Quick Oil-Change debacle (Kinda funny)

[68panelman]

I have always serviced all my vehicles since I began to drive at age sixteen. I also have trust issues with leaving my vehicles with shops.
My oil changes take me twenty minutes in the driveway, my wifes new 4runner longer due to the metal panels that need to be removed. I also like to pre-fill my filters before install, something a lube-tech would never do even if told asked him to. If I can do engine, trans, transfer, axle, body swaps, I would never tell ANYONE that I have my vehicle go in for oil changes hahaha

[697498chevy]

Been doing my own oil changes for over 50 years . Gotta admit it's getting harder to do , but I'm gonna do it as long as I can . I'm sure some of you fellas can relate . Thanks

[tdangle]

I recently took my 70 with a auto trans to a shop. The guy wanted to test drive it to verify the problem I'm having with it - vibration in the rearend. 1st of all he couldn't figure out where to put the key in. Then unsure of putting it it in drive. Of course I had the A/C running at high speed and he wanted to turn the fan speed down so he could listen for any noise. Couldn't figure out how. I guess these trucks are just to simple for younger guys.

[54blackhornet]

The average time on the job for a lube guy or gal at any quick oil change shop is about four hours. Cold day in hell when one touches my cars or trucks.

[IlludiumQ36]

The game changer for me is my Mityvac Pneumatic Operated Fluid Evacuator. (a.k.a. the oil sucker) I picked up a longer 1/4" tube from Home Depot so I can place the oil sucker on the ground, hook up the compressor & suck away. The best is when the oil filters are accessable from the top, then no crawling required. I never go to the quick change, no need.

Luckily, my daughter loves our 3OTT. There is still hope!

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by tdangle

I recently took my 70 with a auto trans to a shop. The guy wanted to test drive it to verify the problem I'm having with it - vibration in the rearend. 1st of all he couldn't figure out where to put the key in. Then unsure of putting it it in drive. Of course I had the A/C running at high speed and he wanted to turn the fan speed down so he could listen for any noise. Couldn't figure out how. I guess these trucks are just to simple for younger guys.

I had my '68 C/10 Stepside's brakes done at a brake chain. When it was done, the kid trotted it out to me, and apologized that he couldn't find the parking brake so he left it in gear. I said OK Thanks, and got in. My Parking Brake lever was SET. The idiots had dragged it all thru the shop and brake job with the Parking Brake ON. Never went back there.
Another thing to look out for is their leaving the key position in ACC, or ON, rather than OFF at 12 O'clock. That can fry your Pertronix.
I sometimes try to give the techs a quick Fam Check, but it usually falls on dead ears. ''I'm doing a ground-up resto of a C/10 at home.'' But if their idea is a lowered truck with LS engine, then they still don't get the Old School.

[garyd1961]

Back in the 90s I was a manager of a local quick lube. We actually had some good workers and was the busiest place in town. I left and went to work at a local dealership and a few of the guys followed me. More than one of those guys are master techs today.
Fast forward 7 years and I went back to managing the quick lube. I couldn't believe how the place had degraded. The workers were the laziest and most ignorant people I have ever dealt with in my life. I got an offer at another dealership and I couldn't get out of that place fast enough. I wouldn't let a quick lube check the air in my tires and that is the truth.

[BRL]

That is funny, I used to work at one of those joints and was totally out of my league.

Couldn't find the dang dipstick in one of them new fangled foreign rigs, looked everywhere.

Young coworker said "You mean that big yellow thing in the middle of the valve cover?"

...

[RichardJ]

>> 68Orange
he couldn't find the parking brake so he left it in gear. I said OK Thanks, and got in. My Parking Brake lever was SET.<<

Millions of people in this country never set the parking brake. They put the shifter in park and walk away. Many call it a E-brake and think it is for Emergency use only.
There have been several auto recalls for transmission failures because the trans park failed to hold. Manufacturers are reluctant to tell their own customers how stupid they are for not setting the parking brake. A DMV License Test even requires you to use the parking Brake.
I had to take my Vette into a new Smog testing shop when they first started the Star program. The guy got into the car and tried to move it onto the rollers. It didn't move. He revved it, dumped the clutch and the car literally jumped, stalling the engine and turned on the Check engine light.
Not Happy.
I popped the hood, reset the engine light and explained the proper procedure for moving a car ten feet.

On the positive side, manual transmissions have become excellent theft prevention equipment.

[truckster]

Since we're sharing parking brake stories...

My daughter had been driving one of my Subarus to get to work and back. She told me that it had lost power and could barely make it up the hill to our house. She mentioned it also had a funny smell. I told her to get in and we'd go for a ride. She started out and said, "See, I have to push the gas really hard to even get it to go." I reached over and released the parking brake...

[toms68cst]

Back in the 1970's when I was a teenager, my mom was infamous for driving vehicles off, blue smoke billowing off the rear brakes with the parking brake set.

We all laughed about it. (Except for my dad.)

[68panelman]

My sister had a beautiful 1970 skylark in HS and drove a carload of friends to an amusement park in NJ around 1980, at some point the parking break was set (probably gas fill up)and she drove until they smelled burning breaks and rubber, well they pulled over and saw the tires smoking like crazy, then catch fire, old bias plies, and they could do nothing, they were in the pine barrens of NJ, little traffic then. They all watched the entire car engulfed in flames. Firemen where able to extinguish before it blew up.

[Steeveedee]

My wife drove our '56 Chevy 210 wagon about 14 miles with the parking brake engaged, before she noticed. Fortunately, with her skinny arms, she hadn't pulled it all that tight.

[garyd1961]

Part of my last job was running cars to the shop and back to customers. Grabbed the new guy in our quick lube and told him to come with me. We went to the next town over about 12 miles and I picked up a car for him to drive back while I made a delivery. When I got back to the shop you could smell brakes burning all over the shop. He drove the car back with the e-brake on, said he didn't know how to release it.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by RichardJ

>> 68Orange
he couldn't find the parking brake so he left it in gear. I said OK Thanks, and got in. My Parking Brake lever was SET.<<

Millions of people in this country never set the parking brake. They put the shifter in park and walk away. Many call it a E-brake and think it is for Emergency use only.
There have been several auto recalls for transmission failures because the trans park failed to hold. Manufacturers are reluctant to tell their own customers how stupid they are for not setting the parking brake. A DMV License Test even requires you to use the parking Brake.
I had to take my Vette into a new Smog testing shop when they first started the Star program. The guy got into the car and tried to move it onto the rollers. It didn't move. He revved it, dumped the clutch and the car literally jumped, stalling the engine and turned on the Check engine light.
Not Happy.
I popped the hood, reset the engine light and explained the proper procedure for moving a car ten feet.

On the positive side, manual transmissions have become excellent theft prevention equipment.

It has an SM465 4-Speed manual.

[toms68cst]

I broke down this afternoon and changed the oil, filter, flushed coolant and replaced the hoses.

I also changed oil on my CH465 four-speed. The biggest PITA was getting oil back into the transmission. I couldn't believe that monster takes 4 quarts!

Getting hot-ish engine oil all over my arm removing the oil filter was not too much fun either!

At least I know everything was (more or less) done right.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by toms68cst

At least I know everything was (more or less) done right.

Feels great, though, doesn't it?
Rubber gloves can keep scalding oil off your forearm. Although, I let it all cool a bit before dropping the oil.
And better to get it done, than ''break down'' on the roadside.

[MikeB]

After moving 50 miles from a Ford dealer that I used for probably a dozen oil changes on two Ford vehicles, I took my 2016 Mustang GT to a dealer much closer to my new house. When I picked up the car, I could smell oil burning on the way home. Turns out there were streaks of oil several paces on the engine, and a small puddle by a header tube. Apparently the oil change monkey had wiped up a spill using an already oily rag! I then decided to check the oil level and it was high by a quart or more.

I called the service advisor who got me back in the shop the next day. Everything was fixed and they even gave me a card for a free oil change.

Several months later I got the free oil change. While there was no spilled oil this time, the crankcase was overfilled again! No chance I'm taking the car back to those bozos. I'll probably go old skool and do it myself.

Geez, back in the day, even most gas stations could do a better job!

[jumpsoffrock]

Heh, and they say old cars are easy to work on.

It's all about familiarity. These old cars were the norm and "new-fenagled" cars were foreign.

Now all these cars with plastic engine covers, cramped engine bays with less-obvious dip stick placement, and a million computers, push button start and ebrake and gear selector, bar code VIN's to define exactly what the car accepts......yada yada yada

...now our "simple" but uncommon old cars are just too foreign and people can't figure it out.


Obviously some people really are stupid but that's not my point.
My point is these new kids aren't stupid, they're just inexperienced with old simple cars.

Some of you guys have some real horror stories.
I don't want to get too old to work on my stuff, but I'm 32 and I don't know if I'll even own/daily-drive combustion cars in 30-40 years when my back and knees are worn out.
Hard to admit that now, but who knows...

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by jumpsoffrock

Heh, and they say old cars are easy to work on.
I don't want to get too old to work on my stuff, but I'm 32 and I don't know if I'll even own/daily-drive combustion cars in 30-40 years when my back and knees are worn out.
Hard to admit that now, but who knows...

No Dude. You'll have a hovercar or use the molecular transporter.
Live Long and Prosper.

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by jumpsoffrock

I don't want to get too old to work on my stuff, but I'm 32 and I don't know if I'll even own/daily-drive combustion cars in 30-40 years when my back and knees are worn out.

I'm more than twice your age, but still have my nose under the hood quite a lot. Even built a detached garage/shop last year and have a couple projects slated for the 69 this fall.

As for what we'll be driving in the future, I can maybe see a hybrid SUV for my wife. However, it's gonna be many years before pure EVs have enough range to take a 2,500 mile road trip w/o having to map out each and every charging stop. And then hoping there's not a line of cars when you get to one!

[jumpsoffrock]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

No Dude. You'll have a hovercar or use the molecular transporter.
Live Long and Prosper.

Ok then my last project is slapping a hover flux capacitor on my '72, and I'm DONE!!!!

Originally Posted by MikeB

I'm more than twice your age, but still have my nose under the hood quite a lot. Even built a detached garage/shop last year and have a couple projects slated for the 69 this fall.

As for what we'll be driving in the future, I can maybe see a hybrid SUV for my wife. However, it's gonna be many years before pure EVs have enough range to take a 2,500 mile road trip w/o having to map out each and every charging stop. And then hoping there's not a line of cars when you get to one!

That is very good news to hear I could still be doing this hobby, but yes the next decade or so, they really need to work the kinks out of EV's, fossil fuels are still very convenient. Not to mention the whole "teslas are $100k"
We need these things to be $30k and charge up in 3-5 minutes.

I don't even know if that's possible by the laws of physics...



Went WAY OT here lol

[truckster]

I changed the oil in my 2002 Yukon this past Saturday. It reminded me of changing diapers on my boys when they were babies. You know, the ones where the little firehose sprays everything...

I had put my catch pan so the edge of it was just below the drain plug, thinking for sure I would catch everything that way - I mean, that has to be a good two feet, and it's only six inches below the oil pan. But as soon as I pulled the plug, the oil shot clear over the far edge of the catch pan. So after my oil change, I got to power wash the driveway, too.

I still wouldn't trust a quick-change oil place with any of my vehicles, though.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by jumpsoffrock

Ok then my last project is slapping a hover flux capacitor on my '72, and I'm DONE!!!!

Went WAY OT here lol

When you go Back, get us some more NOS Parts.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by MikeB

I'm more than twice your age, but still have my nose under the hood quite a lot. Even built a detached garage/shop last year and have a couple projects slated for the 69 this fall.

As for what we'll be driving in the future, I can maybe see a hybrid SUV for my wife. However, it's gonna be many years before pure EVs have enough range to take a 2,500 mile road trip w/o having to map out each and every charging stop. And then hoping there's not a line of cars when you get to one!

The ''new and improved'' Brothers/Holley website has an article about a guy who is putting a Tesla drivetrain in a '72 Blazer body.