Can I just get an oil change?

[eminenz2]

What to do? I've read many places that when you take your car in for its regular maintenance, all you should need to do is follow the owner's manual.

However, when I was taking it to the dealer, they would always find other things to fix and instead of paying for just an oil change (or whatever the maintenance schedule said) I would wind up spending more than $300 each trip.

Now I'm no cheapa$$, and I do what I need to do to keep my truck in good working order, but it seemed it was getting a bit much. So, on a recommendation, I took the car to a independent repair shop. Well, the same thing has been happening. Once I asked, "Why am I paying for all this when the manual says all it needs is an oil change and tire rotation?" The answer was because Ford always has updates their maintenance schedule so we also check those things in your vehicle to make sure things are running fine." Well, apparently things are never running fine because once again I'm spending well over $200-$300 each visit to the repair shop.

Once they even implied that I'm not bringing in my truck often enough. The manual says bring it in every 5000 miles and they said I should be bringing it in every 3000 miles and that anything that is going wrong could be because it not being serviced often enough.

??????

Needless to say I'm not interested in going back to this repair shop.

Any gearheads out in Catheland that can speak to this? Who can you trust? My dad says just do what the manual says, but then who knows?

I own a 2002 Ford 4WD Ranger XLT, just to let you know what kind of vehicle I'm talking about.

Comments and advice appreciated and thanks for reading this!

Susan L.G.

 

[allwildgirl]

I have a Saturn and the same thing was happening at the dealer. They were always finding things (expensive things) that had to be done. The last time they pulled that on me, I told them not to do the repair and got a recommendation from a friend for a good mechanic who has his own small shop. I took it to him, and he told me that the struts that the dealer said needed replacing were fine. Two years later they're STILL fine.

Can you get a recommendation for a mechanic from someone? I know nothing about cars and I'm sure the dealer took advantage of that.

 

[materialsgirl]

This is why we do our own oil changes at home. It's not hard, and not time-consuming. If you can't find a shop you trust, then you're probably better off learning to do it yourself. You can also rotate your own tires, but it's a bit more technical because different cars have different tire rotation patterns.

DH and I take our cars to the dealer for the big maintenance intervals (every 30,000 miles, or whatever the big interval may be), but otherwise, do our own maintenance at home. It's like "they" always say... if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself!

 

[sue320]

I'm not exactly a gearhead but I am up right now so I'll chime in. We drive a 2004 Yukon XL and I take it in every 3000 miles. We do city driving (although it's a big driving month if we hit 1000 miles in a month) and because of that, I take it in every 3000 miles.

That's pretty much the best input I can give but I can say it seems very hard to find an honest mechanic. I have been taking our truck to a national chain (pretty much because I don't know where else to take it and someone had said they had good service from this place) but when they tell me I need to consider replacing my battery (it's not even a year old) and need to replace my air filter (changed 3000 miles ago) then I begin to wonder about their honesty.

When we lived in Georgia I had the BEST mechanic. I'll even call him once in a while if I question the maintenance being suggested and get his input.

Good luck...I hope you get it figured out!

S. <><

 

[Liz66]

Hey, Susan!

I hate this SO much... first off, do you have a place like Jiffy Lube that only does oil changes? They try and sell you some extras, but not on the scale of the dealership. If not, you may try taking the car to a gas station that has a mechanic and ask them to do the oil change. (Or maybe a nice neighbor can show you how to do it - it isn't hard.) If you must go to the dealer, tell them that you are authorizing them to change the oil ONLY and that you must be consulted on anything extra prior to the service. You could make a note of that on the paper you sign when you drop the car off.

I wonder if there is a book out there that helps us women deal with this issue - I know there's a new one on dealing with contractors/home repair...

Good luck, girl!
Liz

 

[eminenz2]

Here are my two experiences with Jiffy Lube, back when I had my Toyota Corolla:

The first time they changed my oil, they forgot to put the cap back on the engine and by the time I got home the car was smoking from underneath the hood. I lifted the hood only to find oil had been sprayed all over the entire interior of the hood and over the entire engine.

The second time I took my car to Jiffy Lube, they tightened the screw so hard on the oil pan, they stripped it and oil leaked all over my driveway. I nearly burnt out the engine because there was no oil in the car.

I would rather have a team of chimpanzees service my car than Jiffy Lube.

 

[colleen1]

Dare I say, Wal-Mart, I've never had a problem. I have a 2001 Dodge Durango. If my bf has time from driving truck he sometimes changes it also.

colleen

 

[berry99]

Ugh, don't get me started on dealers and how they gouge you. We used to do Jiffy Lube, but they really screwed up our car so now we take it to the dealer for oil changes. We brought our VW to the dealer for an oil change and tire rotation and they told us we needed front and rear brakes for a total of $950. Ha, yeah right. I told them to not touch them and we took it to a brake place. They said the front brakes looked brand new so they didn't need anything at all. Also, the back pads needed replacing and it cost $150. I am not going back to the dealer so now we are trying to find somewhere else to take it.