Dealer oil change, ever wonder?

[philipp10]

Originally Posted by PWMDMD
Originally Posted by SirTanon
I do the changes on my Fusion myself, but I have an agreement with the Nissan dealer for our Altima, so they do all the oil changes for us, and I know exactly what they are putting in... and it's not what is spec'd for the car.

The 2.5 engine in our '14 Altime is supposed to get syn 0w-20 but the dealership puts semi-syn 5w-30 in it. I found out on our 3rd oil change and had a long discussion with the service advisor there about it after I noticed on the paperwork, which ended up turning into a discussion with the service manager. I asked him how they think it's okay to use it when the manual clearly states 0w-20, and he ended up digging up a document issued by Nissan USA stating that in warmer climates, the 5w-30 was approved for use.

We talked further, and I expressed my concerns and they noted them in their system, but since they do all the maintenance, and the car is covered by a 7-year, 100,000-mile warranty, I'm leaving it up to them. Since it's all done in-house, there's no push-back.



Half the dealerships use cheap oil that does not meet the official specs for an engine and yet we have people here who believe if you put quality 5W-30 in a car spec'd for 0W-20:

1. A perfectly sound engine will blow up if it's too cold and you give it too much throttle
2. Your warranty is immediately void
3. The dealership will absolutely know you used 5W-30 and not 0W-20 and will interrogate you until you admit the truth.

yeah can you imagine if an engine did blow up under warranty....if you had fake receipts, how would a dealer ever know if the oil had really been changed and even if it was, what type of oil you had in there. It would take a lot of testing to prove the customer was negligent and honestly, not possible. Yet here we have many acting as if it's commonplace to have warranty work rejected.

 

[Fahrvergnügen]

We send it off to the lab.

 

[1978elcamino]

wow, by the comments it seems like dealers try to use decent oil.

 

[PimTac]

Originally Posted by MParr
You guys are just too funny. In a hurry and not proofreading before hitting the post button. I can't go back and edit the reply. You all new that I meant Quaker State. 🦆🦆🦆




Oh my. I new that.


Just some rib poking fun. Nothing personal.

 

[SirTanon]

Originally Posted by MParr
Our local Hyundai dealership uses 5W20 Quacker State blend in all NA vehicles.They use 5W30 Quaker State Ultimate Durability in all turbocharged vehicles.


.. Kind of a duck move on their part..

 

[Whimsey]

The Ford dealer I used for years definitely used Motorcraft oils, in bulk and quarts. I saw the empty drums of Motorcraft oils and I watched them use Motorcraft quarts in my truck because it used 5W-20 while most of the vehicles they serviced still used 5W-30. My wife's current Ford dealer uses some unknown "conventional" oil and charges extra for Motorcraft synblend oil. This is for their $90 oil change service

I change her oil myself and if I can't my indie mechanic does it with my supplied oil and filter.

Whimsey

 

[quint]

Originally Posted by mazdamonky
I know my local Mazda uses Castrol all across the board. I won't complain as I believe Castrol makes good oil.


I'm friends with the service manager at one of our local Mazda dealers. He said the same thing. Castrol synthetic in everything. I pushed him a little, I said come on, they dont have some bulk 5w-30 laying around they sneak in to save money? He was adamant, nope.

 

[UG_Passat]

Originally Posted by 1978elcamino
Ever wonder if your standard dealer oil change brew was good manufacture specific oil, ie motorcraft, dexos etc... or cheap bulk oil. Just think, if someone went to every auto brands dealer in a given town for an oil sample what the results would be? Just curious to what you think most results would be? I would bet that most would be a semi blend 5w20, unless they asked or told what viscosity you were given. Your thoughts?



VW/Audi, unless it required something special, they use bulk (50 gallon drums) oil containers of Castrol Edge 5w40.

Boutique requirements, (currently), 504/507, 508.00, 501.01 (10w60), would be in bottles, also Castrol, since Castrol has the contract with VAG

 

[bbhero]

Originally Posted by SirTanon
I do the changes on my Fusion myself, but I have an agreement with the Nissan dealer for our Altima, so they do all the oil changes for us, and I know exactly what they are putting in... and it's not what is spec'd for the car.

The 2.5 engine in our '14 Altime is supposed to get syn 0w-20 but the dealership puts semi-syn 5w-30 in it. I found out on our 3rd oil change and had a long discussion with the service advisor there about it after I noticed on the paperwork, which ended up turning into a discussion with the service manager. I asked him how they think it's okay to use it when the manual clearly states 0w-20, and he ended up digging up a document issued by Nissan USA stating that in warmer climates, the 5w-30 was approved for use.

We talked further, and I expressed my concerns and they noted them in their system, but since they do all the maintenance, and the car is covered by a 7-year, 100,000-mile warranty, I'm leaving it up to them. Since it's all done in-house, there's no push-back.



I would not worry about a 5w30 in the Nissan Altima 2.5... The 0w20 is only for fuel mileage reasons. In your area a 5w30 makes more sense in a way. But a 0w20 that is a good quality oil would be fine too.

 

[SirTanon]

Oh, I'm not really worried about the oil not protecting the engine. I'm sure it will do that just fine. My concern was more to do with warranty push-back if there was ever an issue, etc..

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by skyactiv
There is a new trend starting. More and more dealers are owned by a large conglomerate that owns several dealers.
They can use their size as negotiating power
to obtain a better deal with a national well known brand, even through the oil will be distributed by a local or regional distributor.
They used SOPUS products across the board where possible at one time and they still might.

Sonic is still using Pennzoil, or so what The Critic told me. Hendrick was a Quaker State(I had to resist the urge to spell it as Quacker State) user because the NASCAR side of Rick Hendrick's empire was sponsored by them. They are now a Valvoline shop. Dunno what AutoNation uses. While the OEMs have marketing agreements with the oil companies in some cases(Hyundai-Kia/FCA/BMW with SOPUS, Daimler/Toyota/GM with XOM and VAG/Jaguar Land Rover with Castrol), the dealership's parent company has the final say.

Goodyear and Firestone shops have traditionally been Kendall outfits, supposedly Bridgestone Americas and SOPUS worked out a deal for Firestone shops to pour Pennzoil.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by PWMDMD
Originally Posted by SirTanon
I do the changes on my Fusion myself, but I have an agreement with the Nissan dealer for our Altima, so they do all the oil changes for us, and I know exactly what they are putting in... and it's not what is spec'd for the car.

The 2.5 engine in our '14 Altime is supposed to get syn 0w-20 but the dealership puts semi-syn 5w-30 in it. I found out on our 3rd oil change and had a long discussion with the service advisor there about it after I noticed on the paperwork, which ended up turning into a discussion with the service manager. I asked him how they think it's okay to use it when the manual clearly states 0w-20, and he ended up digging up a document issued by Nissan USA stating that in warmer climates, the 5w-30 was approved for use.

We talked further, and I expressed my concerns and they noted them in their system, but since they do all the maintenance, and the car is covered by a 7-year, 100,000-mile warranty, I'm leaving it up to them. Since it's all done in-house, there's no push-back.



Half the dealerships use cheap oil that does not meet the official specs for an engine and yet we have people here who believe if you put quality 5W-30 in a car spec'd for 0W-20:

1. A perfectly sound engine will blow up if it's too cold and you give it too much throttle
2. Your warranty is immediately void
3. The dealership will absolutely know you used 5W-30 and not 0W-20 and will interrogate you until you admit the truth.



Hahaha! You must be terrible in court.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by Whimsey
The Ford dealer I used for years definitely used Motorcraft oils, in bulk and quarts. I saw the empty drums of Motorcraft oils and I watched them use Motorcraft quarts in my truck because it used 5W-20 while most of the vehicles they serviced still used 5W-30. My wife's current Ford dealer uses some unknown "conventional" oil and charges extra for Motorcraft synblend oil. This is for their $90 oil change service

I change her oil myself and if I can't my indie mechanic does it with my supplied oil and filter.

Whimsey



This is a major upsell especially if the "conventional" oil is current API spec because it's meets the same performance standard as Motorcraft.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by skyactiv
There is a new trend starting. More and more dealers are owned by a large conglomerate that owns several dealers.
They can use their size as negotiating power
to obtain a better deal with a national well known brand, even through the oil will be distributed by a local or regional distributor.
They used SOPUS products across the board where possible at one time and they still might.

Sonic is still using Pennzoil, or so what The Critic told me. Hendrick was a Quaker State(I had to resist the urge to spell it as Quacker State) user because the NASCAR side of Rick Hendrick's empire was sponsored by them. They are now a Valvoline shop. Dunno what AutoNation uses. While the OEMs have marketing agreements with the oil companies in some cases(Hyundai-Kia/FCA/BMW with SOPUS, Daimler/Toyota/GM with XOM and VAG/Jaguar Land Rover with Castrol), the dealership's parent company has the final say.

Goodyear and Firestone shops have traditionally been Kendall outfits, supposedly Bridgestone Americas and SOPUS worked out a deal for Firestone shops to pour Pennzoil.



Autonation if it's FCA franchised it uses Pennzoil around here. The GM one uses Valvoline. The dealership I use has A.C. Delco for normal service with Mobil One as the upsell.

 

[nthach]

Supposedly, the Toyota/GM branded oil(meaning Toyota or Delco oil) program is XOM and Mopar's program is contracted out to SOPUS. Honda and Ford use Philips 66 for their oil program. And their jobbers/distributors are the "last mile" to the dealers. The parts distribution chain of the automakers don't distribute lubricants or functional fluids. Excelda does some distribution and bottling for the OEMs as well.

I made a pickup run a while ago to the local lubricants distributor as a favor. That company was a Philips 66 and XOM distributor and I saw cases of Honda/Motorcraft/Toyota-branded oil, coolant and brake fluid in their warehouse.

 

[kmrcstintn]

I've dealt with the same dealer for 4 different Jeep purchases including my current '15 Patriot (sidebar: most likely my last mopar purchase after seeing what fiat is doing to chrysler); they use pennzoil products for the mopar vehicles & castrol for the mazda vehicles; between the dealer, quick change shops, and a few diy's my vehicle has seen pennzoil, valvoline, quaker state, and maybe smitty's once...most oci's were premature (3k-4k miles with one being @2.5k when I realized smitty's didn't have the chrysler spec approval); the car is now @ 3 1/2 years old and almost at 30k miles so I have a bit over a year until the powertrain warranty is done (5 years/60k miles)...I ride motorcycle & scooter alot during warmer months

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Unfortunately owners manuals aren't always the be-all end-all when it comes to the correct viscosity. Often times the manufacturer issues updates to the dealers

 

[chevrofreak]

I deliver bulk oil to a lot of dealerships and dealer run oil change shops and I can tell you that most dealers these days use the oil that the vehicle manufacturer recommends. They tend to be on national bulk oil accounts and receive perks like building credit to return outdated and obsolete parts to the manufacturer, as well as receiving a "bonus" for having a certain minimum percentage of parts used on an RO being from the manufacturer. The aftermarket oil manufacturers are being pushed out all together and are being relegated to quick lubes.

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted by Railrust
And I know another guy who works at a dealer and he told me how they all used to grab a quart here or there for their own vehicles until manage,ent cracked down on it. Then they had to go to the parts counter and place their order (amount per repair order). He said the techs got around it by skimming a half quart on each oil change and would pump it into milk cartons for themselves. Bottom line...do your oil changes yourself if you can. Lol

I served on a jury where the underlying case was about a couple of mechanics who were accused of possibly stealing up to $300k worth of parts. Now it was likely their audits uncovered pilfering by multiple people and/or paperwork mistakes, but they got the police to arrest these two employees on the basis of a hidden camcorder. They recorded one mechanic taking bulk oil away in a used coolant gallon jug. Over the course of the trial it was stated that employees were generally allowed to work on the own vehicles after hours, and they could use bulk oil as they pleased. The understanding was that it had to be installed on site and not taken away, but some employees took it home anyways. Some used them for side jobs working on cars at home. They also took home unused coolant since they only charged customers for full jugs. This was a combination Honda/Buick dealer, and they apparently used Full Force brand coolant.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by y_p_w
Over the course of the trial it was stated that employees were generally allowed to work on the own vehicles after hours, and they could use bulk oil as they pleased. The understanding was that it had to be installed on site and not taken away, but some employees took it home anyways. Some used them for side jobs working on cars at home. They also took home unused coolant since they only charged customers for full jugs. This was a combination Honda/Buick dealer, and they apparently used Full Force brand coolant.

Working on your own cars is a unspoken benefit at a dealership, as long as you're not on the clock. It's pretty common for fluids to be charged to the customer(or the OEM for warranty work) as a whole unit when the job needed much less. Back when I worked at the local Honda dealer, techs had partial bottles of coolant, ATF and MOC additives in their bays - there would be enough after a few jobs for them to hoard and barter/use for their side jobs. I didn't see techs pumping oil to take out, the unspoken rule was don't be too obvious about how much oil you used. I wasn't a tech, but I did small favors for the techs like washing their cars and taking PDIs out for their gas tags - in return they racked up my car in their bays and let me use their tools(usually a big no-no to borrow a tech's tools).

We pushed MOC snake oil - and most of the techs had bottles of their additives stashed away since they never bothered to use it. Their fuel system cleaner, power steering fluid/flush and oil treatment did get used(mostly) and we went through so much MOC Parts Wash. Of course the customer was charged for that. When I quit, I had a small cache of MOC Fuel System Cleaner at the house.