Morons that work at the dealership !!

asked to have my front , rear diff fluid changed and the T case....asked for amsoil severe gear 75-90w...they said ok...

so.....I get the vehicle back 1.5 hrs later and all is well ...till i get home and the vehicle wreaks of gear oil...then in the garage I see alot of gear oil drippings on the floor, moved it outside in the driveway , a few hrs later more drippings ...put a white piece of cardboard underneath and it is stained with gear oil dripping by the AM....

Called the head MORON at the service dept - he says bring it in asap !
before I left I crawled under there to see if I could spot whats wrong...I look at the drain plug on the front diff and its totally stripped out on the inside,and has a couple chips taken out of it on the side -as if someone tried to chisel it off...Then I notice -no washer on the fill plug...which is the 2 places the drippings seem to be coming from...
So i surmised that the bozo who did the work stripped the drain plug -couldnt chisel it off -so he prolly just pumped out whatever he could from the front diff & then pumped in some amsoil...
Long story short - I was right and they owned up to it...the Head MORON played dumb and said nobody ever informed him the plug was stripped & couldnt be removed ...He said if he knew that he would have kept the vehicle another day and ordered a new plug and drilled the old one out somehow...MY ASS !!!!
Anyway - they gave me 2 new plugs (drain & fill ) and new washers and redid the whole front diff with new amsoil.....

 

Thats fkd up. Better to try and do as much yourself nowadays.

 

Unbelievable. And dealers wonder why the public thinks so little of them...?

 

Any trade for that matter.

 

At 53 , I dont feel like crawling under there and messing with it...maybe 20yrs ago..not now....so i'm kinda at their mercy...but you gotta watch everything they do !

 

Sucks for sure! Question though, if the guy who did the work owned up to it, why would you say the head guy "played dumb"? It's very possible the guy who did the "work" didn't say a word, so the head guy wouldn't have known. Just saying put the blame on the right person. In this case whoever did the work wouldn't be working for me after that for sure.

 

I hear ya. I'm 49 and a plbr. I still crawl my happy ass where no ass goes. Even in my trade ya have to watch. I had a "helper" fresh out of hs and couldnt figure out how to put 2 zip ties together.

 

The best and brightest definitely do not work at the dealership. I had them rebalance my tires when the truck was in for routine service. Got it back and it was unsafe to drive, turns out their tire guy took all the weights off and then put the wheels back on the truck. Ever try driving when none of the wheels are balanced?

Then while waiting for the service adviser to finish the paperwork I look out and see some one is in the truck and the engine has been started. One of the flunkies was letting a stranger check out my Tacoma. Gal was in the truck, with the mirrors and seats adjusted for her, engine running. I ran out, damn near dragged her out of the truck and took the keys. I ripped the flunky a new one on the way in, then raised hell with the service manager. Who then went out and had a heated discussion with the kid. He was not there the next time I took the truck in.

 

head guy played dumb without a doubt.Tech most likely told head guy.Head guy only thinks about making time and money so he made the decision to try and hack it to try and save both.Seen it a billion times.The plugs come out easy with a little heat and patience.The shops usually have heat but the boss never has patience.

 

To be fair, you don't KNOW what happened and can only guess. I would be more inclined the think the guy who worked on the truck tried to get away with something and not tell anyone. I have seen that more often then management. But to be fair, neither of us KNOW what happened.

Oh, by the way, when working with differentials, as long as there is fluid in the housing, safety regulations prevent the use of heat to remove a stuck plug because you can ignite the fluid.

 

I understand your frustration:

I worked at a dealership as as a Technician for many years; and also in the Military, in the maintenance field. The last decade of Military years, as a Battalion Motor Sergeant.

In the Military, you had to work with whoever, was assigned to your unit. Some people didn't care what their work looked like; others didn't know, and honestly could not be taught. I'm sorry, some just don't have the capacity to understand mechanical things; let alone electricity or hydraulics. The things you find on all sorts of vehicles. But the ones that didn't care; were the worst.

In the dealerships, the problems are different.

There, most of the better technicians are working Flat-Rate pay scale, (piece work). They won't be the one assigned to change your fluids; as their work load is comprised of electronics, transmissions, power steering, etc, the technical stuff. It took years of training and dedication to get to their level. This Technician can't afford to do a bad job, nor will he/she want to. In the Flat-Rate pay scale, if that job comes back, due to being improperly done the first time; he/she is not going to be paid again. He/she was paid to do it correctly the first time.

There is another level of employee in that shop also. He/she will do the mundane jobs; such as oil changes, fluid changes, squeaks/rattles, tire changes, etc. He/she is usually paid hourly.
So if it comes back, he/she doesn't care.

This is how I viewed this in the dealerships. This doesn't always fit all dealerships; but most.

The problem is this: You just paid $30k-$50k for a new vehicle; and probably in the sales presentation, you were taken around and met the Parts Dept, or manager, the service manager, credit manager, etc. Each of these managers probably said " We have the best, people working for us; and in the case of the service manger, they probably said " our Technicians are factory trained and can handle any problem with your vehicle"

But when you come in with a squeak or rattle or an oil change or in your case a fluid change; you are not going to get the best Technician there. He is busy on a more technical problem. making money for the dealership.

So there is the kicker: Money

You are going to get the hourly guy; not the Best and Brightest. I do take exception to anybody that says the best and brightest don't work there!!! You just won't get him to rotate your tires or change your fluids.

I blame the dealership for not properly training the lower level of employee and compensating him or her for their work.

 

Yup, this is why I do all of my own preventive maintenance and steer clear of the Stealership at all costs. The only thing my rig has been in the shop for thus far has been state inspection & alignment.

 

Using air guns without a torque setting.

 

I have been a technician at a few dealers over the past 6 years and this is 100% true from my experience. I have never seen a dealer actually do paid factory training for the lube techs (newer low level guys). The smart lube techs that do good work either get moved up or quit because they're underpaid. This was true at both the toyota dealers I worked for. I work for lexus now and we do not have lube techs, everyone is lexus and ase certified. Our labor rate is also considerablely higher though.

 

This ^^^^
There are many things in the shop that are dealt with "In House" and never taken to the service managers.

 

This is my current job, but at our dealership we give a damn about our work or we don't work there very long.

This ^^^

 

Hahah no way! What the hell. Guy must've been a hotel valet beforehand or shumthing

 

how hard is it to remove a fill plug and a drain plug and then put them back in? it's simple as can be. any moron should be able to do that.

...and these things don't get "stuck" like people say. i did a tranny change on a 1970 vw bug and it went fine. those plugs hadn't been out of the tranny in over 40 years!!!

so a tacoma not so old should have zero problems when it comes to removing plugs out of anything.

 

Totally disagree with you. Over my 25+ years I have ran into over a hundred seized drain plug bolts. Some required drilling out the center of it to drain the fluid, then welding a bolt to the drain plug in order to remove it. You just got lucky with your one tranny fluid change. I have pulled thousands of drain plugs.

 

For the most part yes.
Our trans guy can drop a trans, fix it, and reinstall in 4-5 hours (On average), he gets paid "Book time" and the book says 11 hours (Varies by model of course, the FWD cars are tougher and take more time) to pull, fix, and reinstall a trans.
So he can do 10 hours of work and get paid for 22 hours, sounds nice to me.

All of us who do oil changes, tire rotates, battery replacements, tire repair, trans flush, coolant flush, brake flush, brakes, and the other little things get paid by the hour.