JIFFY LUBE AND MEINEKE HORROR STORIES...

I just thought I'd share and try to help others...

Years ago, I had an old Toyota Starlet. It had 320,000 miles and jiffy lube had a manual trans and diff lube change that was very cheap. I'd never been there before and I thought that it was cool that they had vacuumed the inside of the car while it was there.

The next day, out on the highway, my car wouldn't shift out of fourth gear, so I had it towed to a transmission shop. The diagnosis? No fluid in the transmission! (There was about half a cup of metal crumbs in a half cup of lube.)

Long story short..NOT jiffy lubes problem. They wouldn't do anything about it. That brings me up to 1987. New state. Brand new Toyota FX/16. The space between the oil filter and the radiator is tiny and I can NOT remove the oil filter for my first oil change. The Jiffy Lube story is in the back of my mind, but it was a fluke, right? I bring my own oil and my own oil filter in to the shop and the manager charges me like ten bucks for some "technician" to use a tool called the "claw" to remove the filter. A few minutes later, I walk out front to get the car and before I even get close, I see fluid dripping from under the front of the car. On closer inspection, I find that the "claw" has clawed through two areas of my radiator! Long story short. This time Jiffy Lube pays to have my brand new radiator in my brand new car repaired. The repair looks horrible, though it never leaks, I can still see it in my mind and have not ever gone back. (Sorry that this is all one huge paragraph. My typing skills suck.)

Let's now race to 2010ish. My step sons '99Honda Civic had a non working air conditioner. Meineke installed a new compressor. However the entire system was filled with a fine aluminum residue and it wasn't flushed, so the new compressor went out, soon afterwards. This resulted in them removing and replacing many components, each to be ruined by the metallic oil and this went on until I made some nasty phone calls to have the whole system replaced. It cost me just over $1,400. Seven trips to the shop. The results? Cool air. Not cold.

Now, let's go to 2013 and my wifes BELOVED 1997 Honda accord. Different Meineke was running an ad for a timing belt kit replacement for cheap..with the water pump and all. She had already made an appointment for window tinting, so she went for it. I was very uneasy about it. Later in the day, we got the call that Meineke was unable to do the timing belt, because they couldn't remove the crankshaft pulley or something. We paid for the tint and she started the car. It made a horrible racket and a long, black socket came spinning out from under the car. The engine was making a strange noise. Some "mechanic" had royally f..ed up the timing cover and things were rubbing. After some yelling we were given the tint job for free and I spent the next two days repairing and replacing the items destroyed by them and installing my own timing belt kit. If you aren't able to do ALL of your own work...Find a mechanic that you trust and stick with him! Most shops touting an A.S.E. master mechanic have like one on payroll, but chances are the kid that works on your car is a moron being payed to learn at your expense. After ANY repairs, make sure that you open the hood and look around before you leave. If you have any bad feelings about the shop or the technicians, LEAVE. Thanks for letting me vent.

 

Interesting story, but I have to wonder why you would go back after the first incident? A.S.E. means very little. I learned to fix my own cars 35 years ago and I've never paid a mechanic in my life. I hope you've learned your lesson!....

 

I'm in fact a retired A.S.E master mechanic. You're right. Read a book. Pay a fee. Take a test. Get another patch on your shirt. These were moments of laziness, I suppose. And yes. Lessons learned.

 

Took my 99 to jiffy lube once. Was supposed to be a simple oil change. I hear the monkey cursing under my truck and take a peek. He has a fucking pipe wrench on my transfer case drain bolt!!!! I asked what the fuck are you doing? He replies "checking your transmission fluid level". I said that's my transfer case and that's the drain bolt your screwing up!! He says "oh... didn't realize it was a 4 wheel drive" I told him to stop and went and got the manager and showed him the damage done to the bolt and case housing. Manager finished my now free oil change and ripped the "tech" a new ass for being stupid. never again.

 

went for an oil change last week to meineke, took my own oil and filter. paid and drove away. yesterday i got something out of the back seat and low and behold there is the full 6th qt of oil that they were supposed to use half of, ive seen conflicting info on capacities so i went to add a half qt, thats when i see there is no oil fill cap, oil all over the engine bay; called immediately and they fixed it no charge, found the fill cap in the skid plate and left me with an extra qt of oil for next time along with a 25 dollar gift card. I wont use it and will never take it back, today im going to clean the engine bay up, but come the fuck on

 

These coorporation shops only pay the guys like $9-10 an hour with possible commission.

What commission do you get on $20 oil changes? NOT MUCH

They aren't mechanics and they don't care, I deal with these "mechanics" every day

 

Was thinking the same thing.... I'm a one and done kinda guy, but luckily only myself and Toyota have ever fondled my taco

 

Every time you go in to one of these shops you are rolling the dice.

 

I took my 1989 Honda into jiffy lube because i just didn't make the time to change my oil. They changed it and everything looked good. Next morning I woke up and there was 1/2 qt of oil under my car. Took it back to jiffy lube, they said sorry, tightened up the drain plug and topped off the oil. Still leaked a few drips here and there but i lived with it since I was to busy at the time. was going to school and 2 jobs. Took it back for another oil change and the same exact story happened again. I asked them if they replaced the aluminum washer on the drain plug both times and they said yes. It turns out the next time I was due for the oil change I did it myself. That aluminum washer was so crushed on the drain bolt from being reused and over torqued that I had to cut and scrape it off the drain plug. They never changed that washer but the manager said yes they did both times. I never went to another franchised own mechanic shop again . Except ...

5 years ago, my wife at the time, transmission went out in her Ford Escape. I spent several hours talking to different transmission shops, learned a lot about that transmission and got a feel for the mechanics and the type of work we they did. Set something up and was having her car towed over to a shop I felt comfortable with. She comes in and tells me she just got off the phone with a real nice man from Aamco transmissions and that it would only be 1/2 the price of the place I wanted to do the work. Told her no way. They just want you in the door to sell you more. Well we ended up taking it ti aamco. A $700.00 quote turned into a $2000.00 quote because they said she didn't explain it was an 4 wheel drive but it wouldn't be anymore than that. Well the next call we got was it is now going to cost $2500.00 because when they took it apart they found a few more things that had to be replaced and they had financing for us if we couldn't afford it. She said noway and told them to put the car back together. She was going somewhere else. It would be $700.00 labor to get the car back. After about 2 weeks, we took the car back. The transmission was all torn apart and in boxes. We still had to pay them $500.00 to get the car released to us. In the end we paid almost $3000.00 for the transmission that was only going to cost $1700.00 and they would only need the car 1 day from the shop I was going to take it to.

During the 2 weeks that dam car was at aamco, my wife and I where fighting non stop over this transmission. A lot of thing where said , bad ugly evil thing. Just keep escalating. We couldn't get past it and that was it. 3 months later we separated and 6 months after that we were divorced.

I know its a long story but you asked.

 

Dam I'm sorry to hear that it lead to your divorce. As a retired auto tech I would never ever take it to those franchised places. It's usually a small local shop I know I would take it to and usually it's only for machine head work. Everything else I do it myself.

 

Ya, sad to say but there were other issues and the aamco just put it over the top. We are better off without each other.
Never again will I use one of those franchised shops.

 

I won't ever go to Jiffy Lube. Here's why:

1. They insist on yanking your air filter out when you only want to get an oil change. After I saw a tech trying to maul and tear out my wifes air filter, I ran out and said "WTF are you doing?" So after that I would tell them "no air filter, I'm here for an oil change".

2. I've seen the tech's drop oil container caps and tools into engines because they were screwing around.

3. The last straw was when I watched the tech that took the drain plug out was still draining the oil, when the oil filler tech started pouring oil to fill. Before he started my car I went out and told him that he needs to check the oil level before he starts the car. Turns out it was dry because the drain tech was still draining. Then he yelled up that all the new oil was drained because he was still draining the oil while the other moron was filling. So I ended up getting an "oil flush."

This all happened at two different locations. The only car I'd take to them is a beater POS third car that I don't care about...then I'd just do it myself because I don't care if I screwed it up.

Sorry for the long story, but it really still irks me years later.

 

As for Mieneke, I brought a car there for brakes years ago, and on top of fucking up my brakes, as I'm paying for it, I'm watching the guy backing the car out of the garage through the window to the garage in the lobby, and I see the car come to a sudden stop, and then pull forward, and then finally backs all the way out. I get the keys from him, and ask if it's all set. Yup, he says. So after doing a walk around, I find my passenger door buckled. He hit the mirror on the side of the garage while backing out, and must have "forgotten" to mention it to me in the 30 seconds between the incident, and him handing me the keys. Needles to say, I made sure the door, and the brakes were fixed by someone other than them, on their dime. To call them hacks would be a compliment.

As for Jiffy lube, an old video, but still a classic:

https://youtu.be/wiCAJ8ULnaI

 

A family member tried to change the oil in his 1st Gen many years ago. He drained the tranny and put 6 qts in the engine, then drove to work. He called me and said it was smoking and didn't shift right. I gave him an ass chewing on that one. After I fixed the fluid levels it drove "fine" for about 100k more miles until the tranny finally grenaded.

 

I have had no experience at these place but its because i avoid them. Reason why is back in college i managed a pizza place. We had this really dumb kid as a cook and really was not a great employee. After he graduated high school and quit he came in with a jiffy lube or something uniform on. That was it for me. All we had him do was prep work because he could not even make a pizza and now this idiot works on cars.

 

I've got a private Toyota mechanic who runs a small local shop who I trust. Sure, after I bought my truck and took it there for stuff like diff and transmission fluid and they sold me on a coolant flush too, but they proved it's necessity with numbers from a test (acidity I believe), not just saying "it needs to be done." Aside from basic recalls taken care of by my local dealership, they're the only people other than myself who will touch my truck.

 

all these stories makes me feel so happy to have the mechanic that i have. 100% trust in them

 

I just spent a lot of money there. Now you're all giving me second thoughts.

They adjusted my brake system, put on new rotors and brake pads(I provided the pads on warranty from O'reilly). Occasionally my brakes are screeching pretty loud. I really don't want to take the truck back in because I already know what they're gonna say since I bought in the brake pads(not purchased from them).

"It's the brake pads, should have bought the pads from us" I can already hear it.

Should I take the truck in? Any idea on what it could be? I've always had screeching breaks on this taco even when replacing the rotors and brake pads.

 

ASE just mean Ask Someone Else.

 

I ran those pads multiple times and they are silent