WARNING Bogus Car Repair

**Pappy** · 05-17-2007, 06:25 AM

The mechanic doing what he as told will probably be fired.

**os1kne** · 05-17-2007, 08:19 AM

I smell a class-action lawsuit!

**crokett** · 05-17-2007, 09:32 AM

And that is why my regular mechanic gets a little extra. I want to keep him in business.

**ironhat** · 05-17-2007, 09:39 AM

If I had been the mechanic being told to rip-ff the customers, *I* would have turned in their sorry behinds!!! No excuse is viable.

**bradley_osu** · 05-17-2007, 11:05 AM

Now that explains some of the Jiffy Lube experiences my wife and I have had. Before I had a garage to do simple car maintenance I took my car there where they claimed to have changed the serpentine belt. Wouldn't ya know it? 6 months later the belt is squealing like a pig (power steering fluid and pump are just fine) and I remove it (now equipped with a garage) only to find that it is cracked and glazed... 6 months maybe 2000 miles.

A couple months or so after they replaced the belt but before I had discovered that they screwed it up... my wife had them rotate the tires on her car. Now I had just had the tires off looking at the brakes and put them back on myself with trusty old tire iron and my weak little arms. So they manage to get them off and rotate them but then proceed to say yea the last time the tires were off whoever put them back on stripped out the lugs and now a couple of them we can't get back on the stud and a couple of the studs have bound to the lugs and we can't remove the lugs anymore without breaking the studs.

My wife was the one dealing with this and didn't really know any better so she took it at face value. She told me and I immediately said... hold up they got the lugs off and then put them back on and now they can't come off again but it was the previous job's fault? No no no... I'm guessing some idiot decided to take an impact wrench and over torque every lug on her car. All told I had to go to the parts store and replace 4 of 16 studs because they were broken and 6 of 16 lugs because they were stripped out. I didn't even want to bother getting Jiffy Lube to do it because I'd rather it be done right than be done for free.

**crokett** · 05-17-2007, 11:17 AM

A few years back my brother went to Jiffy Lube for an oil change and tire rotation. Next day one of his tires fell off. It took a month and a letter from a lawyer for Jiffy Lube to cough up a check for repairs. I haven't been back to ANY quick change place since.

**ragswl4** · 05-17-2007, 11:46 AM

I stopped going to these types of places over 10 years ago. Interestingly enough I stopped because I took my car to a Jiffy Lube (imagine that) and stood in the parking lot and watched a guy put my old oil filter back on my car after they changed the oil. Raised He** but they refused to make it right. I think all these places, sooner or later will rip you off. I have a step son who is a professional mechanic, lucky me.

**LinuxRandal** · 05-17-2007, 12:33 PM

Heard lot's of stories from customers, news, current and former employess, etc.

The garage where I part timed at (almost family, was short handed), had replaced leaf springs on a woman's car. Her husband brought it in for the job, because they were cracked. Two weeks later, she took it to JL and they said it needed new leaf springs, and proceeded to charge her $600 for it. Her husband showed up with the reciepts and demanded the old parts back.

A woman relative of a member of another board I visit, took her late husbands VW Beetle to JL and got charged for a radiator flush and fill.

A friend who I used to work with at another job, took a job at JL (17 year old kid, to give him access to tools, for his own work). I heard lot's from him. From his manager, forgeting to put oil in a NEW car, to the frequently using power tools to install your oil drain bolt, forgeting oil filters, used filters, not changing etc.....
One stopped me in my tracks. Collecting the used oil, in a drum. When they ran out of the new oil, swapping it's drum with used oil drum, and reusing that oil as new in customers cars.

I don't go to them, but I have also seen the other side.
Customers who, want the air in their tires changed from spring air to fall air, and argue with you that it is different air,
scream at you because after you changed their fuel filter (only thing done), at their request, their mileage on their Lincoln Town car went from 32mpg to 22mpg.
Ones who think you blew their motor (the neglected thing under the hood), because of the way you changed their wiper blades (I am not making this stuff up folks).

Their are some shops, and some people that belong together, and their are days, I wish I could be the one to group them.

**BigguyZ** · 05-17-2007, 12:54 PM

I don't go to them. They've pulled so much crap on me it isn't funny. Them and Tires Plus should all be run out of business.

**prlundberg** · 05-17-2007, 01:20 PM

Jiffy Lube was unable to diagnose a dead battery on my in-laws' car.

But I've seen the same types of things at other shops.

Not all quick-change places pretend to be mechanics. At most of them around here you can watch what they're doing. I go to one because I used to work at one and it's a PITA to change the filter on both my vehicles. I do usually bring my own filter to ensure it's a quality one.

**mater** · 05-17-2007, 02:05 PM

I took my car to Sears about 20 years ago for a tire alignment and they tried to rip me off. To hear them tell it my ball joints and shocks were used up on a 15,000 mile car. I backed my car out and took it to the dealer and they aligned my frontend and said nothing else was wrong with it. Before that I bought my batteries, tires, shocks, alignments, tuneups and other things for my car from Sears and I haven't bought any car parts from them since.

**BigguyZ** · 05-17-2007, 02:27 PM

If you do use those places, so what I do and take off the "Next Oil Change" sticker. I have to admit I wait longer than I should. They used to use that to tell me how much I screwed up my car, and that I need a complete engine flush and crap like that. They would say how dirty the oil was, and that they need to charge me $300 to fix it. So, the next time I came in,. I removed the sticker beforehand, and I asked them if there was anything else that was wrong with the vehicle, and they just said "no, everything all fine". It was the same shop that I took it to before. That was the first indication I had that they are full of crap.

**prlundberg** · 05-17-2007, 02:36 PM

Originally posted by BigguyZ

I have to admit I wait longer than I should.

Well, there's longer than the sticker says you should, and then there's the recommended interval in your owner's manual.

**gsmittle** · 05-17-2007, 02:43 PM

Some of you might remember my thread from two summers ago about the JL employee who used my credit card for $3000 worth of goodies. The CC company made good on the charges, and AFAIK the dude went back to jail. What kind of a dumba$$ thinks 35 people won't notice their bill the next month?

Anyway, I have a shop down the street from me that is honest and has reasonable rates. I do all my business there now, and around the holidays I usually make sure there's a little "antifreeze" for the boys in the front seat...

g.

WARNING Bogus Car Repair