Toyota Dealer Put Bulk Valvoline 5W30 in 07 Camry
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Actually we keep both Delo and Delvac, the Delvac for the guys who want the GM recommended oil, the Delo for the farmers and truckers who swear by it in their other rigs. We sell 3 cases of Delo for every case of Delvac. Doesn't the Delo have a heavy load of moly? Those folks sure have a lot faith in it based on past performance.
I am doing the oil changes myself even with the joint pain that I have. And I recommend that anybody who really cares about their car or truck also do their own oil changes.
Last I heard Saturn is a GM vehicle, and I have owned a few new Saturns. Every dealership I have encountered tries to get people to buy oil supplements. In Colorado Springs at the dealership I went to it was a graphite containing oil supplement. In Pueblo the last time I had an oil change at the dealership they tried to get a person to buy a BG oil supplement.
Maybe at the dealerships they do use the correct viscosity of oil. That is not what I have heard at the independent oil change places-I have heard from several including people who work at such places that 10W-30 is frequently used, even in the wintertime. They apparently can get the 10W-30 cheaper.
So what do they do at the GM dealerships if somebody comes in with an older GM vehicle that requires 10W-30? If there is one tank that has 5W-30, one tank for diesel vehicles, and one tank for Mobil 1, where is the tank for 10W-30?
I have been in the service areas for various new car dealerships. Typically there are not many oil tanks. Seems to me I remember only one tank at the Saturn dealerships. That may not be a problem at those dealerships since I think Saturn has been recommending 5W-30 since the vehicle came out. Although they have used vehicles that are sold at the Saturn dealerships also. Does a used 1995 F150 Ford pickup truck get 5W-30?
Last I heard Saturn is a GM vehicle, and I have owned a few new Saturns. Every dealership I have encountered tries to get people to buy oil supplements. In Colorado Springs at the dealership I went to it was a graphite containing oil supplement. In Pueblo the last time I had an oil change at the dealership they tried to get a person to buy a BG oil supplement.
Maybe at the dealerships they do use the correct viscosity of oil. That is not what I have heard at the independent oil change places-I have heard from several including people who work at such places that 10W-30 is frequently used, even in the wintertime. They apparently can get the 10W-30 cheaper.
So what do they do at the GM dealerships if somebody comes in with an older GM vehicle that requires 10W-30? If there is one tank that has 5W-30, one tank for diesel vehicles, and one tank for Mobil 1, where is the tank for 10W-30?
I have been in the service areas for various new car dealerships. Typically there are not many oil tanks. Seems to me I remember only one tank at the Saturn dealerships. That may not be a problem at those dealerships since I think Saturn has been recommending 5W-30 since the vehicle came out. Although they have used vehicles that are sold at the Saturn dealerships also. Does a used 1995 F150 Ford pickup truck get 5W-30?
I also owned a new Toyota Tercel many years ago. I went to the new owner's maintenance seminar. The Toyota dealership was in the process of switching from Pennzoil oil to Valvoline oil because they were getting the Valvoline cheaper (cost is always the bottom line) and because the maintenance service manager said something to the effect that Valvoline kept the engines cleaner (you know, the old Pennzoil sludge myth that a lot of mechanics seem to believe in even though they should know better).
The Toyota dealership also tried to get new owners to buy some kind of a supplement-I can't remember now but I think it was a BG oil supplement.
The Toyota dealership also tried to get new owners to buy some kind of a supplement-I can't remember now but I think it was a BG oil supplement.
Bottom line-nobody really cares a the dealerships or the independent oil change places. You have to care about your own vehicle.
Remember that used Ford F150 that probably should be getting 10W-30 oil? My guess is at the Saturn dealership it will get 5W-30. My guess is that they don't care.
And by the way, they also try to sell an expensive engine cleaning service at all of the Saturn dealerships that I have been at. They have a machine that runs hot oil throughout the engine under pressure.
At a Ford dealership it seems like they should have at least four oil tanks for oil. After all, older Ford vehicles probably required 10W-30 in the summertime, somewhat newer Ford vehicles required 5W-30, newer Ford cars and trucks with gasoline engines require 5W-20, and then a oil tank for the diesel vehicles. And maybe another oil tank for synthetic oil. How many tanks would we count in a Ford dealership? If we went into a Ford dealership service area and counted only three tanks somebody is being left out. But who cares?
Remember that used Ford F150 that probably should be getting 10W-30 oil? My guess is at the Saturn dealership it will get 5W-30. My guess is that they don't care.
And by the way, they also try to sell an expensive engine cleaning service at all of the Saturn dealerships that I have been at. They have a machine that runs hot oil throughout the engine under pressure.
At a Ford dealership it seems like they should have at least four oil tanks for oil. After all, older Ford vehicles probably required 10W-30 in the summertime, somewhat newer Ford vehicles required 5W-30, newer Ford cars and trucks with gasoline engines require 5W-20, and then a oil tank for the diesel vehicles. And maybe another oil tank for synthetic oil. How many tanks would we count in a Ford dealership? If we went into a Ford dealership service area and counted only three tanks somebody is being left out. But who cares?
I'm none too please with my Toyota dealer, when it comes to oil changes, as well. Car is a 2006 Camry.
Dealer keeps insisting that dear ol' mom get the oil changed every 3K, when the O/M says 5K!
Then they insisted she use their "Toyota oil", which strangely enough, came in a bottle marked "Mobil 5000" Mobil 5000 changed at 3K---brilliant!.
When I decided to take it in myself, along with Mobil 1 , and a Wix filter, I was told that I was bringing in the same oil they already use.
Also was warned about using "off-brand" oil filters...
Ulver, did the people at the Toyota dealership try to get your Mom to buy some high priced oil supplement? It has been my experience at every new car delaerhsip that they try to get people to buy oil supplements. Also, they want people to do 3000 mile oil changes which was probably the correct thing to do at Saturn dealerships at least when Saturn was selling cars like the SL1 and the SL2. The story is that because of the metal timing chain that 3000 miles wer enecessary on those vehicles.
No... I can't say I ever heard of them pushing any supplements. They DID hit her for $225 to remove brake dust, rotate the tires, and replace the wiper blades...
Saturn is owned by GM but they are their own system, totally outside the normal chain of command, so I have no idea what they do. I can't even cut a key for a Saturn much less look up a part. I'd expect the have a tank full of "universal" 5w30 SM oil.
You don't understand, they do this because it works. On this board we all obscess about oil and maintenance and sort of expect everyone else to, but they don't. Right now there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles out there driving millions of miles on the "wrong" oil. And they're doing quite well, thank you very much. Do ours do better? Hopefully. But oil and cars are so good now in most cases it just doesn't matter. I know, tell that to the folks with Chrysler and Toyota sludge monsters, there are exceptions.
Two perfect examples. My '01 Hyundai Accent 1.5 owner's manual calls for 10w30 or 10w40 oil. I've run either Supertech Syn 5w30, or TropArctic 5w30 in it for over 50K, it had 37K on it when I got it, it's smooth, quiet, runs like new and gets better highway MPG than it's original rating. Too bad I'm using the "wrong" oil. My brother just turned in his '89 Ford Bronco company truck (Bell Telephone, the cheapest company in the world when it comes to vehicles) with over 300K on it. The private garage he had to take it to put 5W30 in it ever since it was available, the owner of the shop went to a seminar and really believed it was best, even in his own car. The body was rusted, the manual trans had been rebuilt 4-5 times, and the 302 leaked oil from several places, but it still ran great.
I too change my own even though I work at a dealership. I guess I'm just too cheap and like doing it myself too much.
Just for the record, we only have one tank, we don't sell enough of the specialty oils to buy them in bulk. And we're getting screwed on them. We pay more for Mobil-1 and Delvac than what the public can buy them for at Walmart. That gets back to my earlier comment about the front end of the dealership not wanting problems in the back. We just use the GM contract supplier. Shoot, the Corvette owners are mostly clueless anyway, they expect stuff to cost too much.
You don't understand, they do this because it works. On this board we all obscess about oil and maintenance and sort of expect everyone else to, but they don't. Right now there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles out there driving millions of miles on the "wrong" oil. And they're doing quite well, thank you very much. Do ours do better? Hopefully. But oil and cars are so good now in most cases it just doesn't matter. I know, tell that to the folks with Chrysler and Toyota sludge monsters, there are exceptions.
Two perfect examples. My '01 Hyundai Accent 1.5 owner's manual calls for 10w30 or 10w40 oil. I've run either Supertech Syn 5w30, or TropArctic 5w30 in it for over 50K, it had 37K on it when I got it, it's smooth, quiet, runs like new and gets better highway MPG than it's original rating. Too bad I'm using the "wrong" oil. My brother just turned in his '89 Ford Bronco company truck (Bell Telephone, the cheapest company in the world when it comes to vehicles) with over 300K on it. The private garage he had to take it to put 5W30 in it ever since it was available, the owner of the shop went to a seminar and really believed it was best, even in his own car. The body was rusted, the manual trans had been rebuilt 4-5 times, and the 302 leaked oil from several places, but it still ran great.
I too change my own even though I work at a dealership. I guess I'm just too cheap and like doing it myself too much.
Just for the record, we only have one tank, we don't sell enough of the specialty oils to buy them in bulk. And we're getting screwed on them. We pay more for Mobil-1 and Delvac than what the public can buy them for at Walmart. That gets back to my earlier comment about the front end of the dealership not wanting problems in the back. We just use the GM contract supplier. Shoot, the Corvette owners are mostly clueless anyway, they expect stuff to cost too much.
I feel you pain. I have similar experiences. More often than not they'll over fill and put in wrong oil(viscosity). IffyLube seems not over fill as often but they eventually over filled and I took the car back and the manager had the nerve to tell me that oil level should be checked imediately after shuting off the engine. The same place charged my wife for coolant flush but I discovered 6 months later the the coolant was never changed.
I have been changing oil on the wifes Lexus (Toyota with lock washers)RX330 and been using Valvoline 5w30. Now have 85,000 on the clock and runs great. I buy the toyota oil filters on the web from a dealer for $4 each and get the oil from Wallyworld for $9.97. So, $14 versus the $59 dealer oil change aint bad.
Larkbill, If you read my origanal post you will see that we did not take it to the dealership for serviceing. It was serviced before my Mom and Da purchased it used.It was a program car "see rental car".
One more point though to rember is that 18 months or so ago when I was down sized from GM they announced some important things about Saturn! Saturn's service parts operation is going to be fully intergrated with the rest of General Motors Service Parts Operation "GMSPO". They also under the new contract with Saturn hourly employees will go to common ariture/platforms so that Saturn plants can produce other models when Saturn sales are slow. This was in liu of layoff's. So instead of laying off workers at Saturn plants when sales are down they will produce other non-saturn models. Opel is going to be the strongest influence in Saturn's future products and platforms. This was all supposed to phased in with in a 5 year time frame. This will allow them to reduce logistic costs and allow them to take advantage of their global sourceing system.
You are correct though in that traditionaly Saturn parts were not in the general Bell&Howell/Proquest parts catalog. They also were not available at any of the GMSPO warehouses either. Their entire parts network was seperate. It is also true that Saturn hourly manufactureing workers used to be seperate fromt he rest of GM but not anymore! THe next 4 years people are going to see massive changes at Saturn in terms of products.
One more point though to rember is that 18 months or so ago when I was down sized from GM they announced some important things about Saturn! Saturn's service parts operation is going to be fully intergrated with the rest of General Motors Service Parts Operation "GMSPO". They also under the new contract with Saturn hourly employees will go to common ariture/platforms so that Saturn plants can produce other models when Saturn sales are slow. This was in liu of layoff's. So instead of laying off workers at Saturn plants when sales are down they will produce other non-saturn models. Opel is going to be the strongest influence in Saturn's future products and platforms. This was all supposed to phased in with in a 5 year time frame. This will allow them to reduce logistic costs and allow them to take advantage of their global sourceing system.
You are correct though in that traditionaly Saturn parts were not in the general Bell&Howell/Proquest parts catalog. They also were not available at any of the GMSPO warehouses either. Their entire parts network was seperate. It is also true that Saturn hourly manufactureing workers used to be seperate fromt he rest of GM but not anymore! THe next 4 years people are going to see massive changes at Saturn in terms of products.
Nothing wrong with bulk Valvoline oil.
It must use 5w20....Stealerships, why does it NOT surprise me!!!!!!!!!!
We ship to GMSPO and Saturn, and from our standpoint all they did is change the system in which the parts were ordered. It actually made everything easier on the suppliers (for once!) as we didn't have to deal with two systems. I always questioned why the Saturn plants had to be different when the GMSPO system (and MGO system for that matter) was world class to begin with. Believe it or not, from my perspective as a supplier, GM has got their act together in the materials, logisitcs, and EDI department. At least compared to the other OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers that we deal with.
To remove brake dust?
You didn't say if they changed the blinker fluid. That is every bit as important.
You didn't say if they changed the blinker fluid. That is every bit as important.
I'm sure they told her they would have, but only if needed...
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