vredniykot

__________

Koma

iTrader: (3)

Maybe Jiffy Lube lied?

Technics

That's funny because the same thing happened to me a while ago but hasn't happened since. I had just changed my oil and was driving with my little niece in Brooklyn when the engine oil light comes on. I was two quarts low. Now, I realize I only put four quarts in when I should have put in five but that still doesn't explain where those other two quarts went. My car doesn't have any leaks and is usually down a quart after 4000 miles, so it doesn't burn oil excessively.

I still can't explain what happened that day.

PERRYinLA

"OK", maybe they didn't short you by a full 2 quarts, but between what they did short you, and what you burned on a 4,000 mile, all-highway trip, there's your 2 quarts.

MoogieBoogie

So extended highway driving could cause oil to burn? Is that normal or a sign of an unhealthy engine?

PERRYinLA

Wow, you sure are up late!

I've read many times, from many sources, that some oil consumption is normal. And, if all other factors are equal, clearly an engine will consume more and more oil as it wears. My previous cars all consumed oil to some degree, but it never bothered me since the engines remained healthy, passing every compression test. I've always been more interested in how much gas I've consumed!

My 1UZ-FE is pretty impressive in how little oil it uses, but it will consume a little more than normal when I leadfoot on long trips. I'll admit I can't back that up with specific measurements, but after living with the car so long, and checking the dip stick often, that's the impression I have.

vredniykot - I'm sure your engine is fine, and I'm sure you'll keep a closer eye on your dip stick in the future to verify that!

qtb33

Perhaps you have a defective dip stick.

mteele

iTrader: (5)

After all my bad experiences with Jiffy Lube, I refuse to ever go back. They have overfilled a guy's truck here at work before and really messed it up. And on my cars, they have caused my car to overheat (lost all my coolant after they did an oil change), forgot to put the oil cap back on, and stripped my drain plug.

SPORTcoupe

iTrader: (2)

I agree. After all the talk about hand washing only (versus machine wash), and avoiding small parking spaces, I don't understand how you guys can take your cars to frikkin Jiffy Lube.
Most of those guys are high school dropouts who couldn't figure out the functionality of an equal sign in an equation and you put your cars in their hands?

I'm a busy guy: I work full time and I take classes at night. I like to hang out with friends in my spare time.
But when my baby needs an oil change, I put on my dirty overalls and get to it.
It takes a maximum of 1 hours if your mechanical skills are next to none , while I can usually get it done with racking and all in under half an hour.
Do yourself a favor by not putting your car in someone else's hands, especially for something as simple as an oil change.

~Alan

CleanSC

Yes and the dip stick works at Jiffy Lube.

I'm with Alan. Jiffy Lube Monkeys are right up there with valets. No way IN HELL they are getting anywhere near touching my car. But thanks for playing.

PERRYinLA

There have been dozens of threads full of hundreds of posts on CL about oil change horror stories. Here's a couple of them: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-1st-gen-1999-2003/77639-oil-change-trustworthiness.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-1st-gen-1992-2000/48207-toyota-dealer-tried-to-upcharge-me-10-for-oil-change.html

Jiffy Lube-type places certainly can screw up, but so can a stealership. And not all of us can or want to change it ourselves.

So no matter who does your oil change, you need to check their work afterwards- starting with the oil level. I not only check my filter for tightness afterwards, I also take a felt-tip marker and draw a line over the filter at the engine block seam- that way, if the filter starts to loosen I'll notice it.

Incredibly, a Goodyear tire dealer (or Firestone- whichever I had a coupon for at the time) once changed my oil and did not tighten the drain plug afterwards! Fortunately it stayed on, and I discovered the oil drops after parking in my driveway.

SC400Dude

I will never ever go to Stiffy Lube ever again....those guys screwed up my oil pan.

Eugene,
I burn oil too, but not excessively. I think my valve cover gaskets are gone. And I get the oil light coming on a little before the 3,000 mile interval is up. I don't have the funds to fix it yet, so I add a quart of Lucas Oil Stabilizer when I change my own oil now. It seems to curb the burning affect a bit and I get a little over 3,000 miles now without the oil light coming on. Other than that, everything seems fine.....just my 2 cents dude....

SPORTcoupe

iTrader: (2)

LOL. Well when it turns out that they accidentally drained your tranny fluid and filled up with another 5 quarts of oil in your engine(trust me, they NEVER check the dipstick when they're done...they just pour in what the manual says and unrack the car), your nice little filter tightness check isn't going to do much.
Yes, I admit this is pretty unlikely, but it has happened on numerous occasions.

If you're going to go through the trouble of rechecking everything, why not just do it yourself?

Blah.

~Alan

qtb33

Even if I were to let someone drive my car at a lube shop, I don't think they have the brains to get into it(shaved handles), and if they did, I'm sure they would end up locking the keys in the car. This is why, only close friends/family with an IQ over 100 drive my car.

PERRYinLA

I dunno, SPORTcoupe- that's pretty presumptuous of you to think we all are in a position to change our own oil, and your ATF scare story is too far fetched to advance your agument. I was like that once, but fortunately my time is now worth a lot more than the $20 (or less, if I got a coupon) I pay to get my oil changed. And I've got a whole lotta company.

Get back to me in a decade or so, when you have a job, a wife, kids, and a bad back, and let's see if you spend your weekends crawling under your car to do a dirty job that millions of car owners are glad to be through with forever.

And don't forget those that live in cold climates, those with no driveways to work in, or those that don't want to deal with lugging bottles of dirty oil to a recycling facility.

On a related note, when Jiffy Lube was just starting up in the late 80's, a co-worker of mine (Bob) was talking to me about its investment potential. I had a similar attitude at that time, telling him, "why would people pay $20 when they can change it themselves for less"?

I always was a better mechanic than Bob, but he turned out to be the better investor.