How to Avoid Disaster and Save Money at the Lube and Oil Change Center

Millions rely on quick oil change and lube centers to refresh the oil and other vital fluids in their cars or trucks. What many do not realize is mistakes can be made even on a simple oil change, and the results can mean the destruction of the vehicle's engine, an accident, or even a serious fire. Here is how you can avoid disaster both to your vehicle as well as your wallet at the oil and lube center.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A willingness to open the hood and look under the car to carefully check any and all work done the very minute your car is pulled out of the service bay.
• Be alert for a lot of high-pressure up-selling of services your car may not even need.

1. First, realize that many such quick oil change and lube places likely cannot make a profit on doing oil changes alone, even if the basic oil change is $35.00. Recent investigations by NBC and CBS news affiliates have revealed that a national oil change business holds its managers to a minimum revenue quota of $66.00 per car per visit. Many customers go into these places expecting a $35.00 oil change and end up spending that $66.00 or even $2-300.00 on services that were up-sold to them but which they may not have even needed. So, if its just an oil change you want, insist on an oil change and nothing but an oil change.

2. 

   Second, do not use the waiting room while your car is being worked on. The oil change center may not allow you into the service bay, but you can stand just outside the service bay, near your car, while it is being worked on. Make sure you can see clearly into the engine compartment of your car through the open hood, and make sure you have a clear line of sight to the technician working below your vehicle.
   
   Watch and make sure the technician(s) under your car drain out the old oil. Once the technician removes the oil drain bolt, you should see a dark, pencil-thick stream of the old oil draining from the bottom of the engine compartment of your car. The oil takes two or three minutes to drain completely. If they allow significantly less time than this to drain the oil from your car, it may mean they are trying to cut corners by leaving some dirty oil in your car.
   
   Also watch and make sure the technician removes the old oil filter from your car. It is essential that the filter be replaced with a new one at each oil change. Failure to do so may result in unfiltered or poorly filtered oil circulating through your engine, which can severely damage or even destroy your engine.

3. Watch and make absolutely sure that your car is filled with the correct grade and quantity of new oil. The oil will be added through an opening in the top of the engine compartment. If you are unsure of what is going on, call out to the technician and ask them what they are doing. If you do not understand the answer, ask again, or ask them to have a manager explain it to you.
   
   Make sure the technician (usually the one under the car) installs the new oil filter.

4. 

   Once the new oil is in and the new filter installed, make sure the technician pulls the dipstick and reads the oil level BEFORE they start the engine to check for leaks. Ask them to show you the dipstick reading, and make sure the reading is within the normal operating range. If you do not know how to read the dipstick, have them explain it to you so you understand it clearly.

5. Once there is a good dipstick reading, then the tech should start your car and check CAREFULLY for any kind of fluid drip or fluid leak. There should be no oil leaks or drips from the oil pan, differential, or the transfer case (if your vehicle has a transfer case). If there are any leaks it may mean the tech mis-installed or failed to install the appropriate drain plug. There should be no leaks AT ALL from the oil filter area. There should be no leaks at all from any fluids the tech(s) checked, changed, or topped off. Ask, ask, ask the tech(s), “Do you see any leaks or drips of any kind?”
   
   Also ask the techs if they greased all the fittings on your vehicle. Ask them, “Now how many grease fittings are on my car again?”, and they should tell you a number such as “twelve”. Then ask the tech, 'Did you lube all twelve of them?”

6. 

   Once the car has been pulled out of the service bay, you need to check the car again, yourself, with your own eyes. Open the hood. Make sure all fluid filler caps and dipsticks have been replaced in their proper receptacles. Compare against the diagram in your vehicle owner's manual if you have any doubts. Look at the oil filter. Is it different than the one you came in with? Turn off the engine and check the oil dipstick again. It should read normal. Get down on the ground, with a flashlight if need be, and look underneath the car for leaks. This includes you, ladies. You don't want an oil leak to cause you to break down in the middle of a ten-lane freeway, or a deserted country road, do you? Also check as many of the grease fittings you can find. If any fittings have a greasy/dusty patina on them, that means the tech forgot to grease them. A freshly greased fitting will be shiny and clean with perhaps a residual dollop of fresh,clean grease on it.

7. There better not be any leaks or drips from your car that were not there prior to taking your car into the oil and lube center. If there are, insist firmly but politely to the manager that they need to make it right, and make it right RIGHT NOW. Escalate the matter to the District manager, and keep escalating until you get your issue resolved. Do not let them tell you to “come back tomorrow/next week”, do not let them give you the runaround.

Tips & Warnings

• After reading this article, you might be thinking it might be easier to just do the oil change yourself. And, of course, you would be right! So be sure to read my article on how to save money by changing your oil yourself. Or, you might be thinking it might be better to take your car to a trusted, certified mechanic, spend a little more money, and avoid the hassle of having to watch over his shoulder to make sure the oil change is done right. Again, you’d get no argument from me on this bit of wisdom. I’d still at least check the dipstick when picking up the car, though.
• Oil and lube chain stores will try very aggressively to up-sell you on all kinds of other products and services. Your answer: No, no NO!!!!! If you say yes to two or three of these extras, your bill is likely to grow to $100.00 or even way more. Even if you might need whatever service they happen to be up-selling, chances are you can save 50% by getting it done somewhere else or you can save even more doing it yourself. For example, they will likely tell you your air filter needs replacing. Tell the quick lube place you are not interested, even if the thing they show you does look dirty. If you think you need a new air filter, save yourself some money by driving down the street to a Wal-Mart, Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, or Carquest, and get a filter at one of those places. It is likely the price will be half or less than what the oil and lube place wanted. Your vehicle owners manual will show you how easy it is to install yourself.
• DO NOT, under any circumstances, let a lube and oil change center to do ANYTHING to your transmission or its fluid. They will try to tell you should have them change the transmission fluid because the fluid smells bad and/or has metal shavings in it, etc. etc. etc. Ignore these high-pressure sales tactics. The ONLY person who should touch anything on your transmission is an ASE-certified mechanic, or an ASE-certified master transmission specialist who is trained on your specific vehicle make. Do not let a minimum-wage, uncertified quick lube technician work on your transmission or its fluids.
• Do not let a quick lube place touch your windshield wipers. If your windshield wiper blades need replacing, auto parts store such as Advance Auto or Autozone will provide you with higher quality wiper blades for much less money, and they will install them on your vehicle for free. Oil change and lube places have been known to damage or break windshield wiper arms. That happened to me years ago at an oil change place, and I discovered that they destroyed my windshield wiper arms only days later when I was trying to drive in a rainstorm. The wiper arms were bent so badly that the wipers did not touch the windshield.

[trvlarrngr]

on 9/11/2009 Great tips. They always try to sell me extra things when I am there too. 5 stars

[momandpopoften]

on 12/1/2008 MikkolWoods, Thanks for your comment. I would not normally want someone watching over my shoulder when I am working, either, but when it comes to work done on our cars, the customer has a right to expect and ensure the work is done correctly. At many quick lube places, unfortunately the work is not done right or not done at all. Sadly, this fact is all too well documented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiCAJ8ULnaI

[MikkolWoods]

on 10/26/2008 Good information overall. Just a word to some of you who may care, I work at Jiffy Lube, and if we were to see someone who just constantly looked over our shoulder while we were working, we would feel very uncomfortable and might even end up messing up your car or spilling something. You would probably be looked at as very annoying and bothering. The wait room is there for the customers comfort while they wait. We are highly trained individuals before working at Jiffy Lube and there is no need to watch every little detail about your car.

[Alisiane]

on 10/5/2008 This is great advice that the guys at Jiffy Lube aren't going to tell you. I always park myself in the waiting room and just blindly trust that the "pros" know what to do and are doing it...maybe they need to see more of me while they're working on my car :)

[Thims]

on 9/14/2008 First of all let me say having 10 children is not a family, it's a CITY!

Very informative. Lot's a great info here to use: Step 6 - Rechecking yourself is a great tip!