Dealer Lubricant Fraud

[Pelican]

Originally Posted by pitzel
The overly frequent DIY oil changers have their overly frequent oil changes to blame for some of the GDI problems. Those who get their services done by dealers at even "normal" intervals may have dealers that don't appreciate the importance of using on-spec oil. Some of the worst cases by far that I've seen in various car forums appear to involve a combination of overly frequent, *and* quickie lube or dealer servicing.


What do you mean by "Overly frequent oil Changes" causing problems?

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted by csandste
If it's a brrand spec, Kia pushes Total, Hyundai pushes Quaker State. If the definition is a dealership with Total in a bulk tank doubt if many dealers follow that one. I'm sure any oil company with the money could get the recommendation changed when the oil brand contract is up.

I'd like to know what the OP's Youtube mechanic's wife's oil specifications actually were.

Between friends and relatives, we've got all three sizes of HyunKia four cylinder engines covered. Think they're all relatively easy on oil specs. Personally I'm comfortable with 5-30 "conventional" oils on a 5K OCI or group III at 6K. Almost any conventional SN/SN+ oil is roughly 40% group III anyway, depending on weight. Noticed that Walmart has Magnetec listed as their semi-syn quick lube oil as branding differentiations break down. (If I was allowed to change my own oil I would use a cheap group III instead of VWB or Maxlife--bottled oil prices are far closer together than oil change bulk oils which greatly mark up synthetics).




I haven't seen Magnatec Semi-syn in a few months. All the Walmarts around here carry the full-syn only.

 

[DuckRyder]

Wonder what website/forum he is talking about freaking out over his frequent changes

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted by DuckRyder
Wonder what website/forum he is talking about freaking out over his frequent changes

Right here....
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/1900212/1

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted by javacontour
I chose Canadian, because one has to register to get the US version of the manual. I don't expect the US version to be all that different.

https://carmanuals2.com/get/kia-sedona-2019-owner-s-manual-112528

And yes it "recommends" Total Quartz 5W-30. That would be like the recommendation in a BMW manual to use BP fuel.

But using an API SN (the manual says SL) is fine. They don't give any dire warnings about not using the recommended motor oil brand, and they sure as heck don't say that something other than the recommended brand needs to be changed more often.

Still - I remember way back looking at a list of Mercedes-Benz recommended motor oil. They had some really obscure brands listed that weren't typically sold in the US. Brands like Duckhams. Some were American, including 76. But in the end the dealer just used Quaker State, which wasn't on their recommended list.

 

[TiGeo]

Maybe to a super-BITOG oil nerd would think this is a big deal but really, this isn't and the likely case is they do use oil (bulk is fine) that meets whatever spec they need. I actually ask my VW dealer about what they used and they were happy to say 5W40 Castrol that is VW502 approved. And changing your oil at 1K miles...this is 2019, not 1979.

 

[NormanBuntz]

Originally Posted by StevieC
I know a well known auto repair chain up here puts in 5w30 in 5w20 applications all the time but bills the customer for whatever they asked for. Most of the time it gets conventional instead of synthetic when asked for as well. They have been doing it for a while.

That would be fraud.

 

[StevieC]

Yup

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by tig1
Originally Posted by AnthemBassMan
At the lube shop where I work part time, we have customers who don't want to have to pay for full synthetic/Dexos oil even though their vehicles require it. Some of them is the first oil change after the factory fill. We tell them what is required, but they choose the cheaper synthetic blend pump oil we use. All we can do is note it in the computer that they didn't want the required oil. Can't understand why people will spend $30k-$70k on a new vehicle and shortcut the oil changes.

L8R,
Matt

BITOG members fuss over $3-$5 for a jug of oil in their 20-30K vehicles all the time. 3-4 cents a day is important to them I guess.



Funny because when the specs are the same it is not worth a dime more.

 

[crainholio]

I found a court case while researching my project 4Runner's stretched timing chain, involving a dealership (California?) sued by a group of customers. Evidently their vehicles had been serviced per specification at 10K mile intervals, but somehow developed significant sludge and worn timing chains. The allegation was that the dealership was not using synthetic 0W-20 motor oil as specified. Can't readily find that case again right now as I no longer have a Lexis-Nexis account and it's not showing up in Google.