JoesRedMax

iTrader: (1)

My wife took the car to Jiffy Lube on Monday for an oil change and the idiots forgot to tighten the oil pan plug, so here I am driving to work on Wednesday and I hear a pop, next thing I notice there is smoke coming into the car from the vents, at this time panic is setting in believing that maybe the car is on fire. Lucky for me I am a minute from work. I pull into the parking lot turn off the car, open the hood and I see smoke. Right away I recognize the smell of oil. I look under the car and oil is pouring out of the oil pan all over the ground. Had the car towed to the local Nissan dealer to replace the plug and make sure there is no damage to the motor. They will let me know on Monday. I called Jiffy Lube yesterday and chewed the manager a new you know what. Told him that he is responible for all costs that I have and might in the future incur do to their incompetence. He said they will call the dealership and pay for everything. I will keep you guys posted

MAXIE06SE

I would be upset my self.. I hate place's like that.. that is why i always do my own oil changes.

04BlackMaxx

Id sure hate to be that jiffy lube worker who did that.

SlammerBC

Honestly, why would the worker care? I doubt if he/she gets paid more than $8 an hour and could easily find similar work. Hence their inattention to detal.

HotshotVQ35

iTrader: (5)

i never take my car in for oil changes, just do it yourself. only takes 10 mins and you dont even need a jack! hope the car is ok though, stupid jiffy lube

BEJAY1

iTrader: (19)

Hope there is no serious long term damage for you. Glad you caught it quickly.

20 years ago I brought a Buick Century in for a change at JL. They did the airfilter too but it was one of those big round donut types. They left the wingnut that holds the cover on, under the cover and it fell into the carb opening. At highway speed it wedged open the throttle body and the car kept reving to 70mph and neither brakes or downshifting helped much. I finally turned off the ignition which did stop the engine but I also lost the power brakes & steering with it. Finally got it stopped with no damage to me or the car thankfully.

install30

Just shows it's hard to find good help these days......what a bunch of idiots.....hope your car is okay....

Majestic_MAx05

iTrader: (2)

Never take your car to jiffy lube or places like that. Hear that the people that work there are not even mechanics. Some dont even have the knowledge to work on cars.

DeusExMaxima

iTrader: (1)

Ditto the sentiments that you should do your own oil change. Several things can and do go wrong during a "simple" oil change.

1. The aforementioned loose drain plug
2. If oil filter gasket sticks to block and u dont check, it is double "gasketed" and oil pours out.
3. Overfilling oil
4. Underfilling oil
5. Miscellaneous crap that I dont ever wanna deal with.

I always do my own oil change. Just put in Mobile 1 at 20,000 miles. Runs like a dream.

ramberg

iTrader: (29)

That sucks. I hope the engine is OK. At least they are going to pay for damages.

Warren

jasonjm

iTrader: (1)

--General Guidelines--

If you know how to change your oil, please do it yourself. If you seriously must have someone do it please have your best friend (who is able) or Nissan Dealership do it.

If you MUST bring it to Jiffy Lube (or the like), INSPECT it yourself after all service is completed. Ask them to prop the car up on hydrolics. Their obligated to show you. You paid for it, and it's your car.

If you take your car serious, don't let someone else bring 'it' in for you.

----

BTW: Get a sample of the oil and get it analyzed. Mineral content will also help in determining the extent of the damage without tearing down the engine. This can cost anywhere from 20-50+ USD.

If you can't get a recent sample, and you get your car back run it for 3000 miles. Afterwards take a sample and as mentioned above send it in to get analyzed.

Good Luck!

P.S. Just in-case get some laywer #s. Just in-case.

CCS2k1Max

iTrader: (2)

They don't call them Iffy Lube for no reason.

Hope everything turns out alright.

KabirUTA13

iTrader: (11)

thas horrible... it takes the brain of a 6 y.o. to change the oil on a car... i gess the jl worker didn't have a brain... ehhh my frends mom had a bad experience on her ford focus 3 months ago... they dumped in tranny fluid instead of motor oil... she ended up needing a new motor... had to go throo a huge process... with jl and the ford dealership... hope it turns out good for you..

SmokeMaximus

I had a similar exp. at jiffy lube with my old eclipse. They left my radiator cap loose and I started spewing fluid. I have not went back since. I take it to this shop that does lubes but are family owned and operated. they are more serious about your cars than big buisness usually.

Little95Max

I hope things turn out okay for you.

I met a Iffy Lube worker employee in my engine repair class a few years ago. He told us that most of those guys barely have any training at all. In fact, Iffy Lube requires their employees to push extra services on you regardless if you need it or not. He also told us many horror stories about how the worker tried to do services that they were not qualified to do. Many unhappy customers......

kdejour

Sorry to hear that dude. Iffy lube has a long track record of fuggin things up. The stories are endless. I would say change it yourself or find a member near you who can help or atleast show you. I have heard of oil not even being changed hope all is well though with your car that sounds ugly.

TPenguin

I had a similiar experience, the lube place only put in 1.5 quarts of oil! I was actually happy though, fried my 99 Oldsmobile so i could get in my Maxima! Plus they gave me a great deal buying my car... $4000 over blue book!

chernmax

iTrader: (15)

I'd be lubing some a$$, if they did that to my ride...

NIKV69

Not to be too critical but I have never understood why anyone would bring their car to a place like that. I know they are convienent but you take a risk, which was proven in this case. I do my oil myself. This car is so EASY! To do it! I remove the pax side wheel and the filter and drain plug is right there. I install and new crush ring and tourqe it and I am done literally in 20 minutes.

I hope you didn't sustain any engine damage. I would bring a copy of the Nissan work order to Jiffy Lube and demand my money back.

Let us know!

MaxMus

Yikes. Had my 2K Maxima oil changed at R&S Strauss. They put over 5 quarts of oil in an engine that only need 4. Needless to say, I changed the oil myself from that point on.

Some Nissan dealers aren't much better. Had my tranny flushed, and the service monkey left the tranny dipstick off on the side.

I mean, a monkey can do an oil change.

Davidx34

thanks for the heads up,I was going there this week, now I am not, headed to the dealer

04BlackMaxx

That could be offensive to some people on here...what little he makes (which I doubt is $8/hr, just bc thats what you make does not mean he does too) is a greater reason for him to not want to be fired and look for work, it was an accident.

tubells

+ u (or wife) took it to JL... even the best mechs can screw up.. but at least u can claim for it, since it was supposed to be a professional job!

MIKE2K2

Do you work at jiffy lube?

JoesRedMax

iTrader: (1)

OK I got my car back yesterday, no damage to the engine because I turned it off in time, if it was my wife driving at the time there would have been pistons all over the road. Any way Jiffy Lube is going to reimburse me for the oil change they did, the tow, the work Nissan did and also to clean the undercarriage it was sprayed with oil when the plug let go.
As for oil changes I will do them from now on.

KRRZ350

iTrader: (29)

6. They might not even change the filter!

I know someone that used to work at a Jiffy Lube and he said they do that all the time, especially if it's the least bit hard to get at.

04BlackMaxx

I work at burger king
making flame broiled whoppers
I wear a paper hat

Would you like an apple pie with that?

chernmax

iTrader: (15)

OK, my popcorn is ready, can't wait to see the direction this goes in!

NIKV69

Gald to hear they made it right and that you did not sustain any damage. Glad you are doing it yourself from now on! You will see how easy it is. Just pull that wheel and the plastic splatter shield. Filter is right there and so is the drain plug. Don't forget to 86 that **** factory fllter and use the bigger Mobil 1 filter.

A33 VQ30DEK

iTrader: (23)

that's why you should do your own oil changes!

mtrai760

iTrader: (19)

It could have happened at ANY oil change shop, even a dealership, sad but true... It is a combination of low paid, under trained, non-motivated workers, and a very $hitty senior management staff that usually cause the problems. Take someone, stick them under a car for 8 hours with no lunch break, scream at them to pick up the pace in crappy work conditions, and pay them minimum wage, and how good of a job do you think they will do? How do I know all of this? I used to manage a Jiffy Lube. I tried to change things around while I was there, but my general manager would come by and take over and start yelling at my guys, using a damn stopwatch, and ruining moral. He would not approve raises for my best guys, and would not let me fire the $hitty ones who didnt work. After 8 months, I quit. I only took the job because I had gotten laid off and I needed the money. I helped implement a double check system to eliminate any errors, but again, my district manager would come by and complain we were taking too long to get the oil changes done. I made the pit guy pass up the new oil filter to the top man to verify it was the right one being installed, he would then put his initials on it and pass it back down. Then he would check to make sure the old gasket was on the old filter, and the top man would watch the pit guy torque the drain plug. Believe it or not, the torques are loaded in the computer system they have. I didn't come up with all of it on my own, but the system worked great when we were allowed to use it. The only time we would not change the filter is if it came in damaged. We would tell the customer they had to take it to a dealership to be changed, and would not charge them anything, this was for liability reasons of course. I was constantly pressured to sell, sell, sell, but I continously resisted, and would not offer services unless they were truly needed, and my paychecks suffered for it, since we were paid a partial commision on our sales. I'm sorry, but I'm not doing a radiator flush on a car with 7k miles, I don't care how easy it is to convince the customer they need it. I finally got an opportunity to go back to school again and put in my two weeks notice, left, and never looked back. I once let a Nissan dealership change my oil. I was having my auto tranny replaced under warranty on my old 4th gen, and I was at 4500 miles on dino oil, so I told them to do it while they were replacing the transmission. I picked the car up, paid for my oil change, and drove another 4500 miles before going to change the oil again. Only it was not again, they had never even changed it, so I racked up 9000 miles on conventional oil with no change. Dealer offered me a free oil change, but I told the service manager to just give me my money back, I did not trust them to change it. Point is, if you don't have time to do simple maintanance yourself, at least double check everything after you take it in. Until they figure out a way to have machines do all our work, it will be done by people, underpaid, overworked, and uncaring of your $20k+ machine. Thanks for reading.

chernmax

iTrader: (15)

Wow, someone was sleepless in Seattle... Great points...

ramberg

iTrader: (29)

Thanks for that information.

clayman88

iTrader: (1)

Wow...that sucks, but doesn't surprise me. I hate most of the chain autoshops like Jiffy Lube or Jensen Tire. Everytime I've taken my car to one of them they try to do $500+ worth of repair that isn't really necessary. I saw a great episode of Dateline a while back where they sent in undercover women with minivans to get worked on. JL told these women they needed all this work done and then supposedly replaced the parts. But, Dateline had secretly marked most of the parts ahead of time. When the women got their cars back...guess what....they hadn't changed the parts at all, but charged them for it.

People Suck!

mtrai760

iTrader: (19)

You have to realize the purpose of the business... to make money. With normal operating cost, ie labor, cost of supplies, lease on the building, etc, most lube shops cannot make a profit. Normal 'expected' profit for most business models Ive seen (Im no expert) is in the neiborhood of 20-30%, profit being the money left over after all expenses have been paid. They basically do not make anything on oil changes. Its all the other services that they make money on... air and fuel filters, synthetic oils, radiator flushes, etc. The franchise I worked for invested around $18 million buying 8 Jiffy Lube locations, and they were not expecting to turn a profit on there investment for 3-4 years, so the pressure was definetly on from investors. Managers get a certain percentage of sales as a commission, on top of there paychecks. The only items that count towards that commission are things other than a standard oil change. They actually pay managers less than assistant managers, if you take the commission out. If you have a poor two week period with weak sales, your paycheck ends up pretty damn small. Trust me, I'm not trying to defend any of there sales practices, the guys in the shop are just not living some lavish lifestyle off of changing your oil. On taking advantage of people, I sent plenty of women home with a list of things we suggested they have replaced, so they could go over it with there husbands. No offense to any ladies on here, but the last thing we needed was some angry guy coming in yelling and screaming, scaring off customers because we changed his wifes packed with sand airfilter when he was happy with just shaking it out. I personally will never take my car in for ANY service unless its still covered by warranty, and even then, I double check over everything. I forgot to mention with my previous post about the skipped oil change at the nissan dealership, they also loosened and failed to tighten my power steering assembly and lines while they were doing the tranny. Why they even touched the power steering, I'll never know, but I could have had quite the mess and problems on my hands if I had not double checked there work.

04BlackMaxx

I just avoid those shops liek Monro that have to get your car up on a lift to change the oil bc I dont want them dinging the doors when they carelessly get in aand out. Ill keep a look out in the rearview for a trail of oil and go back for a free oil change and call corp and drive them nuts till they give me for freebies, just my .02...I was jk b4 I dotn work at Jiffy or BK

SEDaveMax

iTrader: (1)

I've known a few people over the yrs that have worked at places like that and alot of them used to get stoned on the job! Hell if I'd take my car there plus they're way expensive.

Dave

AuAltima3.5

ditto 10char

kdejour

I guess I could add this. I have a buddy that I grew up with who manages a store that goes by the name of Mr......well I can't say the rest of the name but they sell tires I'm quite sure you can put it together. I have gone to pick him up from work and he showed me all the crap that they tell people they need to get done. Or shall I say make his commision. I do my own oil changes,brakes, lights etc.. When sales go slow he makes his money by splitting the jobs up with his mechanics and taking profits. What is really funny is he can barely change the tires own car. He tells these people all kinds of crap and they go for it. To make matters worse I started a thread about my brakes squealing someone told me to have the rotors resurfaced. I called him and asked how much would he charge me if I brought the rotors to them he quoted me 80 bucks. I told him that it was me and he said well the going rate is 20 per rotor. That goes to show you that sometimes profits extend beyond big chains. I consider him to be a friend and he still chose to make a huge profit and the store would not have seen one penny of it. Damn sometimes it goes way beyond that some of these guys are lining their own pockets just to make ends meet. Maybe I should invest in a rotor machine also. While I'm at it I can dig a hole in the ground and do oil changes. All I would need is a couple of filter boxes and empty bottles of oil.

MAXIMA-GHOST

iTrader: (3)

My friend used to sign/date his oil filters with a perm. marker, so he could tell if they actually changed it. Acouple of times he would get home and found that didnt even notice the writting on it from all the dirt buildup, just wiped it off instead of getting him a new one.. BAD NEWS,,, for them... Sued them for property damage, and false service... Got a big settlement.