Jiffy lube strikes again.

[superhawk996]

A few months ago a customer's engine blew a few minutes after an oil change.  The oil filter leaked out all the oil, I didn't get to see it so I don't know exactly what they did.  At least they owned up to it and replaced the engine which was great for him.  It's a 3.0 diesel ram so it had a handful of problems.  The replacement engine has had several problems, but luckily they gave him a one year warrantee on it.  They've paid for several thousands of dollars in repairs to it.

 

Right before NEXXT I looked at another customer's car that had an oil leak and found that it was coming from the filter cap.  He'd recently had an oil change and I figured they were lazy and didn't replace the o-ring.  It was a very slow leak so his plan was to minimize the usage and have me fix it when I returned, but the leak got bigger.  He took it back to Jiffy and told them what I'd found.  They shot a video from underneath showing oil everywhere, mostly on the side opposite the engine away from the filter.  Then shot another video of the filter cap showing no leak and sent him on his way.  I pulled the cap and discovered no o-ring, at least they did half of that part of the job.  The filter video was 5-10 seconds long and sure as shit, no leak.  WTF?  Then I turned up the volume and found that they recorded it with the engine off, fucking morons.

 

I go to Walmart for most of my fluids and filters.  Quite often there's a trail of oil from the shop to a parking space.  The last one was yuge, I wouldn't be surprised if the engine went empty in that 25 foot drive.

 

No matter where you go for service this stuff can happen, but I'm guessing it's much more prevalent with 'quick lube' places since they hire whoever will work for cheap.  Universal word of caution, never have your car serviced right before a road trip so you'll have time to possibly catch a screwup and not ruin a trip.  I've made this mistake three times with new tires, alignment, and a recall repair and they all went poorly.

[SwampNut]

The Smart is going here soon.

 

 

 

 

I mean, they are "Engineers," what could go wrong?  Good reviews though.

[superhawk996]

Their biggest photo is of another micro car so they should know what to do, as long as they know that the engine is at the other end.

[jon haney]

Quick-lube and fast oil-change facilities.  Is there any other service provider that has such a profound record of horror stories?

I have zero sympathy for anyone that has a bad experience at one of these places.  YOU WERE WARNED.

If you can't do it yourself, or can't get a friend/family member to do it, at least take it to a dealer that has a better reputation.  I know, no guarantees, but any place besides a quicky-lube.

[SwampNut]

Life is too short to give a fuck.

[superhawk996]

9 hours ago, jon haney said:

Quick-lube and fast oil-change facilities.  Is there any other service provider that has such a profound record of horror stories?

I have zero sympathy for anyone that has a bad experience at one of these places.  YOU WERE WARNED.

If you can't do it yourself, or can't get a friend/family member to do it, at least take it to a dealer that has a better reputation.  I know, no guarantees, but any place besides a quicky-lube.

Like any other service provider, there's good and bad.  I don't fault anyone for going to the place that specializes in oil changes to get an oil change.  It's like going to AAMCO for transmission work, people assume they're going to a specialist.

 

Part of me despises doing oil changes because they're mundane, I also realize that it's a dumb procedure that often goes wrong so I get over it and do them knowing that I'm helping their vehicle last longer.  A small number of customers appreciate that I research oils and filters enough to make an educated recommendation of what to use and how often to do it.  Speaking of which, we need an oil thread.

[blackhawkxx]

6 hours ago, superhawk996 said:

Speaking of which, we need an oil thread.

Why?  Everyone knows the oil I use is the very best and if you use anything else you are guaranteed to destroy your engine. 

[superhawk996]

4 hours ago, blackhawkxx said:

Everyone knows the oil I use is the very best 

Probably not.  And you did it, you spurred the oil thread I was thinking about starting.

[jon haney]

16 hours ago, superhawk996 said:

A small number of customers appreciate that I research oils and filters enough to make an educated recommendation of what to use and how often to do it.  Speaking of which, we need an oil thread.

This is a thought I would never expect from a quicky-lube employee, or owner, but would from an AAMCO employee/owner.

I will agree to disagree about Jiffylube being oil change experts.

[superhawk996]

6 hours ago, jon haney said:

This is a thought I would never expect from a quicky-lube employee, or owner, but would from an AAMCO employee/owner.

I hope that's a joke because I'm pretty sure they get more training on how to lie to people than anything else.

 

The best Aamco experience that jumps to mind: Friend's 1990-ish Ranger won't shift out of first unless redlined or warmed up.  After doing either it works normally 'till it's parked for several hours and needs another redline or warm-up.  Aamco had a free diagnostic deal so he dropped it off, worst case scen

 

They told him that the fluid was black, burnt, and full of metal and he needed a rebuild.  The day before he dropped it off the fluid looked and smelled almost new.  When he said he was picking it up they told him that he'd have to pay several hundred dollars because the truck was on the lift with the pan and valve body off so they'd have to reassemble it, he freaked out and called me.  I took him there to pick it up by force and it was still parked where we'd left it a couple days before, with spider webs holding it to the ground and not a single hand print on the pan, and the fluid was still clean.  Lots more lies ensued, we left with $0 spent.  He sold me the truck for a couple hundred because he was convinced that the trans was fucked.  I spent about $5 and 15 minutes to fix it, drove it for a while, then sold it for $3k.

[blackhawkxx]

6 hours ago, superhawk996 said:

I spent about $5 and 15 minutes to fix it, drove it for a while, then sold it for $3k.

If it were older I'd wonder if it was the vacuum modulator.  So what was it?

[jon haney]

14 hours ago, superhawk996 said:

I hope that's a joke because I'm pretty sure they get more training on how to lie to people than anything else.

 

The best Aamco experience that jumps to mind: Friend's 1990-ish Ranger won't shift out of first unless redlined or warmed up.  After doing either it works normally 'till it's parked for several hours and needs another redline or warm-up.  Aamco had a free diagnostic deal so he dropped it off, worst case scen

 

They told him that the fluid was black, burnt, and full of metal and he needed a rebuild.  The day before he dropped it off the fluid looked and smelled almost new.  When he said he was picking it up they told him that he'd have to pay several hundred dollars because the truck was on the lift with the pan and valve body off so they'd have to reassemble it, he freaked out and called me.  I took him there to pick it up by force and it was still parked where we'd left it a couple days before, with spider webs holding it to the ground and not a single hand print on the pan, and the fluid was still clean.  Lots more lies ensued, we left with $0 spent.  He sold me the truck for a couple hundred because he was convinced that the trans was fucked.  I spent about $5 and 15 minutes to fix it, drove it for a while, then sold it for $3k.

Wow, doubt they will be in business long with that level of blatant lying.  If that happened to me here in KS, I would probably open carry when I went to pick up the vehicle, so they would be more inclined to just "let it go".

[TOXXIC]

On 9/18/2025 at 2:45 PM, superhawk996 said:

The oil filter leaked out all the oil,

 

On 9/22/2025 at 11:16 AM, jon haney said:

at least take it to a dealer that has a better reputation.  I know, no guarantees, but any place besides a quicky-lube.

Many years ago I took a Nissan pickup to a Jiffy Lube for an oil change. When I got home I parked it on my newer exposed aggregate concrete driveway. When I walked out a couple hours later the entire contents of the oil pan were all over my driveway. They said they would do another oil change but refused to have my driveway cleaned. They hadn’t tightened the oil drain plug which came loose after a few miles in my driveway. Could have been more catastrophic. Never went there again.

 

A couple years ago I was in a rush and decided to take my Silverado 3L diesel to to a dealership 30 miles away for an oil change. Couple days later I noticed my truck was spotting oil spots on the driveway. When I put the truck on the lift I found the oil filter was loose and and I had lost a couple quarts of oil. When I called the dealership the service writer said he would have the service manager call….he never did call me back. Think of how many people I’ve told this story to and the bad PR they are receiving.
 

This is super inconvenient as I now have an open recall I no longer trust them to handle, and will have to drive it 2 hours to a trustworthy dealership where I bought it.

 

Only way to expect exceptional service and work is to do it yourself. 

[superhawk996]

18 hours ago, blackhawkxx said:

If it were older I'd wonder if it was the vacuum modulator.  So what was it?

The vacuum modulator is a good guess.  The governor was sticking, it's a centrifugally actuated valve on the output shaft that senses vehicle speed.  It was my guess from the beginning, but I'm not a tranny guy.  I mentioned it to the AAMCO people and they said that this trans doesn't have a governor, and said that a governor wouldn't do this.

 

First thing I did was replace a quart of fluid with Trans-X, drove it a bit, and in the morning it was stuck.  I put the rear end on jackstands, started the engine, put it in second gear, and ran it to redline.  Breaking it free cold dead cold was all it needed, it stayed working after that.  IIRC I ran it up a few times to work the valve a bit while cold even tho it started working right away.

[superhawk996]

11 hours ago, jon haney said:

Wow, doubt they will be in business long with that level of blatant lying.  If that happened to me here in KS, I would probably open carry when I went to pick up the vehicle, so they would be more inclined to just "let it go".

They'll be in business 'till people make a big enough stink about them.  That particular one didn't last very long after lying to my friend.  I pushed hard, but I know that one person alone can't kill them so I'm sure they had a few complaints already.

 

A Mazda dealer told my customer that she needed rear brake pads, I'd replaced them a few weeks prior.  There was a long list of similar shit on her car, all lies.  Every oil change they'd tell her it needed stuff and she'd bring it to me, then I'd have to convince her that it's fine.  I told the service manager that I want them to keep doing her oil changes and that any repairs they recommend will be done by me, and that if they lie to her again I'm taking all their lies to the BAR.  It's been a few years since her car needed repairs, funny how it stopped wearing things out by me visiting them.

 

Firestone did a tune-up on an Escape, a couple months later it had misfires.  I found that they replaced the front 3 plugs which are easy to access and didn't do the rear three.

 

A different Firestone did a 'major service' on an F-250 including the fuel filter.  It was exhibiting classic signs of a clogged fuel filter on an early Ford which means it acts like the transmission is fucked up, they recommended replacing it.  I found that they tried to change the filter, mangled the hell out of it and the locking clips, then gave up.  I replaced it and that cured the transmission.

 

AAMCO told my customer that they needed a rebuild, no way to save it.  I changed the fluid and it drove fine.  This has happened a few times.

 

The list of shop fuckery and blatant lies is long, and most of them survive the complaints.  Probably because most people who know enough to formulate a reasonable and accurate complaint that stands up to the shop's counterarguments aren't taking their cars to a shop.

[SwampNut]

"That's not my cabin air filter."

 

<Blank stare>. Um, you can see it's totally clogged......

 

"Sure, the car that came from is fucked up, what does that have to do with me?"

 

<Tells me it's my filter.>

 

So I started to walk out to the car to pull it myself and he tells me I can't go into the shop/bay.  I do it anyway and pull my own cabin air filter.  They try to convince me they just had the wrong person.

 

[superhawk996]

Customer calls me from a Jiffy type place on speaker and says "the guy can't open the air filter box."

"Yea, I put a sticker on it that reads "DO NOT OPEN", then realized that they're too stupid to read so I safety wired the clamp to keep them out."

 

The guy travels a lot and has had his filter box damaged a few times.  He'd forgotten that I told him it doesn't need to be checked and that I'd replace it at his 200k service.