Need Opinions: Take Car to Dealer for Free OC?

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Originally Posted By: Merkava_4

How could the threads in the oil pan be fine if the drain plug was damaged?

Wait a minute . . . I bet they installed an oversized self tapping drain plug because the lube jockey cross threaded and stripped the original threads in the oil pan.


No, there was not an oversized plug installed. I guess I got lucky on having just a stripped plug, which the dealership just replaced. Maybe Ford used good oil pan threads back then.
I changed the oil myself every single time after that. That car made it to 300K miles without having a valve cover or oil pan ever taken off. (Three alternators, two fuel pumps and two water pumps though) The only reason I took it to the dealer for the oil changes was because my apartment had a "can't work on your own car" policy in the parking lot. After that, I changed my oil in the far corner of the parking lot at 2:00 AM when nobody would see me do it, although I got caught doing it once by the apartment maintenance man. I soon got a house after I had the car for a year or two and then I didn't have to "sneak in" my oil changes. When the car finally was retired, I took the heads off, had them refreshed and installed them on my daughter's Mustang. They are still being used today.
 
I have a great Chevy dealer. My '14 Camaro came with 4 OCs. Keep in mind that these are not "free", you just already paid for them. I figured this equals $165 in materials only if I had DIY'd, so why not take advantage of them? My dealer has a quick lube station and gets you out in 30-40 minutes. I have the service writer put "no rotation" and "no car wash" on my paperwork so it gets oil and a filter then right out.
 
I wouldn't take my new vehicle to the dealer for anything other than warranty work. Free oil changes, no thanks. It's a risk vs. reward thing for me, and it isn't worth the time wasted driving there and then waiting. Then lets not forget the odds of them using the wrong oil, messing something up, or the ultimate up sell plugs at some point. Like I said, no thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: Malo83
Originally Posted By: Leo99
It's a time thing to me. The first few oil changes at my Toyota dealership took at least 1.5 hours. That was enough for me to head to JiffyLube or some other Quick Lube place. I can't be bothered to spend hours at the dealership. I'd rather pay $20 and be done in 20 minutes.


Ha ha, JiffyLube, you can't be serious! the reason you are in and out in 20 minutes is the old oil and filter are still in the car
smirk.gif



I'm serious. I started changing my own oil once the car hit 200k miles. It needs a little more TLC now.
 
Take it once and see how it goes. I took my Saturn to the dealer once and was there for over an hour. After that, I've changed it myself.
 
Originally Posted By: Lex94
Stealerships are like drug dealers...They are really nice to you at first and the first one is free - but the next ones cost you dearly
smile.gif


Let the Stealer muscle the pan bolt and filter off...They tend to be put on by gorillas at the factory.


+1. Factory filters and drain plugs seems to be put on by gorillas. I'd let the dealer do the first oil/filter change. Especially if the oil filter is in a difficult location to get a "normal" filter wrench on it. Just ask the dealer to tighten the filter and drain plug to manufactures specifications. Otherwise they seem to really over tighten them also. Live and learn
mad.gif
.

Whimsey
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: Kruse
I drive it down there to show what had happened and they bring it back in to their shop, drop the oil and luckily, it just took a new drain plug to repair it.


How could the threads in the oil pan be fine if the drain plug was damaged?

Wait a minute . . . I bet they installed an oversized self tapping drain plug because the lube jockey cross threaded and stripped the original threads in the oil pan.


In my case it was the original plug but over 75,000 miles of mainly the Ford dealer and a couple of changes with an indie shop the threads on the drain plug were damaged. It was not leaking but removing it did not give you a "warm and fuzzy" feeling about it's longevity. A new $6.00 drain plug from Ford fixed it. It now screws in and out smoothly and still no leaks. So obviously I'm now doing ALL the oil changes myself on my wife's V-8 Explorer
smirk.gif
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Whimsey
 
This is the dumbest thread ever.

It's absolutely chock full of phobic OCDisms.

Take the car back to the dealer and get the oil changed for free.

If you don't trust the selling dealer to service your vehicle, why did you buy there in the first place?

But if you want to do it yourself, just do it.
 
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
This is the dumbest thread ever.

It's absolutely chock full of phobic OCDisms.

Don't know if it's the dumbest ever but many BITOGers take their motor oil phobic OCDisms very seriously.
 
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
This is the dumbest thread ever.

It's absolutely chock full of phobic OCDisms.

Take the car back to the dealer and get the oil changed for free.

If you don't trust the selling dealer to service your vehicle, why did you buy there in the first place?

But if you want to do it yourself, just do it.


Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed!
 
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
This is the dumbest thread ever.

It's absolutely chock full of phobic OCDisms.

Take the car back to the dealer and get the oil changed for free.

If you don't trust the selling dealer to service your vehicle, why did you buy there in the first place?

But if you want to do it yourself, just do it.




I agree; the service departments at my BMW dealer and Mazda dealer are excellent. They both perform quality work at a fair price and have never tried to push unnecessary repairs or services. If either offers a complimentary service I'm going to take advantage of it.
 
I had good experiences with free oil changes and other free services/warranty works at various dealers.

I had 4 years free maintenance when I bought my E430 in 2000, in those 4 years I had 4 oil changes, 2 brake bleeds, 1 alignment, 1 wiper refill. Dealer gave car loan(actually they paid 1 day MB rental at Enterprise on-site) every time I had the car in for any service.

The LS400 had 4 free oil changes and car washes in 2 years, no problem what-so-ever.

I had 3 free oil changes with S2000, I was lucky to have a mechanic who also owned an S2000 do my oil change, he loved seeing and serving another S2000. The local Honda dealer had a special service bay for S2000, separate from other bays. I was in the bay chatting with the mechanic while he did the inspection of various under car components. He did very good job, he was very careful in doing everything.

I think in general most dealer services are very good, only a very small percentage didn't do very well. But the problem is bad news spread very fast and far, good works are forgotten quickly. Most of you already know that people who have good service(s) don't post it very often, but any tiny bad experience will be posted on every site. I am a little difference, I post more good experiences I have with any business I done with, I only post extremely bad experience(s) after carefully verify that particular shop/business do that to many customers.
 
Only out of quart bottles, brand, grade, and specs disclosed.
Don't take anyones word as to what oil is in their bulk tanks.

Way too many states do not have laws that require strict labeling and adherence to what is actually in those bulk oil tanks. If you do get the free OC, take the money u saved and get a UOA right away to see if the additives are up to reasonable standards comparable to those found on PQI
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: BrianC
Only out of quart bottles, brand, grade, and specs disclosed.
Don't take anyones word as to what oil is in their bulk tanks.

Way too many states do not have laws that require strict labeling and adherence to what is actually in those bulk oil tanks. If you do get the free OC, take the money u saved and get a UOA right away to see if the additives are up to reasonable standards comparable to those found on PQI


Waited too long to edit again, anyway, how that uoa turns out should tell you something about the dealership.
 
You have the oil, filter. Save it for a rainy day and take the car to the dealer.

They will only offer this so many times in a car's life before you have to either cough up for dealer service, pay little bucks for service you probably aren't getting at "QuickLube PTY LTD" or get under the car and do it yourself.

If it concerns you - only run 5K on this interval and change the oil, get it analysed. Then you can see if the dealer is "trustworthy" or not...
 
Originally Posted By: MCompact
I agree; the service departments at my BMW dealer and Mazda dealer are excellent. They both perform quality work at a fair price and have never tried to push unnecessary repairs or services. If either offers a complimentary service I'm going to take advantage of it.


I'll be taking my M6 in to your favorite BMW dealer in a couple of weeks for an oil and brake fluid change.

I hope they still have some BMW labeled Castrol left.

My wife really likes those guys and they take care of her with a loaner for anything that takes very long.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
This is the dumbest thread ever.

It's absolutely chock full of phobic OCDisms.

Don't know if it's the dumbest ever but many BITOGers take their motor oil phobic OCDisms very seriously.


Candidly, I'm probably guilty of starting the dumbest one ever.

And I'm certain that I've dumbed down more than a few intelligent discussions here also.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
I find, that i have the least problems with a car, when i keep other peoples hands off my car.


YES!! I have had too many people f my trucks up when they are doing maintenance work or "fixing" something.
 
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