Poll of the Day > Jiffy Lube, Grease Monkey, Wal-Mart auto service are all such trash companies.

(+) Yeah! (+)

9/10 cars that have had their most recent oil change come to my work to have a leak diagnosed. It's great for me, I get paid an hour to tell them "yeah, they didn't put a gasket on your drain plug." These companies need to supply their employees with the right shit to get the job done right. I don't blame the lube tech's, it's not their fault, but goddamn. How are these places still open?

Because theyre the cheapest and people (like me) dont know any better

On the flip-side of that coin, I've gotten my oil changed at Jiffy-Lube dozens of times and never had a single problem even once.

Without more significant data, we'd never be able to assess an actual failure rate for their services. And while even a 0.01% chance for failure is bad if you're the one who falls into the 0.01%, like it or not no service (even a stand-alone mechanic in their own garage) is ever going to have a 100% success rate with zero margin for failure.

The number of people you have come in with leaks doesn't really mean much compared to the sheer number of people who go through any of those locations in a single day (let alone over time). There's a huge difference between if they're fucking up something like one out of every 20 cars, versus fucking up one out of every 20,000 cars.


---

Thats why I just change it myself and use organic coconut oil to keep my cars coat shiny
---

I should have read the entirety of po's post

Why would you ever entrust your car at one of those places
---

Hard_Light posted...

I should have read the entirety of po's post

Jiffy lube and grease monkey combined have just about the same number of service locations as Wal-Mart does.

yes, i read the stuff you edited out and you're wrong as usual.
---

Sunny doesnt change his oil, the sun provides all the chakra his car needs to thrive
---

Mead, I can fly.
---

I was a lower bay tech at Jiffy Lube right out of high school. I was in no way qualified to do it. The most experience I'd ever had at that point was changing my wiper blades.

But they trained me up and sent me down there. 90% of the time it was fine, but when there was a problem like a stripped or rounded bolt/plug I had no idea what to do with it so I'd always have to call down the manager. They did have spare plugs, washers, gaskets, etc. if we needed them.

That was probably my worst job though. Working in a basement with hot cars running over the top of you in the middle of summer was not a great time. It must have been 120+ degrees down there with no ventilation. I only lasted a few months.
---

SunWuKung420 posted...

Hard_Light posted...

I should have read the entirety of po's post

Jiffy lube and grease monkey combined have just about the same number of service locations as Wal-Mart does.

yes, i read the stuff you edited out and you're wrong as usual.

holy shit are you wrong about that

you can't combine the actions of two different businesses. it literally does not work that way.

you know better sunny.

i refuse to believe that you don't.

Smarkil posted...

I was a lower bay tech at Jiffy Lube right out of high school. I was in no way qualified to do it. The most experience I'd ever had at that point was changing my wiper blades.

But they trained me up and sent me down there. 90% of the time it was fine, but when there was a problem like a stripped or rounded bolt/plug I had no idea what to do with it so I'd always have to call down the manager. They did have spare plugs, washers, gaskets, etc. if we needed them.

That was probably my worst job though. Working in a basement with hot cars running over the top of you in the middle of summer was not a great time. It must have been 120+ degrees down there with no ventilation. I only lasted a few months.

I can't blame the lubies when the company provides a bad workplace. Pits are awful. They save about 1 minute compared to a hydraulic lift that raises the vehicle 7 feet giving you room to work. A bunch of the guys I manage have come from those quick oil change places.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

On the flip-side of that coin, I've gotten my oil changed at Jiffy-Lube dozens of times and never had a single problem even once.

Without more significant data, we'd never be able to assess an actual failure rate for their services. And while even a 0.01% chance for failure is bad if you're the one who falls into the 0.01%, like it or not no service (even a stand-alone mechanic in their own garage) is ever going to have a 100% success rate with zero margin for failure.

The number of people you have come in with leaks doesn't really mean much compared to the sheer number of people who go through any of those locations in a single day (let alone over time). There's a huge difference between if they're fucking up something like one out of every 20 cars, versus fucking up one out of every 20,000 cars.

I agree that accidents do happen, but when almost every car that has come in to the toyota dealership I work at with stuff wrong with it, I can almost certainly blame the company and not just chance. We do have our lube tech's forget to set the drain plug torque appropriately, but it's only happened once this year. I also have to factor in that these places take any make and model, where 95/100 cars we service are Toyotas, so the familiarity helps immensely.

Right now the only reason I bother going to the dealership for an oil change is my oil changes are free there. Otherwise I would go to Valvoline and get them done there like I have done for the last 17 years of my driving career.
---

Dakooder posted...

I agree that accidents do happen, but when almost every car that has come in to the toyota dealership I work at with stuff wrong with it, I can almost certainly blame the company and not just chance.

Except you're completely missing my point.

Even if every car that you see has something wrong with it, how many cars DON'T you see because they DON'T have anything wrong with them?

You're basing your entire perception on only a fraction of the data.


---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Dakooder posted...

I agree that accidents do happen, but when almost every car that has come in to the toyota dealership I work at with stuff wrong with it, I can almost certainly blame the company and not just chance.

Except you're completely missing my point.

Even if every car that you see has something wrong with it, how many cars DON'T you see because they DON'T have anything wrong with them?

You're basing your entire perception on only a fraction of the data.

You are right in that they're typically coming in for a leak diagnosis, not just for fun. I should have clarified that customers come in for an oil change and the last service done left things messy and half done, even if the car didn't show signs of that. If you get your oil change done and there are no spots in your garage, there is no reason to have it looked at again.

The last time jiffy lube changed my oil they used a completely wrong oil filter and just mashed it down to fit. Which ripped holes in the filter. Which did no favors for my car and caused a leak. Which caused them to say they won't do an oil change on a leaking vehicle. So I did it myself and found their mangled filter.

They do not give a crap about your car operating well in the future.
---

i change my oil myself

most places will use normal oil for normal, recent vehicles, even if i ask them to use something else.

my truck has over 360k miles, and is 20 years old. normal ass oil isn't going to cut it.