Got my first oil change today...at the dealership

Once my free oil changes, and warranty were up, I haven't retuned to the stealership, except for maybe a recall. I found a little garage that I can trust and never looked back!

 

I take mine in for the scheduled maintenance and recalls as long as it's free, but I change any oils and fluids myself. My dealer does a good job as far as I know, but if you peek into the shop area, you see the older guys all working on major repairs, and it's the newbies doing the routine stuff. I grew up on a dairy farm in Maine, and spent 6 years as an Orisol mechanic and 9 years as Maintenance supervisor at New Balance, so I am well-versed in all things mechanical, computers, cameras, and sewing machines (A combination from Hell if there ever was one). I don't mind getting dirty, and like the opportunity to give the underside a good once-over whilst I'm under there. I have heard some horror stories of bad work done at dealerships, and while there may well be some exaggeration, I just prefer to do my own work. I also think that 10K oil changes are sub-optimal, but that's just my opinion. YMMV.

 

I have only used the dealer one time for the free oil change and tire rotation. I specifically told them not to wash my truck, I repeated it twice to the service person. When they got done and I walked out to my truck, it was wet and still had soap on the mirrors. I got home and found I was leaking oil from the oil filter housing. The filter housing plug was only finger tight. Also I have a friend that has a dual direction torque wrench and we check the lug nuts. Some were over 100lbs, some were in the 90’s. The dealer is a 60 mile round trip, so I didn’t go back to chew their ass out. Never again !!!

 

I won't use a dealership for anything other than warranty work, recall work, or free work. But this particular experience was excellent.

My friend the tech is allowed to do side work in his bay on his days off. He installed my True Trac for me, as well as the non-wired SR fog lamp swap and the 2-lo install. I paid him $800 to do all of that, money well spent. I have no interest in working on cars anymore beyond very minor stuff, like the SR lighted visor swap. I never plan to change my own fluids again. Not worth the time and hassle for me.