Bad oil change story

[Eff-1]

Remember this one next time you consider taking your car to Mr Lube or similar type places.

1. Employee cuts hole in transmission aero pan and drains DSG fluid.
2. Tech tries to put in motor oil and it overflows all over the engine because no engine oil was ever removed.
3. Tech and manager were going to let me drive on my way with no DSG fluid and massively overfilled engine oil in which case id likely be out an engine and transmission.

The owner was lucky he has the knowledge to address the situation as it was happening.

Just another reason not to take your S4 to an instant oil change shop....

[BoostedBB6]

What I don't get is why people with very expensive and rather specialized cars are willing to go to a quick lube place with minimum wage employees that know how to change oil on low budget, high mileage beaters.

Really not a lessoned learned, the owner is an idiot for taking a 2015 S4 to a quick lube place and expecting anything better than what he got. If you can afford a new S4 you can afford to service it properly.

[underscore]

This guy thought bringing a new, fairly uncommon vehicle into a quick change place was going to be a good idea?

I'm thinking, "Hmmm, I hope they know to slide the aero belly pan to the rear to let it drop down instead of pulling on it."

Of course they won't know that, it was still very stupid of the tech to cut into things but what kind of person assumes that the guys at a quick change place would have any sort of familiarity with a brand new S4?

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by BoostedBB6

What I don't get is why people with very expensive and rather specialized cars are willing to go to a quick lube place with minimum wage employees that know how to change oil on low budget, high mileage beaters.

Really not a lessoned learned, the owner is an idiot for taking a 2015 S4 to a quick lube place and expecting anything better than what he got. If you can afford a new S4 you can afford to service it properly.

Not like taking a GT3 to a higher end shop ended that much differently.

[belka]

Originally Posted by BoostedBB6

Really not a lessoned learned, the owner is an idiot for taking a 2015 S4 to a quick lube place and expecting anything better than what he got. If you can afford a new S4 you can afford to service it properly.

Sometimes life gets in the way. Then again I would have never taken my E90 M3 into my one myself. There is no way they would have found the drain plugs. Still though, what kind of idiot thinks that for a simple oil change you need to cut something in a car.

[yray]

I thought audi services are free for first 4 years

[BoostedBB6]

Originally Posted by belka

Sometimes life gets in the way. Then again I would have never taken my E90 M3 into my one myself. There is no way they would have found the drain plugs. Still though, what kind of idiot thinks that for a simple oil change you need to cut something in a car.

I can appreciate that, but it clear that the owner is not far from a dealer, nor would driving another few kms to get the service done properly. I see this so often its not funny.

If you can afford a high end luxury car you can afford to service it properly, and the OP was not ignorant to what was needed to be done to service it properly as he had details on how to move the undertray rather than remove.

With someone who is prepared with that kind of knowledge who goes to a quick lube I have no remorse for. They knew the car required special consideration and yet brought it to a place that is only concerned with low price and speed.....he got what he paid for IMO. You want a car to be taken care of properly that isnt a generic model vehicle, take it to a shop that knows what there doing. May cost more but frankly, if you cant afford to service the car properly, you cant afford the car.

[Eff-1]

The owner admitted he was taking a chance, but let's face it, the real idiots are the employees who:

CUT into a panel
Didn't know which plug is for the oil
Manager is told about making sure the fasteners are put back in place, and still doesn't.

All 3 things are 1000x worse than what the owner did, which was take his car to a business that advertises itself as being competent to do the job.

(for the record, i'd never take an expensive car to those places either).

[BoostedBB6]

Originally Posted by Eff-1

The owner admitted he was taking a chance, but let's face it, the real idiots are the employees who:

CUT into a panel
Didn't know which plug is for the oil
Manager is told about making sure the fasteners are put back in place, and still doesn't.

All 3 things are 1000x worse than what the owner did, which was take his car to a business that advertises itself as being competent to do the job.

(for the record, i'd never take an expensive car to those places either).

No question there and frankly I would never take a cheap car there either. There all hacks and its common practice for them to cut under trays to access filters....I see them daily and there $500+ for that piece of plastic....You are ALWAYS better off going to a proper repair shop to get an oil change done rather than a quick lube. It may cost a little more, but if they mess up the $500+ to fix there screw up sure offsets the savings :P

[GLOW]

i went to a mr lube once when i was young...never again...this was the one off of main/1st

[SumAznGuy]

Honestly, it's not like Mr. Lube is that cheap.
I think they were like $80 for a regular basic oil change and more if you get the fake synthetic oil.
Wife's co-worker goes there and showed us the bill her husband had for a "synthetic" oil change $120 plus tax and shop supplies.

[heleu]

I have to admit, I still take my beater to the cheap oil change places from time to time.

However, my mechanic has told me that he has found in the past:

1. Drain plug was hand tightened.
2. oil was completely black after < 1000 km. He suspects they just filled using old oil.

I think I'm going to stop going to Mr. Lube...

[teggy604]

there was a CBC investigation on one oil change place scamming people in Ontario Canada a while back. For one thing techs at these places are mostly not journeymen ticketed. I don't even think they went to automotive school.

[trollguy]

would you expect someone with a ticket to be changing fluids only? that's all they do at mr lube no?

[boostfever]

Originally Posted by yray

I thought audi services are free for first 4 years

I recall that one too, but it might be a Canadian thing.

[Mr.Money]

wouldn't take my car there ever....i recall hearing horror storys of half emptying the oil and filling up the other half with fresh oil and calling it done.
make sure they wipe down the outside of your old oil filter with paper towl so it looks brand new again wheres my 80 dollars?...done in 8 minutes..Next.

oh they complain about dark oil already?..Come back in,there must be sludge in your engine...80 again please,but this time all new oil.

[thebrownboy]

I don't get why he wouldn't just book a service at his dealership? They would more than likely give him a courtesy car and it wouldn't take that much to go drop it off and pick it up

[The_AK]

"Did you want flush? I highly recommend getting a flush done."

[Gucci Mane]

i used work at mr.lube.. its actually not as bad as you guys think. granted there is the occasional dumb ass that will fuck something up, like pump coolant into your windshield washer reservoir by accident. but they dont use old oil like someone said and they always drain all the old oil out and only fill with new.. dont believe everything you hear from others. i always made sure people's services were done correctly and the most i ever did was sell them something they didn't need till later ie. airfilter or engine flush.

theres also ton's of stories out there from people with bad experiences from dealerships. like that one guy on here with the porsche 911.

Originally Posted by The_AK

"Did you want flush? I highly recommend getting a flush done."

i sold bottles of those engine flushes like hot cakes. lol.

[The_AK]

Let me guess, you looked at the oil and said "look how dirty it is" hahah

[underscore]

Originally Posted by heleu

2. oil was completely black after < 1000 km. He suspects they just filled using old oil.

I have to question this story based on two things, the first being that the colour of the fluid doesn't really mean much, the second being that many people are clueless about how much they drive (so they think the change was more recent than it really is) or they lie to the oil change shop to get free top ups for longer so comparing the cluster to the sticker isn't accurate.

[Hondaracer]

Drive over the recommended milage instead of bringing it there ..

[MarkyMark]

I used to go there when I was younger more for the convenience factor, but these days I take my truck to the dealership because its the same price and they rotate my tires.

[StanleyR]

This happens more often than one can imagine.

This is what happens when ppl buy cars they can't afford to maintain.

[SpartanAir]

The guys on that Audi forum were pretty nice to him ie. didn't flame him much. Pretty sure if that happened on RS he woulda been flamed much worse. Rightly so, his cheap ass paid the price and he learned a hard lesson.

I'm assuming Audi warranty doesn't cover oil changes, which is why he thought he could cheap out. If they don't, no need to go the stealership, but at least go to an Audi specialist.