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I regularly get my oil changes at Valvoline. Afterwards they have the sheet that lists all the stuff they supposedly "checked" -- transmission fluid, tire pressure, coolant level, etc. Guess what? They absolutely do NOT check air pressure unless maybe they notice a flat tire. Here's the story:
I drive a heavy duty truck with truck tires. But it's a Suburban 2500 so it looks pretty much like every other Surb out there. The door sticker specifies 50psi front / 80psi rear. Unless I'm carrying a load I keep them at 50/60 and I check the pressure before heading to Valvoline. Every single time I've been there with this vehicle their "check sheet" says 35/36 psi. EVERY TIME. Every time I call them on it. The conversation is always the same:
Me: "Did you check the tire pressure?"
Valvoline guy: "Yup, sure did."
Me: "Nope, this seems to be wrong unless you let a lot of air out."
Them: "That's the factory spec for that truck. We go by the door sticker"
Me: "Really? It's a 3/4 ton truck. That's NOT the spec. Let's go check."
I pull out tire gauge. We go look at door. Guy starts to sweat. Check sticker on door, it says 50/80. Guy starts all kinds of BS excuses.
This has happened to me at least 6 times. It has happened to my wife too in her car at least as often. She inflates 5 psi high and they never check or correct it. I go to 3 different locations and the same thing has happened at ALL of them. This obviously raises the question of what other stuff they don't check. I don't think that they actually check anything at all.
Pretty bogus, I think. Anybody else have this problem or any thoughts?
You're lucky the techs at those quick lube shops get the oil in the right hole and remember to put the drain plug back in before they do.
If you're depending on these guy's to perform an actual inspection on your vehicle you are SOL. This isn't just a Valvoline problem, it's a fast lube problem and Jiffy Lube, Grease Monkey, etc. all have the same MO. If you go to a national chain like a Firestone service center, you may get a more thorough inspection because they are looking for things to upsell you on. There's no benefit to the quick lube guys pointing out you need brakes because they can't sell you brakes...if they even know what brakes are...but I digress.
Basically, if you want someone to actually look and maybe find something, go to a full service chain. If you want someone to look and give you a good honest evaluation, find yourself a good local independent. If you want someone to look, aren't sure of a decent local independent and don't mind giving them your right nut for payment, go to the dealer.
I do all my own oil changes. Occasionally, on our "beater" cars, I've taken it somewhere to get changed... and without fail they screw it up. Our Jeep GC never had an oil leak since we bought it, had it a year and a half. Had been doing the oil changes myself during that time. I don't want to mess with it one time, and take it to the local quick lube place. After that, we start seeing drips on the driveway and in the garage. Tried to tighten the plug, that didn't work. Waited until 5k miles were up before I did it myself, they forgot to put the drain plug washer on.
Our Hyundai Tiburon, took it to a place to get new tires, alignment, and change the oil. They forgot to tighten the oil plug. Made a huge puddle in our garage, luckily we only live about 2 miles from the place, so all the oil didn't have time to run out while my wife was driving. If she had decided to go shopping afterwards or something, that engine would be toast, because my wife doesn't notice the gauges in our cars at all.
In my whole life, I've had 4 cars not have oil plugs or oil filters tightened when taken to a shop, out of probably 10 times of going. That's 40% of the time a quick lube place has screwed something up. Me? Out of probably 100 oil changes, I'm 100 for 100 with no screw ups.
Best to just set aside an hour or two on a weekend and do this stuff yourself, so you KNOW it's done right.
I used to get my Taurus serviced at the dealer ... it was only $20 for motorcraft syn-blend oil and and the filter.
Once I got the Cherokee and the Focus, I started doing it myself. I know that I tighten the oil drain plug, tighten the filter, use the correct oil and filter ... and I can also poke and prod under the car myself.
The places where you can bring your car and they will check stuff for you - you never really know if anything is wrong or they are making it up. Furthermore, if they do find something wrong you can bet it's going to be ridiculous prices!
That's weird. I used to go to one of those Valvoline shops sometimes. They normally did check the tire pressure. That is, until one time when I showed up with green valve caps from the nitrogen fill of my newer tires from Costco. They were full of all kinds of BS about why they couldn't even check the pressure, let alone top them off. Easy excuse to do less work, I guess. LOL. Anyway. They did get the oil in the right hole and the plug back in every time at least.
They do upsell at the Valvoline (and I assume other quick lubes) but on different stuff. They like to sell wiper blades, fuel additive, etc, etc. But yeah, it's not going to be too useful for early catch of any significant problem.
The main beef I have with Valvoline is that it's too expensive, even with a coupon. You are paying for the instant convenience of it. You can get the same thing at Monro (with the same Valvoline oil) for less money. Of course there they are using the oil change to draw you into the shop and hopefully sell you some other stuff. But I've dealt with them too and have found them to be reliable and honest at a couple different locations, if of course being rather by the book most of the time. I never really got pushed for extra crap though. For a long time I knew the one manager which helped a lot, but now he's gone and I don't know if I'll go back or not. An indie shop that I trust that is also convenient has been hard to find. For a recent bigger job I wanted 100% done right (timing belt) I ended up going back to the dealer. Price on timing belt service really wasn't too bad I thought, just didn't let them do anything else.
I'm thinking of trying to do my own oil changes, haven't done in years, but I need a good way to get under the car.
I do all my maintainence and repairs. I've very good at working on cars, and can do my own diagnostics and testing. I've probably done hundreds of oil changes by now, and can count the number of times i paid for one on 1 hand. Only time any of my cars see the dealer is when they are under warranty. I figure i get some free coffee/donuts and possible get a new loaner for the day. Why not right?
Well, when i do my own maintainence, i tend to write a date/mileage on the filter, or on the pan. So my air filter, oil filter, cabin filter, etc will have dates. And if i change my differential fluid, i'll date the area next to the drain plug as well. In other words, i do a good job documenting (i have paper records as well of everything)
Needless to say, without fail, every time the car was in for a warranty issue (3 times...very minor stuff i was being picky about) I'd get a work sheet back with circles items in the red saying they were overdue. The items would be things like air filter, cabin filter, rear differential, etc.....all things that if they actually checked, would see they are brand spanking new with dates in visible locations.
Needless to say I don't beleive they EVER check a single thing and just go by service history.
I have a new Benz, and once a year it's due for a Service A, which is a glorified oil change + vehicle inspection. It was something like $400. I did the oil change myself (9 quarts syn plus filter = $130) and reset the monitor (easy to find out how online). That left $270ish for labor and "inspection". Highly doubt they would even look at anything else...especially on a car with 8K miles on it at the time.
Oh quick lube places...lets just say as a teen i had plenty of friends working there. Don't take your car there. I could tell you stories. Pay a real mechanic $5-10 more (or dealership) and consider it insurance against poor work. I've had friends tell me of stripping drain plugs, forgetting to put oil in the car, drain plugs finger tight, not putting the gasket on the oil filter, etc. I even had a friend drop a car off a lift once. if you love your car, don't use a quick lube place
My thoughts are pretty simple. Get your oil changed somewhere else.
Second on this. kletter, you seem to know enough about what quality job you want from a repair shop, try to do more research or yelp.?
Me knowing how techs and service advisors think, not to say they are out to scrw you all the time but who knows, there are very few places I'd trust for most work.
Unfortunately not working in a shop anymore, I have no choice but to have a shop do my tire and alignment work. Everything else, I do
I go to my regular mechanic for oil changes, as he lets me bring my own oil and filter (I only use Mobil One) and I trust him implicitly. I have heard too many bad things about the quickie lube type places. I went to one years ago, I think it was Jiffy Lube, and almost blew up my engine because they didn't tighten the oil plug (if that's what it's called) and I lost all the oil as I drove.
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