So today I tried starting my car to bring it into the dealership because of tranny problems and the engine starts acting up majorly. When we cranked the engine it sounded like someone was slamming on it with a hammer. It was terrible so we got the thing towed because it also kept dying.
Anyway my dad right after this happened was like jeesh is there oil in it. He had the oil changed in the thing 2 weeks ago but decided to check it anyway. He checked it twice and the oil level was perfect. So the car gets towed to the dealer and we call the dealer and they go it was 2 quarts low and we were like theres no way in hell thats true. Basically I think theres something wrong with the engine and the car is under warranty but if they claimed we didnt put oil in it they could screw us by saying it wasnt taken care of and the warranty wont take care of neglect. Basically we think they straight out lied to us but the only thing running through my dads head is if he grabbed the right dipstick he is 90% sure he grabbed the oil stick and not the tranny stick. It was on the drivers side of the engine. Which dipstick is oil and which is tranny fluid on an 02 I35?

 

It should be color coded like on the Max. I think it's yellow for oil....

 

was it this dipstick, the one circled on red?

 

I showed him the picture and he wasnt sure. He remembered the dipstick he checked being on the right side of the engine around this area. I also remember him pulling the dipstick from the right side of the engine. The area I'm talkin about is around the area circled in yellow in the attached pic.



Whoa what the heck why cant I post attachments?

 

i have worked in a pc repair business for several years, and it's somewhat similar to fixing cars as far as warranty and labor prices go. in every place i worked for, we never intentionally broke a customer's pc to make more money on it. we never went out of our way to get un-earned money either. unless the dealrship are complete crooks, i dont think they would try to drain the oil to make you look foolish.

 

but they will charge you $300 or more for changing your coils, a 30-40 minute job..... as you can tell, I wouldn't put anything past the stealerships. Especially if they are fixing to be out of some money..... just my opinion though.

 

that's flat rate. It's the way it goes. If your stupid enough to pay it then that's your fault. If they did lie to you and you are still under warranty odds are it has happened before and their is probably a background with BBB or Nissan Corporate. See if there are any pending complaints against their company. They don't make extra money on voiding your warranty. The only way they make extra money is if you do your work there. example would be
Water pump : warranty pay 3.2 hours
no warranty pay 4.0 hours
Either way the tech and dealership gets paid its just a matter of how much, and its usually only 1/2 an hour or so difference.
That's fu**ed if they did drain it though. Where di you get your oil changed last? SOMEONE is responsible and should be held accountabe.

 

some people here on the org dont understand somethigns about dealerships. i work for one and we dont try to rip people off. you see i get paid flat rate so i am always trying to upsell something else when a car comes in for like a simple oil change. if i dont upsell something there is no way i will make 80 hours in 2 weeks. so give the dealership some credit guys because the techs that work there and if they get paid flat rate are just trying to make a living.

 

I got it changed at a Nissan dealership. I will find out what the name of the dealership and post it on the board so that people know which place to stay away from it if it does turn out that they never filled my oil back up.

Its a place in Cape Cod MA though I just need to figure out which one

 

VSA has a good point. Like I was saying it's flat rate. Upsell what you can and get paid as many hours as possible. Flat rate works like this: the job says it takes 4.2 hours...If your fairly new at your job and it takes you 8 hours or if you've done it 100 times and it takes you 1.5 hours you get paid 4.2 hours.
OT here but VSA does your dealership have "teams" yet? The national trend that has been catching on here lately is you have teams with mentors, mid level techs, and entry level techs. Each get paid differently per hour obviously. But at the end of the work week they put all book time together. Then add all clock hours the "team" worked together and divide the book time by "team" hours and each tech gets paid the same amount of hours... They claim it's a way to keep mastertechs from withholding diagnostic info etc from entry level so they can keep their "cake" jobs and pass the skill level 1 crap onto the new guy with no help......In reality its a way to reduce overhead, giving the new guys more pay and the old timers less, IMO.

Ok back on topic..A dealership changed your oil, a dealership is claiming it's low. Regaurdless of what you need it is in the dealerships hands to take care of the situation, and absolutely will not void your warranty. You have nothing to worry about. If the dealership says your engine is toast becuase of another dealership and they won't cover the fee, call corporate they will be forced to foot the bill. They may tell you to take it back to the original dealer. If it is in fact low and they caused damage, I wouldn't take it back to the dealership that did the oil change. (I'm assuming it's a different location or they wouldn't have told you about it)
The local Nissan dealership requires an associates degree just to consider you for an entry level position on thier internship program. Odd how you are having problems. Most dealerships are a good place to take your vehicle (If you have lots of money, or are in warranty), I've never heard of a problem from a dealer of a beginner mistake like yours. Do you live in Mississippi or Arkansas?

 

That's actually not always true, I worked at a lincoln dealer and the customer paid items paid the techs more money than the warranty items. Also with the warranty work there you only get paid for the time on the clock i.e. eventhough you are an experienced tech than can do a 5 hour job in 3 hours they are still only going to pay you for three. I'm sure if they changed the pay around like that the dealer gets paid less on warranty work as well. Car dealers are shady places sometimes. I would recommend calling corporate nissan that will take care of matters REAL quick.

 

yes the place that i work as has a team and i am a part of it. there are 6 techs working in a team.

 

the engine oil dipstick is on the front, not on the side. anyways, good luck on the dealers.