easily and replace it proactively at the next oil change.
@Derv: Whatever! I took my Mazda Protoge for it’s first change at the dealer.
(Kings Mazda Kia, Mason/Cincinnati,Ohio, love my Mazda, hated the dealer)
Their expertly trained and certified mechanics put 5 quarts of oil in my 3.5 quart capacity engine. When informed neither the Service manager or GM cared.
(Use Bill’s Auto & Towing Inc 6810 Cornell Rd 513-489-1971 fair and honest)
i do it myself now.
but yea before when i only did it occasionally i found that some shops do some ridiculous tightening on the bolt. i had to break out the hammer:(
Never use quick change places. Do it your self or find a GOOD mechanic you can trust. I took my 1999 Jeep Cherokee to Jiffy Lube once, and suprisingly they told me to go somewhere else. They said their prices are based on 5 qts, and my Jeep would take an extra qt (6 total, which is true) and that would bump the price to $35-40. Ridiculous to say the least. Since then I have been using Mobile 1 Full Synthetic Extended Performance (about $50 per change), but i go 15,000 miles before the next change saving me plenty of dough.
The last time I ever went to Jiffy-Lube was also the first time I went to one. I got my first car, a 91 Integra, and figured it could use a quick lube job. I mean, you never know what the previous owner did, and it was for peace of mind. Fast forward to a couple months later when I had the proper tools and I find that my drain bolt is both rounded and overtightened. Had to buy a new bolt and a set of vice grips to get the damn thing off. I swore to never go back to Jiffy-Lube and advised all of my friends against going there.
In regards to the HOA comments, where I currently live, I believe that I’m technically not supposed to do any type of work to my vehicle in front of the house. That did not stop me from replacing my brakes, changing the oil or cleaning/recharging the air filter (cold-air-intake in an RSX sits inside the front bumper and you pretty much have to take the front bumper off). I have yet to get a notice or anything from the HOA, then again, I have nice neighbors who don’t seem to mind. I also try not to make a big mess and clean up whatever mess I make. I did have a neighbor complain about my ’69 510 being too loud one day. She asked if I had to leave it running for a few minutes before I would leave in it… well, yeah. Carbed cars need to warmup.
Oil Changes
Break Pads
Shock/Struts
Tuneups
All very easy to do. If you have never done any of them before you have to go slow and take your time. Know your limits.
BUT HAVING A DEALER DO IT IS ALITTLE BIT MORE ASSURING.SINCE THEY WILL HAVE THE PARTS IN STOCK IF NOT THEN BITCH TO GET A RENTAL OR HAVE THEM FIX IT THE RIGHT WAY. TRUE ALOT OF SHOPS PLUS DEALER DONT HAVE ASE CERTIFIED TEC WORKING ON OIL CHANGES…BUT BMW DOES…A TECH THERE DOES THE WORK FROM START TO FINISH NOT PAWNING A JOB OFF TO LESSER SKILLED WORKERS TO DO LIKE SEARS…THIS IS ALL FROM MY LITTLE SHORT LIFE IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY.
on a slightly related note i change my own oil but when my ancient toyota is due for a change in the cold winter months i take it to a quick change place instead of freezing. air filters on my car take about two minutes to swap out so i always do it myself. more than once at more then one jiffy lube location i have had the kids working there bring out a seriously messed up air filter, often not even the same size as my car takes and try to sucker me into taking them up on an offer to pay forty bux for them to pretend to replace a perfectly good air filter i just dropped in myself. every time i have ever been to a jiffy lube they have tried to get a hundred bux out of me for a transmission fluid replacement (which every person i have ever spoken to who seems to know about cars says should only be done by a transmission specialist only after a trusted mechanic tells you its needed). jiffy lube also tries to get me to cough up forty bucks at every visit to pay for fuel line and injector treatment which is them pouring a three dollar bottle of gas treatment/cleaner you can buy anywhere for three bux in your tank for you. they also try to sell you a five dollar pair of wiper replacements for twenty bux along with such other great deals as a radiator top off for twenty bux (wow water at ten times the bottled water rip off price!!). thats why i am going to assume the OP isnt so far off the truth and also suggest anybody in baltimore who needs a simple task done to their car hit up a local ntb or munroe muffler instead of jiffy lube.
The last time I went to Jiffy Lube, I had this high-school looking moron tell me that “my coolant was extremely HOT!!!” My ’94 car was idling for about 20 minutes outside your shop on a summer day, dumbass.
I haven’t been back there since. My next oil change was at a CarX. Friendly, professional service. They will be getting my business again very soon.
i had a cherry full size bronco that jiffy lube totally trashed the $2,000 paint job on the hood by using a screw driver to try and pry open the hood. i got out of the truck in my skirt and heels as i was just getting off work from the airport, and had to show the boy how to use the perfectly useful hood lever(that should have been my first clue). then they proceeded to strip the oil pan plug and made quite a mess which had to be repaired at a reputable shop (that cost a pretty penny to repair as well). i wrote several letters to the main offices of jiffy lube which in turn they sent me coupons for a free oil change. pfft! i filed those away in the garbage!
Jiffy Lube in Metairie LA also stripped the oil plug on my 2009 Pontiac G6 during my prior oil change. When the manager was told of the circumstances, he basically said “prove it” and ignored me. This company does nothing to train its staff, letting them ignore a different size plug on a standard US mfg engine and a customer’s complaint about same. They are dangerous to your vehicles health; and, should be avoided like the plague!