Fastfwd

Has anyone here ever heard of being denied an oil change for having a dent in their oil pan? I noticed last week that my oil pan was dented when I fixed my alternator. It’s got a pretty good dent in it – the transmission pan too, but that had to have happen like over a year and a half ago when I got a big piece of metal under my car that ran the length – denting exhaust and all….. Anyway, I’ve had many oil changes since and at the place that denied to change the oil.

The service manager tried to give me some line about how the dent would displace enough oil that it would make a difference in capacity…. I mean, come on – really… how much oil could possibly be displaced by a dent that didn’t destroy the pan? I drove a Jeep for over 10 years before this car and I always had the hell dented out of my oil pan and I’ve never heard a load of crap like this before.

King7Two

plausible deniability.......
.....its a conspiracy

Boz MoN

I think they dont want to be liable for engine faliure. I had a dent in the oil pan in my Prelude and it eventually spun all of the crank bearings.

Fastfwd

I’ve never heard of anything like this… he was proclaiming that my engine required 5.1 quarts of oil and that this dent was going to cause inability for the engine to hold it’s recommended capacity. That’s just bull****… it’s been changed many, many times since this damage likely occurred. There has never been an issue of reported capacity problems. I do see a report of oil and transmission ‘damage’ on my last receipt, but they performed the service. They’ve done it many other times as well.

‘A conspiracy?’ Well, I have experienced a denial of service at this particular Wal-Mart before on another matter… So, that’s not entirely out of the question.

I’ve been searching tonight and I’m pulling up posts on Usenet about people who have used a jack on the oil pan and crushed it. Now, my dent isn’t anything like that, but I see that they mention the ‘pickup’ being pushed out of alignment when the oil pan is damaged. Now that may be an issue of concern if the dent just so happen to disturb the pickup, but the capacity of the engine oil? I just really have a hard time buying that being a legitimate concern or reason to deny service. I would be interested to hear of anyone ever experiencing being denied an oil change because of a dented oil pan.

21ce

my NA-T talon has a dent in the oil pan.... i have had no problem with it as far as oil problems....unless the oil pan dent drastically decreased the oil pan's capacity i agree that they prolly don't want to be held liable for any oil related issues....
i say just change it yourself... save yourself the headache

neurocity

iTrader: (17)

Do a @ home oil change. Either get a new or used pan from Lexus or bone yard.
Or take off your pan (get a new gasket) clean it...get a rubber mallet and bang the dent back out on a block of wood. If it got dented, you can un-dent it.

Then go back to the oil change, tell the manager to "insert his head somewhere" grab the brake drop into drive...do a nice smokey burn out and fire off "hand rocket number three" at him!!!

ahh make sure the opposite doors are still open!!!

Fastfwd

Thanks for the support. I honestly do think the dude was just jerking my chain. I did indeed let him know of my disgust with his attitude. I called the district manager’s office as well and I should hear from a regional service manager. I would like to hear if there has been any change of the ‘rules’ on performing an oil change… since I’m looking at a receipt from Sept. of ’05 that lists this damage and Wal-Mart has performed at least one of the oil changes since then.

Preceding this ordeal I asked about having a wheel rebalanced under the lifetime balance that I had purchased. I raised concern that they were gentle with the wheel and lugs… and I hate to admit this, but I had a one broken stud already – which was probably due to these same guys either over torquing or getting a lug on crooked. Anyway, this service manager went off on how they couldn’t do it because it had a broken stud and a wheel lock that couldn’t be tourqed and they had to be able to torque at least 4 of 5 lugs. So, I said to the kid taking my info… ‘ok, so, how about I take off the wheel lock and stick a lug from another wheel on there… can ya do it then?’ The kid got flustered like I was about to undermine the almighty service manager ---- by actually coming up with a reasonable work around. He said something to the effect of how the service manager had already seen it and he might deny service all together. He went to ask and came back saying that they would do it for me, but I had to deal with the other wheel or some crap…. Good enough. Apparently the a**hole service manager was pissed about it or something else and he nixed the whole oil change over this lame dent in the oil pan excuse.

From what I’m reading on Usenet regarding oil pan dents…. If it’s not interfering with any moving parts and it appears that oil is circulating normally… it’s recommended to just leave it alone. That may just be some kook’s advice, but it sounds good to me. I hate to think that I have compromised my oil circulation, but I just don’t think that’s happening. I sure have no concern for a diminished oil capacity… that sounds retarded to me.

neurocity

iTrader: (17)

Dude.....go to another place to get your car fixed.
If the guy's a jerk and is pissy you DO NOT want him or his trolls working on your car.

Take car of the dent yourself. So this problem never arises again, and the off chance the dent does have something to do with engine damage down the road.

Also it wouldn't hurt to get Gay Mens magazines sent to the shop in that managers name.
(I'm a total fire starter, I know!!!)

Best "o" Luck to ya!!!

Fastfwd

Oh, I don’t plan to have them do the service, but I would like to hear a supervisor tell me that his call was legitimate. I seriously doubt that they get that tight a** about the average Wal-Mart oil change customer. No way…. This was personal.

It could have even stemmed from me complaining about the poor kids who mounted my tires on my brand new wheels…. I wasn’t upset with the guys that did it, but I did get some manager there to review the damage to the wheels. They used the claws on the inside of my alloy wheels and gouged them… making me worry if it was going to cause peeling of any coating down the road. (They didn’t know how to use the wheel machine on alloys)….

I will keep an oil pan repair in mind… not because of reduced capacity, but in case there is some pickup interference. Like I’m going to know if I crack it open. That sounds like a job that could get me into trouble.

simonsays

hahahha
hey fastfwd, dont ever go to a walmart tire and lube center to get a car like urs done ever again.
as a matter of fact, i work at a walmart tire and lube center right now, and yeah, we try to avoid as much trouble as we can. i know that the dent wouldnt cause any damage or some bull**** that the service manager said, but u know its walmart, they want to keep as much trouble away from them as possible. and the oil change, its not that great. we drain it for like 10 minutes, and all the oil doesnt come out. and the tires. most of the workers there dont know anything about cars, so they start at somewhere like walmart. just dont go to walmart to change anything on ur car again. but do bring ur mom's minivan or ur work truck for us to work on so we, workers, can at least get paid for doing something.

Fastfwd

I went to the Wal-Mart in an adjacent city and got it done without an issue. I luv my car and I do wish the best for it, but probably anywhere that I’m going to take it isn’t going to take a great deal more care in changing the oil. Wal-Mart is the only place that carries Mystic brand oil… and I like it for some reason.

I suppose that I should purchase a floor jack and try to take on oil changes myself, but for most of the year the weather is not convenient for that around here. It’s either hot as hell or cold as a mother ______.

Thanks for the heads up. I hate to insist, but I do believe that there are workers at this local store that just have an issue with me.

TMaxxTim

Not ******* you or anything, but I think there are much better places to take a car to get serviced than Wal-Mart for the same price or little more. All I've heard is horror stories abotu scratched rims when putting new tires on, crappy service and no follow-up to problems they cause. They probably also use that cheapo oil they sell in the blue plastic bottles (super-tech?). Thats the stuff I put in my accord that burned about a quart of oil every week.

AME_VIP

iTrader: (2)

Lexus and Wal-Mart should never be in the same sentence. (except now ha)

TMaxxTim

The fact of the matter is that in order to offer services at such a low cost, something has to be sacraficed, and thats usually in the wages of the employees, and the quality of the products used (oil, air filters, tires although we usually know if its a good tire or not, etc.), thus wal-mart can't hire somebody with as much experience/knowledge/certification as somebody else. They're also in there to get you in and out quickly, therefore there might not be as much caution and care as if you took it somewhere else.

Small places want to do quality work so you keep coming back, wal-mart wants you back, but they're not going to bend-over backwards for somebody like a small shop would.

Inabj2

Ill still have them mount and balance my tires though...

But I make my presence known.