do you take your car to an instant oil change place?

[kevins2]

Check out my post over on Cobra Registry. Still on-going and the latest is that Jiffy Lube is denying any responsibility and lawyers are now getting involved.

Talk@CobraRegistry.com

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by kevins2

Check out my post over on Cobra Registry. Still on-going and the latest is that Jiffy Lube is denying any responsibility and lawyers are now getting involved.

Talk@CobraRegistry.com

Kevin - I'm not registered there - what's the two sentence summary?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

Kevin - I'm not registered there - what's the two sentence summary?

I couldn't see it either... but let me try and play Carnac --- I see, I see... somebody did a really shi* job on an oil change, car is now broken, Kevin is now mad, and the other guys won't pay.

[kevins2]

OK, Dan and Patrick, just for you guys I copied the original post and then a few follow-ups that answered some questions to give you the picture. And, Patrick, no it is much worse than a crappy oil change. And, the last post below about the exchange between her and the Jiffy Lube guy is priceless.

On April 8th, my sister-in-law took her Honda Pilot to a Jiffy Lube for an oil change. When finished, the Jiffy Lube employee pulled her car out of the bay and went and got her from their waiting area to pay. They routinely leave the cars running with the driver's door open... While she was paying, a guy jumped in her car and took off. Turns out this scumbag had tried to jack a truck earlier and police were watching him and took pursuit. He lost control of the car and plowed into a storefront at a high rate of speed. Luckily, there was only one minor injury from broken glass.

So, Jiffy Lube is not taking responsibility in any way so she'll have to pursue that and the store is filing suit against her because she's the owner of the car. Worst oil change ever...




She was in the process of paying with a credit card - will have to ask her if they finished the transaction. We're hoping that Jiffy Lube will take responsibility for costs her insurance doesn't cover. Since they left the car running and she was still in the process of paying, in my opinion they were technically still in possession of the vehicle. However, I'm not a lawyer so don't know how this will play out.

There were 6 or 7 people in the store that the guy plowed into and reportedly it was the post you can see in front of the car that stopped it from hitting them. If it had been left or right of that post, would have been much worse.

My sister-in-law said she was at the Jiffy Lube for quite a while after this occured giving the police her statement and waiting for someone to come to give her a ride home. She said Jiffy Lube continued to leave cars running unattended while they went inside to have the customer pay! I've never been to a Jiffy Lube but if this is their corporate procedure, this incident should change it. She's talking to a lawyer as she should be.

Tarren, as Terry said above, virtually every other car service place I've ever been to keeps the keys and hands them to you at time of payment. A business is responsible for your vehicle while in their possession and they have insurance for that. My guess is that the employees at this Jiffy Lube are not particularly sophisticated and that once someone higher up gets involved, they'll use their insurance to compensate her. I don't know if Jiffy Lubes are corporate owned or individually owned franchises. Either way, I have to believe they are liable here.

This is still in early stages, so she's spoken with a lawyer but hasn't incurred any costs yet and plans to go through her insurance first as much as possible. As far as police using Jiffy Lube to bait car thieves, that wasn't the case. This guy tried to jack an F-150 earlier that day unsuccessfully and police were already tailing him (must have been in an unmarked car since he apparently didn't know it). He arrived at Jiffy Lube on foot and police were watching. Not sure if he targeted Jiffy Lube or if he just saw the opportunity and jumped on it. He's 20 years old and has had brushes with the law in the past, so no surprise there. I'll post an update to this once things take a direction. Still lots of confusion since it just happened.

Well, thought I'd post a quick update on this mess. My sister-in-law appeared before a grand jury to testify as to what happened. She learned that everyone is suing her since she owned the car. The store lost a lot of merchandise in addition to the building damage and, of course, they are closed until repairs can be made. That can't even begin because they are waiting for structural engineers to declare the building safe to enter. A customer that was cut with flying glass is also suing (minor injury, but still has a case).

To answer Charles' question regarding did she pay for the oil change, no - she was getting her credit card out of her purse when the cashier said "some guy just stole your car!" She looked up to see her car speeding out of the parking lot. Everyone in the courtroom laughed out loud when she told them what happened next. Somewhat in shock over seeing her car stolen, she said "Oh no, what am I going to do!" The Jiffy Lube guy said "Don't worry, we'll give you a ride home"

[patrickt]

Dang, well I would certainly give her half off her next oil change.

[Dirkdaddy]

Did she get the un-needed add-ons like wiper blades, transmission flush, cabin air filter and engine air filter (assuming regular maintenance was being done on Pilot) too? Crazy! I take a lot of cars to Jiffy Lube...for inspection. They are the easiest inspection around and don't try to hassle me about cars that are antique and lack things like side mirrors, turn signals, excessive noise, etc... and they also didn't catch the billboard tires. But FYI, they leave keys in the car, but turn it off and leave it with door shut outside the customer exit area. I know some of the guys there and some are qualified to some extent and some are new untrained dropouts...luck of the draw who you get. I have to bite my tongue when they put the hard sell on ladies getting oil change for what appears to be unneeded add-on items, and then recommend they come back in 3k miles when new cars can typically go 7500 miles or more between oil changes and changes are typically indicated by the computer.

[kevins2]

Not sure what else they sold her, but it doesn't matter since she was reaching for her credit card when it was stolen, so didn't pay. That oil change lasted less than 2 miles.

[DanEC]

Dang Kevin - that is really a terrible experience for your sister. Seems like someone would wake up and realize that Jiffy Lube was actually in control of the vehicle until they delivered it back to her - which they never did. Not knowing anything about your sister - I would think Jiffy Lube was the deep pockets here. Guess this is another reason for one of those $1M umbrella liability policies.

I hope someone comes to their senses and it works out for her. I agree - scumbag is probably a far too nice a term for the guy.

Dan

[DanEC]

Sorry - just noticed it was your sister-in-law and not sister. Hope the Grand Jury has some common sense peopld on the panel.

[kevins2]

Thanks Dan. The Grand Jury session was to determine if there was enough evidence to pursue the scumbag for auto theft and, of course, there is. My sister-in-law finding out everyone is suing her was just the sideshow. This stuff moves painfully slowly. She has a lawyer, she got a replacement vehicle with her insurance money, seems like the insurance company would also go after Jiffy Lube. Lots of questions, no answers yet.

[DanEC]

Insurance companies work in mysterious ways. When a women T-boned my Mustang last year and totaled it we had a time finding her insurance company because she gave bogus information to the police. By the time we tracked the correct company down my insurance had already settled with me and I purchased a replacement vehicle. They said they would pursue their expenses and my deductible and some minor other damages against her insurance for me - but her insurance didn't want to pay until she went to court and was actually found guilty on the traffic violations. My insurance company kind of meekly said - OK. A couple months later she finally got her day in court, was found guilty and her insurance company sent a check.

[SKINNEDR]

I was under the impression, that the reasons for having these cars is to pamper then and to take care of all there needs on your own? I also believed that the prerequisite for having these cars is to have some knowledge and apply the basic preventive maintenance to those vehicles... Since purchasing my BDR #471 with 351 Windsor, I have installed a lift in my garage and I have learned to do many things not previously known, including the basic oil change, etc. There is no way I would ever take my car to your local Lube places to have an oil change..

[cycleguy55]

Part of the reason I stopped taking my daily driver to instant lube places was the incessant desire to sell me s**t I knew the car didn't need. I've also had problems with their inability to properly remove and re-install large plastic tray underneath the engine bay (Infiniti G35x & Infiniti FX35). Since then I've done all my own changes using good oil filters (Bosch) and full synthetic lube. I expect to do the same with the Cobra when it gets here, though I haven't yet figured out which filters I'm going to use.

[eschaider]

Try using one of the vacuum oil change gizmos that draw it out the dipstick tube into a tank for disposal. One of the commercial ones used to be called liquid vac or liquivac. Get their eight or ten quart version with the hand operated pump. An alternative is get the $20 A/C vacuum pump HarborFreight sells and build your own gizmo.

Ed

[tmareina]

I don't take any of my vehicles to anyone but my mechanic that actually knows how to work on performance vehicles. Our cars need more than just an oil change. They need all components checked, as the cars do have a tendency to have some bolts, etc. loosen over time depending on how much and how they are driven. Also need to check valve adjustment, etc. on occasion. Well worth the time and extra money to be sure and safe. I know several people that have had oil plugs not tightened at the cheep places. Just my 2 cents

[cycleguy55]

I provide the following to reinforce the idea of avoiding the instant lube places. I was at a local safety inspection station this week for the final sign-off on my Cobra, and one of the vehicles on the hoist was a Ford Escape. The oil pan was off and he was scraping the gasket surface on the block, and I asked the mechanic if the problem was a leaking oil pan. His response was that he was replacing the oil pan, as the drain plug hole had been stripped by an over-zealous instant lube technician (my verbiage, not his). I'm not sure why he wasn't just using a kit to fix the stripped threads, but that's another matter entirely.

[rcobra427]

Not a chance. I built my entire car from nothing and nobody touches it but me.
I've had exactly one experience with a Quickie Lube joint. I always changed oil in all my cars, but one year long ago, my wife's Escort was due for an oil change in January (Wisconsin). Not wanting to take the Cobra out of the garage into the snow, and heat the garage just for an oil change, I told her to take it to one of those places.
A few months later when it was oil change time again, the weather was warmer and I did it myself. I crawled under the car to remove the filter and was disgusted to see a Motorcraft filter on the engine. That's what I always used, and I knew there was no way it came from the Quickie Lube. The lazy bastards didn't change my filter. I asked my wife if she remembered it, and she said the greaseball oil jockey showed her a used oil filter. What crooks. I called and *****ed, but they told me unless I had the receipt, they wouldn't do anything about it. Who keeps receipts from oil changes? I've never gone back and never will.

Rick