Why I Ceased Having My Engine Oil Changed by the Dealer

SoCal 370Z

I believe that MiniCobra1 is using Royal Purple. You might want to contact him about his thoughts on it.

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K20A2_S

that's why only my personal friends who work at dealerships(one Honda, one Toyota) touch my car..........even if I have to drive farther, or wait longer........

spearfish25

During my first oil change at 1000 miles, I was talking to the mechanic and standing under the car the entire time. Apparently my Nissan dealer doesn't care a bit.

AK370Z

Most shop in NJ won't allow customer in the work area due to "Insurance reason". Their (dealers/shops) insurance only covers their employees in case of an accident (i.e. lift failure/accident etc). My previous Nissan dealer had a glass window that I can see. This new one, got solid wall . I can't even see anything

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Demon Z

Same here. I don't care whether they mind me breathing down their neck. It's that important.

OnCallZ

I've had a bmw dealership do a brake job on my 6 series (just replacing rotors and pads), long story short I get my car back the pedal is so mushy the brakes barely had any grip and brake fluid WAS all over the engine bay. Long story short, the dealership was at the closing hours. I left the car with them while they gave me an m3 with 300 miles, I put on 600 miles in a day, they didn't say anything.

m4a1mustang

I would hate to buy a car from a dealer and fear taking it in for service. It's nice to have a little faith that the dealer's service department will take care of you when you bring your car in for work.

I don't worry about oil changes because a) an untrained monkey can change oil and a filter, b) my dealer confirmed that they use Nissan's recommended ester oil on these cars, and c) I get free service for a year.

After that I will consider doing the work on my own simply because I enjoy it... but I never fear that they are going to treat my car like crap while they throw their poo at each other.

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>135I

Personally I just enjoy working on my car. So I will do most of the work to it, unless I do not have the tech know-how.

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wstar

Ditto. Half the fun of owning this car, to me, is doing the mods myself when at all possible. It really adds to the driving experience in my opinion too. You really get to know the car better when your own two hands turned the bolts on it and you've dug around inside it yourself. When I hear or feel something funny on the road, it's really easy for me to picture what's going on with the car, because I've seen it all up close.

I really recommend anyone who cares about their car(s) to at least learn to do basic maintenance tasks themselves, even if they don't feel particularly skilled, inclined, or full of enough free time to do the other stuff.

As for the whole shop insurance thing: there are lots of shops around here like that. Mostly it's the franchise chain places that are the worst about trying to ban all customers from the garage area. But if you dig around, you'll find independent shops that are fine with you being in the garage the whole time under the lift with them, pointing out what you know about the car and what you need done. Just don't hover over the dude's shoulder while he's working, people hate that Explain the situation, agree on the work to be done, and then hang back and observe from a little more distance.

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Zboi513

^ I agree

vReath

definitely agree with you SoCal. i used to work at a Honda dealership as a porter and i would just watch the lube tech guys work sometimes. a lot of them just half-a** the work. ever since i quit a year ago, i've been back to visit and some oil changes. the oil, i buy myself and let them do it-i know them so they use what i buy. but one of my friends in parts told me lube tech has been in a lot of crap for messing ppl's cars. worst story he told me, they forgot to put the oil and you can guess what happened.

HEK

One thing I hate about "dealer's/ franchises" doing the oil change is the time it takes to do. Personally I do all the maintenance on my TL and JK, oil changes should take at least a 1/2 hour to drain the pan and not put the drain plug back once the stream of oil is still visible.
I let my cars drain for at least an hour ( crazy but I get an extra pint in the pan ) and I don't use a oil filter wrench, just hand tight.
I'm not sure about the Z's engine and the oil required but I use either Mobil 1 or Castrol Syntech which ever is on sale and I buy a few 5 qt. jugs at a time.

shabarivas

hehe you mean few and far between

nogoodname

you got to keep an eye on ur car while at the dealership, anything bizarre can happen.
like a mysterious hole in the muffler.....lol....happened to my dad....wow, did he ever get so pissed off.

semtex

It's not just dealerships either. Several years ago when I got my 350, I went and bought a new set of wheels from Discount Tire. The car only had 500 miles on it. They ordered the wrong offsets for the fronts, so I had to return a couple of days later when the correct front wheels came in. Seeing how they only had to lift the front instead of the whole car, two of their guys just slid service jacks under the car (one on each side). They didn't bother to make sure they were on proper jack points and just jacked the car up. Well, they jacked it up alright. When I got the car back, I got in and I was like what the hell??? There were these two big humps right in the middle of the floor mats on each side. Their service jacks had indented the floor of the car! I was SO freakin' pissed!!! Did I mention my car only had 500 miles on it at that point? So now anytime I need something done with tires, guess what I do? I take the wheels off, load them up in the wife's Murano, and drive them over to the tire shop then remount them myself when I get them home. It's sad how some people just lack any sense of professionalism and just 'wing it'.

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