How reliable are they really?
You may be asking the wrong people by coming here. Most of the folks on this forum are harshly opposed to doing business at such places. They will try to outdo one another in scaring you away from these quickie oil change shops. (“Don’t even go in to get change!”)
There is some validity to their warnings: poorly trained personnel, mistakes, upselling, repairs that are not actually made. We’ve heard too many actual horror stories. Some stores in California have been caught on video at fraudulent practices.
The other side of the coin is that the quickie lubes turn out thousands of satisfied customers every day. They could not remain in business otherwise. And many well-regarded independent repair shops, even dealerships, engage in similar shady practices and make similar mistakes.
So it becomes a case of caveat emptor. If you feel secure in your ability to say NO to offers of additional service and to check your oil before driving away, you may patronize any quickie lube place with confidence. If you are nervous about your knowledge about cars then go elsewhere, but you can run into the same difficulties just about anywhere.
It all depends where you go.
Short answer: Not very.
Like most franchise operations, it depends on the local management. If the local person running the particular place you go to is a good conscientious person, then you should be OK, but like many streamlined and standardized business models there is a temptation to push for speed and “upselling.” Too much of either is bad for the customer, and possibly disastrous for the car.
So, like any other shop that works on your car you should get opinions and recommendations from other local people.
I usually use my regular mechanic for oil changes. Occasionally I’ll go to a local quick lube place that was owned by my next door neighbor. Unfortunately, he sold out to a larger chain, so I have not used that place since. It was always a few dollars more expensive and I only went there if I needed an oil change in a hurry.
During a transitionary period in my life a few years back I found myself having to have my oil changed by someone else. I tried a few of these quicky lube places. I’ve also tried them twice for state inspections. I strongly recommend against them.
Their personnel are undertrained, inexperienced, and not provided with the time to figure out how to do the job properly. They’re also trained in quick buck scams which if they knwe what they were doing they’d probably refuse to do.
One scam is to put a smear of all fluids onto a white cloth next to a drop of brand new fluid. They show you how dirty it looks and recommemnd a flush and a fluid change. Any fluid drop from any fluid even 1000 miles new will look dirty next to a drop if new fluid. It’s a scam. And we’ve heard stories here of trannys that were destroyed because the lube shop put the wrong fluid in.
And they pulled this trick on me after I clearly instructed the manager that I ONLY wanted the oil and oil filter changed and nothing else, to which he agreed. They refuse to not do these scams.
For state inspections, these kids haven’t a clue what they’re doing. I saw a lube kid checking the oil level as part of the state safety inspection. I saw one reject a vehicle because the trunk light didn’t work. I drove away without letting them do my inspection. I had to back over a rubber cone that they placed behind each car as it drove up to prevent it from leaving.
I use J…L… for my changes, but I watch every thing they do. They will never check the battery water, but check “sealed” on the work sheet, for instance. I had them do a tranny flush on my wifes toyota van (no flames please, it really was necessary) and they tried to send me out 3 quarts low on fluid. You have to know enough to do the job yourself to use these places safely.
Everything you say is true.
The nature of their business model is the root problem. To function and make a profit they need to push sales and skimp on things like training and allowing enough time for their employees to get the job done.
Your answer is correct, but I would add one more. Some cars, especially those with sludge tendencies and diesels have some very specific oil requirements. The quick change places are not likely to have the oil or to even know it is needed. “Add verify the oil type” to your list.
I have to generally agree that this is apoker game and the shop holds the best hand. The worst one I encountered was a Shell Lube center/gas station which damaged underhood parts, and tried to push unnecessary stuff.
Having said that I would never advise an inxeprienced person without car knowledge to one of these. But, as luck would have it, there is one in my neigborhood where the manager takes his business seriously, and trains his emplyees well. About half of them are young ladies who take great pride in their work. Even the coffee is very good. So there are good ones and bad ones, but I suspect the good ones are in the minority.
My father-in-law sold his old Buick to a guy who took it to one of these places, and they “forgot” to put in the oil. He burned out his engine before he got home.
Here’s the deal: most fast lube places employ “unskilled labor”. (I’m not trying to be offensive.) Now you might say, why should routine oil changes require skilled labor? Well, most of the time they don’t, but occasionally there are screw-ups, and we’re talking about the lifeblood of your engine- lubricating oil. There’s always the unexpected- and if you knew what it was it wouldn’t be unexpected. For
example, the oil drain plug threads can become damaged upon removal of plug. Now I’m not bragging, but I have hundreds of dollars worth of taps and dies and such; and have photocopied basic thread info from publications like “Machinerys Handbook”; so if a drain plug needs to be replaced or rethreaded I can “define” the item in question. Don’t laugh, it gets pretty complicated what with whether it’s metric or inch
based, and all the various thread pitches and designations. Sorry, I’m gettting technical. Anyway, imagine yourself just out of high school, on a REAL busy day working at a fast lube place- a drain plug strips as you’re removing it- not your fault- maybe the last place overtightened it or some other scenario. You don’t really have the tools/parts available to rectify the problem and there’re 15 cars in
line waiting for their oil change. Well, desperate people take desperate measures. This might explain why a customer at our shop one day had a 14mm oversized drain plug in their oil pan instead of the required 9/16" plug- one’s metric, the other’s inch-based! These places often have 2 or more people working on a car at a time. You get this “hurry up” group mentally- couple that w/the fact that w/more than 1
person on the same car, the “right hand doesn’t know what the left hand’s doing” scenario is more likely to rear it’s ugly head. “John, did you fill the crankcase” (Now he thinks he heard John say, “Yeah”- car goes out w/no oil in engine.) A young guy I used to work with at a Chrysler dealer had started out at a fast lube place, and he said when they got really busy they would only drain about 2/3 of the old oil
out (“hurry up” mentality)- a true rip-off, and a good way to way overfill the crankcase, possibly causing aeration in lubrication system and a ruined engine. For a similar scenario, click here: http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/598810.page (Car Question “Synthetic Oil”; post: (12-04-07); (12:48:24 AM). In a regular garage you might be doing other work on the car, so you can let oil completely drain. Per SteveF: Caveat emptor.
In some of these quick lube places I have seen them using pretty decent procedures. For example, two people have to verify the level on the dipstick before starting the car, then the guy starting the car has to yell, “pressure” when the oil light goes out or the gauge comes up and the pit man has to respond, “no leaks” before they turn the car back over to the customer. It is obvious the over emphasis on speed plus complacency can negate even good procedures, but it’s at least a good sign if they have procedures like that.
If all the quick lube places were run like the ones you refer to, that would be great. Like you yourself and others said I guess it depends on the managers of these places and whether or not their hands are tied by the Corporation. I googled AAA just to see if they’ve done surveys on this issue, but found nothing thus far. W/o objective facts like this it’s hard to make a call- it just
seems every time the aftermath of an oil change nightmare has come into the places I’ve worked, it’s just been to a fast lube place. Can they properly get the air out of the cooling system of any car they do a cooling system flush on? What about transmission services? I don’t know. Maybe someone w/bettter computer skills than me could find some data on this. I’ve got to admit, at a lot of
places I’ve worked the guys always took care of the oil and filter properly, but didn’t always check fluids and such. To matista- it’s the old story- only go to a place you trust, to answer your question.
They are forever stripping the drain plugs, forgetting to put in the oil, forgetting to put the drain plug in, not tightening the oil filter or double gasketing the filter and overtightening it. I forgot overfilling or underfilling the oil. Those are everything that can go wrong for the work that they actually do. Then there are fake flushes and destroying transmissions. The dealer just overtightens the filters and plugs.
The vast majority of what all of them do is not a problem. Mr. Meehan is correct about the business model being to blame for an abnormally high number of mistakes and this does tarnish them all.
Rushing through any automotive repair can create problems even for an experienced tech, and when young, relatively inexperienced guys are constantly being put into the hurry-up mode then errors are going to happen.
I read an article some years back in which it stated that one chain (JL) budgets 2 engine replacements per week. That’s 104 new motors per year and a lot of money, but when balanced against the volume of oil changes they do it’s pocket change and just considered the cost of doing business.
Also, lets not forget some cars(SUbaru I think is one of them) that has the oil and tranny bolts really close to each other. person under the car isn’t sure, or is in too much of a hurry, and drains the tranny by mistake, guy above doubles the amount of oil in the engine and the customer is sent on their way.
Boy did you come to the wrong place to ask that question . . . didja ever see that bumper sticker that says something like . . . “I will give up my gun when they pry my cold dead hands . . . that one? Well, the folks around here have a saying that like " I will go to a Quickie Lube when they pry my cold, dead hands from my filter wrench”! I personally don’t trust them and the result of an error is often expensive. Rocketman
I know of one place that is very good and does a decent business. The ones that are a problem are the major chains. Their business model dictates that they cut as many corners as they can and push cars through as fast as you can. And MOST of the profits goes to corporate headquaters. They also higher the cheapest labor they can find…which usually means unskilled…many don’t even have a high-school diploma or even a GED. It’s minimum wage. The manager MAY have his GED…but I gurantee you no training beyond that. A kid my daughter when to highschool with is a manager at a fast lube place near us…Dropped out in 10th grade. Not sure if he ever got his GED…I sure wouldn’t trust him with something so vital to the life of a $30k vehicle.
Wow, bscar, you’re right. I think you might be referring to Mitsubishis, though. I’ve seen it happen. The oil pan and the trans pan were right next to each other; each drain plug was identical. Since most trans pans have no drain plug, the first plug the guy saw he removed- drained trans fluid instead of motor oil. But he was thorough enough to check engine dipstick and figured out what he’d done; rectified everything; and avoided an automotive disaster. But yeah, this was a Mtisubishi.
I don’t care how messy changing my own oil is, I will not trust some junior high dropout at a quick-change place with my $30,000 truck. I have experienced firsthand, and have heard horror stories from friends, about grease monkeys who forget to tighten the drain plug, or overtighten it and strip the threads, or who put in the wrong amount of oil, or use a filthy rag with sand on it to wipe the oil filter seal, or get the oil filter on so tight, with no oil smeared on the gasket, so you can’t get it off next time. The worst experience I had was some Jiffy Lube clown put 4 quarts of oil in my 84 Land Cruiser that calls for 8 quarts. The oil didn’t even register on the dipstick. Fortunately, I caught it soon and no damage was done. Since then, I change my own oil.
I have been to several and have had mixed results. One left the filler cap off and blew oil all over the place. I saw smoke coming from under the hood and pulled into a garage a couple of miles away from the lube shop. It was oil burning on the outside of the engine block. The lube place paid for the oil and a steam clean of the engine at the garage I stopped in.
I have been using two lube shops nearby for probably 20 years (consecutively, not concurrently) with no problems. As other members said, it depends on the manager or franchisee. My nephew works at a quick lube shop. He would like to be a mechanic and thought that this would be a good first stop on the way. He learned how to change fluids and some basic consumable components. It confirmed that he would like to continue to learn more about auto mechanics as a career. And I wouldn’t mind if he changed my oil.
They are very convenient. If you want an oil change in 30 minutes or less, check with your friends and workmates to see if anyone has a quick lube shop that they use. You may find that a few people have used the same place for a while with no problems. That would be a good place to go. I can recommend one in my neighborhood.