Hot Rod Forum banner

Jiffy lube rant: what would you do?

5K views 35 replies 21 participants last post by  PrimeMover 
#1 ·
So I just got a call from my girlfriend in Atlanta. SHe went to Jiffy lube to get her oil changed in her '03 civic. THe required oil for this car, as noted by all service manuals and actually printed RIGHT ON THE OIL FILL CAP is 5w20 oil.

So she gets home, looks at her receipt and it says 5w30 oil she was charged for. I tell her to go back to the shop and demand a new oil change. I'm on the phone with her and immediately this lazy jerk starts arguing with her about the service. "we know we put 5w20 in" I tell her, it doesn't make two spits and half a fart's difference what they know, you're the one making the car payment, you're the one who needs to be sure. THey need to change that oil AND THE FILTER out. Finally he agrees to change the oil, but not the filter. They go back and forth for a minute and I tell her, screw it, get the higher-up's name and phone number, I'll talk to him myself. Well customer service is down on the weekends (no customer service even though their shops are open to make money. Great).

Furthermore, it turns out that there's a price difference btw 5w20 and 5w30. THe 20 weight is actually MORE expensive. I kept telling her, why is this guy running a shop going to charge you for the cheaper oil?! Just because he feels like being nice?

So I'm going down to ATL in a week (lol, not just for this, I was planning on going). I'm going to talk to customer service this week. I'm going to ask them what they're going to do if I take a sample of that oil out of the crank case and its the wrong kind.

I AM LIVID.

K
 
See less See more
#2 ·
killerformula said:
I AM LIVID.

K
1.) CALM down! It's not worth the stress. :D

2.) Understand that "Multigrade" or "Multi-Viscosity" are formulated so that they have a cold-pour viscosity ("thickness") at low temperatures while having the properties of a higher-viscosity oil at operating temperatures. That being said ... "5W" is your viscosity when cold, which the engineers are saying is equivalent to a straight-grade oil of 5. At operating temperature the two oils mentioned above have either a viscosity similar to that of either a 20 or 30 straight grade.

3.) I'd be a little more concerned with the "cold" viscosity, as many newer engines have been engineered to expect a low-viscosity oil at start-up. If the oil is too thick, it might pool at the top of the engine instead of returning to the pan ... possibly causing oil starvation. I think that the biggest reason for the 5W20 versus 5W30 is for gas mileage ... thinner oil at operating temperature = less "drag"

4.) Having explained the above, You probably could have "lived with" (IMHO)the 5w30 for one oil change.

5.) I think that the Jiffy Lube guy was trying to "work with you" on this by offering to replace the oil. The little bit of oil that is in the filter (about a cup-full?) would have a negligible effect.

6.)If it were me, I'd give him a call and tell him that you've calmed down and apologize. I'm sure that he would also apologize for MAKING A MISTAKE, and would do his best not to do it again.

"To err is human, to forgive is divine." :thumbup:
 
#4 ·
Yeah I figured that it was more about the fuel economy than anything else, but its not their motor to play around wiht its hers. And she came to the shop to get the right job done only to have it thrown back in her face like she was trying to get a free second job.

Service is service. Do it right or dont do it at all.

K
 
#5 ·
We also put 10w30 in everything.
Do your self a favor and stay away from Jiffy Lube. Go to a mechanic for your oil changes. You are lucky they put any oil in at all. For a while a good portion of our business was fixing problems created buy quick oil change franchises.

They employ kids who are not mechanics at all and make a lot of mistakes.
 
#6 ·
Get your oil changed elsewhere next time. Don't waste your time and breath worrying about something as trivial as that. YOUR time is too valuable to waste it on the difference between 5w20 and 5w30. Yes, they should have put in the proper oil. If they didn't put the right stuff in, then yes, you shouldn't go back.

However,

I change oil for people (at least I used to), and if the manufacturer calls for 5w30, I very certainly use it in the colder winter months, but in the summer, because our weather here can be brutally hot, I use 10w30.

If their cars are old and worn out, I use 10w30. Most people leave that up to my discretion because they know I'm an engine builder and mechanic and they trust my judgement.

However, Jiffy lube is a different deal and I believe that you should have gotten your 5w20 if that's what you requested.

However, I would unwad my panties and focus my energy on something positive.



Brian
 
#10 ·
Oil change instructions (for men & women)

Oil Change Instructions for Men & Women (A Joke)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Read to end!
Oil Change Instructions For Women
1. Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3,000 miles since the last oil change.
2. Drink a cup of coffee.
3. 15 minutes later write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.
Money Spent
Oil Change $20.00
Coffee $1.00
Total $21.00

Oil Change Instructions For Men
1. Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree, write a check for $50.00.
2. Stop by 7 - 11 and buy a case of beer, write a check for $20.00, drive home.
3. Open a beer and drink it.
4. Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5. Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7. Place drain pan under engine.
8. Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9. Give up and use crescent wrench.
10. Unscrew drain plug.
11. Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process. Cuss.
12. Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.
13. Have another beer while watching oil drain.
14. Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.
15. Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.
16. Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties. Drink a beer.
17. Buddy shows up; finish case of beer with him. Decide to finish oil change tomorrow so you can go see his new garage door opener.
18. Sunday: Skip church because, "I gotta finish the oil change." Drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car. Cleverly dump oil in hole in back yard instead of taking it back to O'Reilly to recycle.
19. Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during step 18.
20. Beer? No, drank it all yesterday.
21. Walk to 7-11; buy beer.
22. Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.
23. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
24. Remember drain plug from step 11.
25. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
26. Remember that the used oil is buried in a hole in the back yard, along with drain plug.
27. Drink beer.
28. Shovel out hole and sift oily mud for drain plug. Re-shovel oily dirt into hole. Steal sand from kids sandbox to cleverly cover oily patch of ground and avoid environmental penalties. Wash drain plug in lawnmower gas.
29. Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor. Throw kitty litter on oil spill.
30. Drink beer.
31. Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes. Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame.
32. Bang head on floorboards in reaction to step 31.
33. Begin cussing fit.
34. Throw stupid crescent wrench.
35. Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit Miss December (1992) in the left boob.
36. Beer.
37. Clean up hands and forehead and bandage as required to stop blood flow.
38. Beer.
39. Beer.
40. Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.
41. Beer.
42. Lower car from jack stands.
43. Accidentally crush remaining case of new motor oil.
44. Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during steps 23 - 43.
45. Beer.
46. Test drive car.
47. Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.
48. Car gets impounded .
49. Call loving wife, make bail.
50. 12 hours later, get car from impound yard.

Money Spent
Parts $50.00
DUI $2500.00
Impound fee $75.00
Bail $1500.00
Beer $40.00
Total $4165.00 -- But you know the job was done right!
 
#11 ·
RCastle said:
I would be more concerend with the drain plug Eric.Jiffy Lube requires that the only tool Kyle needs to change your oil is one pair of Vise-Grips for the drain plug,and a pair of Channel Locks for filter removal/installation.

Are you forgetting to make sure the filter is tight??


In a while, Chet.
 
#13 ·
I guess you're right in a sense, I'll probably just let it slide. I was listening in on the phone and what really got me was the attitude she got when she went back there. She calmly asked them to make it right and do it properly and she got nothing but run around, all the way to the point where they basically just refused to do the job. I'm less concerned about the error and more pissed about the fact that these lazy turds wont correct their mistake, then they start accusing her of coming back and just wanting a free oil change! Yeah, because people love spending the better part of their day in a garage getting their oil changed every 10 miles.

This is why I do all my own oil changes. Too bad I can't do hers for her (750 miles away sort of makes it cost-prohibitive lol). This service is overpriced from the start. THe least these jerks can do is do it right for 25 or 30 dollars.

K
 
#16 ·
It is very important to put the recommended oil in.

There is virtually no difference aside from operating temp viscosity between 5w20 & 5w30. I put 5w20 instead of 5w30 in our cougar by accident (my truck takes the 5w20). It has a bit of tick now once it's warmed up, but it's ran fine for the last 2500 miles.

That being said, if I had put the wrong oil in my truck by accident I'd change that in a heartbeat. Not because the engine is going to be hurt by it, but for warranty purposes. An auto manufacturer can, an often will, do an oil sample of your engine before any warranty work is performed on it. If the results come back that your engine has the wrong oil they can and will void your warranty.

That being said, I think you should get the oil drained & re-filled, but I don't think that filter full will do any harm. Perhaps a refund is not out of the question? I'd try to get those 2 things to happen.
 
#18 ·
I would tell her to take the car back have them put in the right oil and pay with visa and than stop payment.

I have not been to the engine section here more than a 1/2 dozen times but
I would assume there are some of the best in the country on here and cannot believe they have let this go that the grades recommended are for gas mileage only. 5w20 is same as 5w30.
It critical with the ford 4.6 valve train, the corvette, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, jaguar and others.

It starts with sheering of the oil.

There have already been two class action suits over this, its that critical.
There are no engineers on here?

I have been out of oil to long to be up to date and comment but I would think there are other people on here qualified.
 
#19 ·
Lots of good information in this thread ... but I thought of a few things to add:

I used to work at NAPA, and now work at a Ford Dealership.

This service is overpriced from the start. THe least these jerks can do is do it right for 25 or 30 dollars.
Jiffy Lubes (and other similar) exist only because consumers are CHEAP when it comes to maintaining thier vehicles.
At NAPA, we priced ALL brands of 5W30 / 10W30 at $2.95 / Litre (CDN) despite the fact that our cost was over $3.00 on several brands.

WHY would we do that, you ask?
1.) Simple... it just saved us a whole lot of time and stress dealing with "value-conscious consumers" (translation: "cheap pr*cks") with questions like:
- "Which brand is the cheapest?"
- "5W20 is a smaller number than 5W30 ... why does it cost more?"
- "Well, this (Pennzoil) should be cheaper, cuz it's a US quart ... not a litre" 1 US QT = 0.946L ... 5% less... 1/20th of a litre :rolleyes:

2.) We hoped that consumers might buy something else while in the store ... something that we MIGHT be able to turn a bit of a profit on. Of course these "savvy" consumers have been educated and know that this is a trick that we and all other "mass-merchandizers" (that's another savvy consumer term ;) ) use to extract dollars from their jeans ... and they're not falling for THAT!

3.) "Give me the cheap filter, as I know that the only difference between filters is the paint" <Yeaaahhhh ... OK ... >

< OK, so 5 litres of 5W30 @ $3.00/L and a "white box" oil filter @ $3.95 ... Lets see $18.95, actually $20.27 with tax please sir. Would you like a bag with that? No, a box you say? Well certainly sir ... >

Muttering: "Jeezuz H ... these parts cost me more than 20 bucks! What a rip-off! The heck with you guys ... next time I'm going to Qwikee Lube. Cripes, they'll do the whole thing for less than that!"
<OK, then sir ... and Thank You. Have a nice day!>

That was NAPA ... This is Ford. We do COMPLETE SERVICE JOBS, and none of our guys have freckles or pimples. :mwink:

<OK, sir ... We have performed your service job, including free fluid top-ups and multi-point inspection. We noticed that the rear tires are right down to the wear bars, and the front tires are are at 2/32" tread remaining. The serpentine belt is frayed and has chunks missing, your CV boots are torn, and the LH rear brake cylinder is leaking. There is a squeak in the RH front wheel, which we suspect is a bad wheel bearing. The air filter REALLY should be replaced. We did call your wife (you gave us your home phone - not your work) but she would not authorize the repairs. We did go ahead and replace one headlight and both rear brake light bulbs. We charged you for the parts only, and provided the labor at no charge. So that comes to a total of $55.56 with the tax.>

"Yeah right - 'no charge' <chuckle>... You guys charged me $60.00 while Qwikee Lube charges $34.95, and you have the nerve to tell me that you did the extra for free ... C'mon ... waddayouthink ... I'm stupid?"

<Yes, ... I mean .. No sir. You see, we only charged you about $10.00 extra for the headlight and two bulbs. Ordinarily it would have been $42.74 with tax.>

"WHAT??? $45.00 for an OIL CHANGE??? The heck with you guys ... next time I'm going to Qwikee Lube."
<OK, then sir ... and Thank You. Have a nice day!> :p
 
#20 ·
BarryK said:
I would tell her to take the car back have them put in the right oil and pay with visa and than stop payment.

I have not been to the engine section here more than a 1/2 dozen times but
I would assume there are some of the best in the country on here and cannot believe they have let this go that the grades recommended are for gas mileage only. 5w20 is same as 5w30.
It critical with the ford 4.6 valve train, the corvette, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, jaguar and others.

It starts with sheering of the oil.

There have already been two class action suits over this, its that critical.
There are no engineers on here?

I have been out of oil to long to be up to date and comment but I would think there are other people on here qualified.

Barry, although you are technically correct, it wouldn't be anything I would waste my time burning my gas to go back to the place and waste my time sitting around having my oil's viscosity changed from 5w30 to 5w20.

I've ran a service business for over 10 years now, and I have customers who have me always put in 10w30 in cars that the manufacturer calls for 5w30. Some of those cars have in excess of 200,000 miles on them. They run perfect, they don't peck and they don't use oil.

Some of the engines I've torn down in my shop. One of them was a 350 Chevy that had 350,000 miles on it. The guy that owned it had me change his oil. He always purchased whatever was on sale. The cheapest, most generic stuff he could find. I'm am personally unsold when it comes to alot of this hype. I have heard that failing to use 5w20 in certain Ford vehicles can cause problems, but I have never seen any evidence of that myself. Most 4.6's that come in my shop seem to run forever, even if the sticker always shows Walmart 10w30.

The engine still had a perfect, standard crank and the camshaft was in amazingly good shape. I'm not sold on the idea that a minor viscosity change has much effect on the engine.

Now, using some heavier oil, like 10w30 in place of 5w20 might not be wise, and definitely not 10w40, etc.

There is always the theroretical viewpoint and then there's the real world.

Don't get me wrong. Any professional oil changing business should be using the manufacturer's recommded oil to be sure, but maybe they did put in 5w20 and misprinted the sticker.

In any case, it would be a waste of time to mess with it in my book. I would drive that sucker until the next oil change and then have the 5w20 put back in it.
 
#21 ·
I just get worked up about this kind of thing because I'm pretty protective of my girl and I hate to see her get jerked around like this, so I kinda fly off the handle a little bit. She paid for a job to be done right and they can't prove that they did it right. Honestly I dont know what affect the oil being different has. I'm not an engineer, but for god's sake, none of them are either and she's the one who owns this car, not them. I love how these people can be so casual about somebody elses property... (see, starting to get worked up again).

::cracks beer open::

K :thumbup:
 
#23 ·
if my lebaron ran for 1200 miles on used oil, most of which was diluted with used COOKING oil gasoline and kero, your gf's engine will survive on SLIGHTLY wrong oil for 3000 miles

i had a main seal go down, so for the time being i was taking the oil from oil drop-offs at shops ... 5 gallons of which in one case smelled like fries, kero and gas .... it actualy burned ALOT hotter then oil when lit on fire :D
 
#24 ·
killerformula said:
I just get worked up about this kind of thing because I'm pretty protective of my girl and I hate to see her get jerked around like this, so I kinda fly off the handle a little bit. She paid for a job to be done right and they can't prove that they did it right. Honestly I dont know what affect the oil being different has. I'm not an engineer, but for god's sake, none of them are either and she's the one who owns this car, not them. I love how these people can be so casual about somebody elses property... (see, starting to get worked up again).

::cracks beer open::

K :thumbup:
There you go, no need to run down to the Jiffy Lube and get your arse kicked by some goon who hates his job.

I sold a USED tire to a mentally challenged fellow once, he had a 74 Delta 88 with the ball joints ready to fall out. It ate tires quickly.

His tire lasted about 2 weeks until the Oldsmobileosaurus ate another tire.

The guy shows up at the shop with his mentally challenged girlfriend. He then proceeded to try and display his hormone level, which was a mistake on his part.


Concrete driveway, nose down, poste haste.

:evil: :evil:

I have a terrible, terrible temper. I've had to let age mellow me out, or else I would probably be on death row right now.


If you're gonna go to the iron bar motel, make sure that it was for a good reason.
 
#26 ·
We have 2 customers who run nothing but 20W50. One is a cab driver and the other is a salesman. Both have run 20W50 in all their cars for the last 20 years. Both drive in excess of 100000K per year and the cab idles a lot. Both also have gotten a minimum of 250-300K miles on their cars with no major engine work. Both also change their oil every 2 weeks reguardless of mileage. The 5WXX recomendations are just for fuel mileage numbers, period. People think that there cars are SPECIAL if they can say they need SPECIAL oil.

It just a marketing scheme. Like I said previously, we use 10W30 in everything and have never damaged an engine due to using the WRONG OIL. Changing it is teh key and using a good oil filter.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top