Dealership tech flunkies

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Thermo1223

Thermo1223

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Apr 18, 2005
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Easton, PA
I still can't believe in this day and age we have techs zipping oil drain bolts on with an air gun.

I needed 2 1/2 ft of wrench to break it free! It was also the wrong size, 13mm even though Dodge specs 14mm.

It was for my FIL's 2011 Grand Caravan w/ 3.6l Pentastar. I enjoyed the top filter, zero mess. I noted a sad sight when I could not locate a drain bolt for the transmission though. That will be a later project I guess. Next change gets a new bolt as the head got a little rounded off from that endeavor.

Used 5w30 Napa Syn with their ProSelect filter. My location did not have any Wix/Napa Silvers on hand. Should get him through winter nicely.
 
Yep, Jiffy Lube put the oil plug on my F150 with an air gun. It takes a man and a boy to get those freaking things off when they do that. 1/2" ratchet did the trick. I was about to use my 2.5' torque wrench on it when it broke loose.

My wife's Journey has the same engine and I too am looking forward to the no mess top filter. Easy access to the filter makes life a lot easier!
 
Wow. The difference in time from manual vs. impact is like 2 seconds. Though it takes longer to set up the impact as opposed to grabbing a wrench.
 
Probably less thinking, same motion. I mean, the tech(?) never knows who put the bolt on last, so they "need" to hit it with the impact wrench to remove. By grabbing the same tool to reinstall they likely don't even have to remove the bolt from the tool.
 
Originally Posted By: solorexpy
Yep, Jiffy Lube put the oil plug on my F150 with an air gun. It takes a man and a boy to get those freaking things off when they do that. 1/2" ratchet did the trick. I was about to use my 2.5' torque wrench on it when it broke loose.

My wife's Journey has the same engine and I too am looking forward to the no mess top filter. Easy access to the filter makes life a lot easier!


Why would you ever use a torque wrench to loosen?
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: solorexpy
Yep, Jiffy Lube put the oil plug on my F150 with an air gun. It takes a man and a boy to get those freaking things off when they do that. 1/2" ratchet did the trick. I was about to use my 2.5' torque wrench on it when it broke loose.

My wife's Journey has the same engine and I too am looking forward to the no mess top filter. Easy access to the filter makes life a lot easier!


Why would you ever use a torque wrench to loosen?


Torque wrenches are often used to prevent exceeding an expected operational torque limit. If you reach the max, you stop and determine the cause of the binding (e.g., locking device still installed or galled threads.)

I'm sure solorexpy was applying the same method.
 
Last edited:
You NEVER use a torque wrench to loosen. I will use a torque wrench on a drain plug on my personal vehicles and I did when I turned wrenches for a living.

I have never personally seen an air gun used to tighten a drain plug. I have seen them used to loosen, but never tighten. I am convinced certain plugs get overtightened because of the size of the heads. Honda uses 17mm a lot and the average 17mm wrench is fairly long and to the untrained person they can get a lot of force on it.

O and dealers don't use "techs" to do oil changes, they have people that do nothing but oil changes and little things to do them. They would lose money having someone that makes $30 an hour doing oil changes, they get the hourly person making $8 an hour to do them.
 
I found a nice 12" screw driver under the hood of the Neon. I also found that they only tightened one bolt on the new motor mount they put in... Fortunately it was out in the open to see.
GM tech forgot to clip back in the overflow coolant tank and I heard a nice buzz as it brushed the rad fan going around corner. No harm done to either though and I could clip it back right there on the roadside.
 
I think he was going to use the torque wrench due to it's 2.5' length.


My son still does oil changes however he is apprenticing. I will have to ask if the other guys do them. I would assume they do if they are working on the vehicle already, if it's just in for an oil change I don't know.
 
This dealer in particular and only know this because my neighbor worked there for a decade or two has cut labor pay out rates across the board. So what an oil change jockey makes so can a tech overall based on only paying 1.5hr for a 3hr book job. One of the many reasons he left and quit the mechanic business for good.

So it is possible a disgruntled tech could have done it but I'll concede a oil change jockey probably did.

solorexpy:

The canister top takes a 24mm socket FYI.
 
I had a new set of tires installed on the xB at a Firestone. When I got the car back it was making a terrible rattling noise at idle. After about 30 minutes of poking around I found that the techs were digging around in the air box and didn't reinstall the cover correctly, because air filter cleanliness has anything to do with replacing the tires.

The same vehicle at the Toyota dealership getting the air conditioner's evaporator coil replaced. When we got the vehicle back the first time the steering wheel was so far off center it amazes me that nobody caught it. The next day we brought it back and complained, and they fixed it.... almost. They split the difference between 90 degrees off and perfect, settling on 45 degrees instead. On our third visit they finally got it right.
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
my honda dealer left a chicken breast sandwich on the radiator top.
multitasking, eat and work.


So once you saw it after the drive home, was it a crispy sandwich?
grin.gif
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
You NEVER use a torque wrench to loosen.


My comment was in jest, but not entirely so. In my line of work, a torque wrench IS used to loosen in certain applications. Again, because exceeding an expected max torque to loosen may be bad, and requires trouble-shooting, not a bigger wrench.
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: cp3
I think he was going to use the torque wrench due to it's 2.5' length.


Correct! It's for leverage. Turn it up to 250-300lbs and loosen the bolt. I would never loosen a bolt that I thought was beyond the torque wrench's capacity.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal

O and dealers don't use "techs" to do oil changes, they have people that do nothing but oil changes and little things to do them. They would lose money having someone that makes $30 an hour doing oil changes, they get the hourly person making $8 an hour to do them.


^This.
The last dealer that I worked for had a red-haired woman do oil changes. Now I have nothing against women or red hair, but for about 3-4 days every month, this lady was a powerkeg with a hair-trigger waiting to explode. (Think about it) The calender was marked ahead of time warning the techs to steer clear of her during this time.
The rest of the month she was a pretty good oil-changer.
 
Originally Posted By: Thermo1223
I still can't believe in this day and age we have techs zipping oil drain bolts on with an air gun.

I needed 2 1/2 ft of wrench to break it free! It was also the wrong size, 13mm even though Dodge specs 14mm.

It was for my FIL's 2011 Grand Caravan w/ 3.6l Pentastar. I enjoyed the top filter, zero mess. I noted a sad sight when I could not locate a drain bolt for the transmission though. That will be a later project I guess. Next change gets a new bolt as the head got a little rounded off from that endeavor.

Used 5w30 Napa Syn with their ProSelect filter. My location did not have any Wix/Napa Silvers on hand. Should get him through winter nicely.



i thought most newer dodges had a 13mm drain plug.
 
I haven't seen that one, but I've definitely seen a tech (or 2) run spark plugs down into aluminum heads with a 3/8 impact *cringe*
 
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