27,824 miles on oil change

[yellowxj]

Just have to share...I own a little used car lot in Florida...sell pretty good cheap little get around cars... just repossesed at honda from a lady...only owed about $400 on the car but refused to pay it off...when I recovered the car it would barely run. I checked the oil (I mark all of the oil filters I put on cars).
The date on the oil filter is 6-22-02. She put 27,824 miles on the car and never changed the oil. Discount auto parts brand motor oil, for cheap oil that stuff works great. The previous record was 18,000 on a v-6 cutlass, it developed a rod knock and the person paying on the car demanded that I put a new motor in it for him since the motor had not lasted the length of the note. Some people just dont deserve a car. Had to share/rant. Thanks T.

[Ralph]

I think, basic auto maintenance should be part of the drivers licensing test. A well maintained vehicle is a requirement for basic safety.

RR3

[2offroad]

my wife thinks all a car needs is gas, if it will go it's OK.
i was working in a garage years ago aand more than once i had people bring cars in for repair, "runs rough or not at all and brakes are bad give them a price for repair. they said make it run don't fix the brakes.
:doh::dunno::scared:

[Ralph]

A couple of months ago, I heard my mother-in-law's minivan running. Sounded like hell. Her oil pressure gauge was reading way low. It took 3 quarts of oil. It takes 4 1/2 quarts total. She told me she didn't check it because the gauge wasn't on empty yet. :doh:

RR3

[Woody at work]

MY step daughter was griping about her Celica GT not running well...I pulled the stick and it wouldn't register. about 1.5 qt oozed out when I drained it off. LOL also spotted where her industrious boyfriend had cut the tube between the airfilter and the TB

:D Morons...

[Georgia Mike]

I've got you ALL beat!!

My uncle used to work at a service station in Myrtle Beach. One day a guy pulls up in a ratty old slant-6 Duster which appeared to have one foot in the grave and the other precariously dangling over the edge of it. Smoke billowing out of the back of it,he paid it no mind. Kind of like it was supposed to be that way. The guy shuts it down (thankfully) and hops out,struts up to my uncle and asks him will he sell him some used motor oil,as he HAS to get to Florida! My uncle told the guy he wouldn't sell it to him,but he'd give him all he needed. This made the guy fairly happy. They went over to the car,he pops the hood,and my uncle almost falls over at the site! There was a hole in the side of the block big enough to stick three or four fingers through,! :scared: The best part was the big wad of aluminum foil he had stuffed in the hole to help slow down the oil loss :) The guy said it had slung a rod a while back,and the piston was still lodged in the block,so he had dropped the pan,removed the remnents of the rod and buttoned it back up! My uncle gave him some more oil and sent the guy on his way! I don't know if that's ingenuity,as far as doing what you ABSOLUTELY have to do,or just plain ol' stupid. Doesn't matter. Never saw the guy again anyway. :laugh:

[woody]

We had a honda-smash at one of our Harley parties... someone donated an old CB350 that ran but was ratty as can be.

It started out as a buck a chance, and we logged down how long one thought it would run at WOT. Well it wouldn't die. (and to a Harley person, listening to a Honda twin at WOT for 15 minutes is worse than pulling 6 months in the county lockup.)

Finally someone payed enough $$ and we turned over the sledgehammer. One good whack to the cam-cover and it expired.

What fun

[yellowxj]

We ran a subaru brat WOT at my friends salvage yard when I was in college. First we boonie crashed it till we crashed in to a wrecked volvo. Note: Brats are well balanced and launch and land flat. Then we took a old axle shaft and jammed it wide open. Later we smashed the radiator to help it die. Cherry red exhaust manifolds after 5 minutes. After 10 min with no coolant wide open we took pity on it and took the axle shaft off the gas. It still idled great. Although when you revved it up sparks shot out the exhaust. Tough subaru.

People who dont know about cars are how I make my living. I dont wish any one bad luck and am proud that my cars last a long time. I dont know how some of them do it. I understand not knowing about cars, its a matter of economics. If you make enough money you dont have to know what makes it run. If you dont make enough money you should know what makes it run, cause you need to fix it your self. Most of the time your life doesnt depend on your car running. Atleast here in Florida. I have some german friends who were surprised that there seem to be no new cars in America with vinyl seats or flooring. It seems over there you buy cars based on what you can afford not what you wish you can afford. They were surprised about the gas station clerks with gold teeth and nail too. Its America.

[Eagle]

I can't beat the guy with the hole in the block, but as for the record on no oil changes, I have a contender. In the late 80s I worked for a company that provided company cars for technical personnel who spent a lot of time out of the office. Boss liked Oldsmobiles and there was a dealer right down the street, so ALL the cars were Oldsmobiles from this dealer -- most were Cierras, although I held out for the one that was smaller so I could get a 5-speed. One of our field personnel was a young woman structural engineer. When she had been with us for two or three years, she accepted a job as town engineer in her home town and left the company. When she turned in her car keys, the boss sent the car to the dealership to be checked over before it was assigned to someone else.

Around noon we got a call from the service manager at the dealership.

"Hello, John?"

"Yes."

"This is Carmen from Ekblade. Uhm, John, I thought you had all the service done on your cars here."

"I do. Why?"

"Well, because that Cierra you just sent over to be checked out? Our records don't show that it was ever here for service."

Well, you guessed it, the lady never changed the oil, had anything lubed, or did anything other than buy gas and check the dipstick (or maybe she just waited for the idjit light to come on). She drove that poor car for 80,000 miles, and when they checked under the hood they found it still had the original factory oil filter on it.

[yellowxj]

:twak:
Bad person. NO CAR FOR YOU !!!

[Boz88xj]

Originally posted by Eagle
.... and when they checked under the hood they found it still had the original factory oil filter on it.

Whats an oil filter? :confused:

[Cliffy]

I had one of those Dusters with the slant 6. It faithfully consumed a quart of oil every 1000 miles in the latter stages of its 18 year life.
Sold it to a guy in 1992 for $500 who was fully informed about its oil appetite, but chose not to feed it. Maybe that was him on the way to Floriday?
Probably not, it's Baby, Powder Blue paint job still shone like the day it drove off the showroom (probably the most durable paint job I've ever seen on a vehicle).

[Fergie]

Originally posted by 2offroad
my wife thinks all a car needs is gas, if it will go it's OK.
i was working in a garage years ago aand more than once i had people bring cars in for repair, "runs rough or not at all and brakes are bad give them a price for repair. they said make it run don't fix the brakes.
:doh::dunno::scared:

Gee sounds like my mother, and girlfriend too. My dad just gives me the eyes in the back of the head look when either of them start talking vehicles.

[Moto]

Ive got a good one, I dunno how long it was since these people had an oil change in thier 87 s10 blazer but they complained that it was leeking oil, and sure enough I check it out and the oil filter had actually rusted and rotted so much that oil was leeking out of it.

[satan]

Had a call one morning from a regular -- her VW rabbit (I did mention, regular right?) wouldn't stay running. Had to tow it. Got it to the shop - noticed that the filter wasn't ours (she'd been 2-timing)...

... No starts were at the high-end of the riority list and I was busy so it went to a buddy about 3-bays off... I see him running the usualy crank, fuel, ignition stuff and occaisionaly hear that lil'VW kick for a bit before flaming-out... Compression was doing well, fuel and spark all seemed good, etc...

Finally the guy comes over to talk about the car (since I saw it most recently and more often) - nothing came to mind, but being a VW I remember the owner having siezed it once because "the EGR light was on again" (except that time it was the oil light), so I'd always asked, kinda as a joke, to be sure that they'd checked their oil...


This goes on, I got suckered ito about 30-minutes of "wonder what" with this guy till we finiallythought to check the dipstick (never know what you'll find) --

it was full - really. Apparently the owner was so afraid of a new motor that she got in the habit of adding a quart every now and then -- She must'a been really nervous cause it was just palin full -- we dropped the oil into a catch so I couldn't measure total volume, but after draining and filling to the correct level - the thing puffed and ran fine...

To this day, I'll bet that there was enough oil in that to have standing oil under the valve cover...

[Andy in Pa.]

I have one similar to that too. My cousin, with the help of another cousin, changed the oil in his 85 Mustang 4Cyl. He asked his dad how much oil he should put back in after draining it. His dad told him to fill it until it shows full on the dipstick. He did not know what or where the "dipstick" was (and had too much pride to ask, he's not the brightest bulb in the tree if you know what I mean) and filled it until he could see the level inside the valve cover. That engine held (BARELY!!) 11 qts of oil. we called him smokescreen for quite a while after that episode. He drained the oil down to the right level and the car ran fine for another few years.

A.

[Georgia Mike]

Originally posted by satan


Apparently the owner was so afraid of a new motor that she got in the habit of adding a quart every now and then --

She must have been one of them "Check the gas and fill it with oil" type folks,eh? :laugh:

[WilliesTJ]

i do one on my trk bout every 11,000 miles

[G.B. 98 XJ]

I was at the Jeep dealer 1 day and they had a grand cherokee with 40k with the factory filter on it. It spun all the berings.

[Boatwrench]

My first car (66 Dart) had a slant six, my dad gave it to me when I joined the Coast Guard and went to the east coast in 1975, it had 97K miles I gave it back in 1978 after putting on an additional 125K miles and he drove it until he retired in 1989. Great car, couldn't keep it in brakes or starters, but couldn't kill it either.

When I was down on my luck I used engine oil out of my wifes p/u for my old beater (66 Malibu), it ran fine for tens of thousands of miles, can't remember if I ever changed the filter.

Now, the oil gets changed in the XJ faithfully whenever the rockers rattle ;-) or three thousand miles whichever occurs first.

[sidriptide]

i worked at a ford dealer for a while back in the 80's and one day we had a big F350 dually crew cab come in on a roll back.. it was owned by a girl who had a bunch of horses and spent all her time travelling half the country with a long 5th wheel trailer.. i cant remember the milage but i do remember the state trooper showing up about 30 mins later with two milk crates full or chunks or the grenaded 460 block..... i remember the look on our service managers face when he got off the phone with the girl who owned it about a warranty claim..... i think the exact quote was..... " but didnt oil come in it from the factory???"

[JJ13]

LOL, slant six Dodge...a friend of mine (20 years older than me) always tells me the same story about a dodge they bought in Portland (60 miles away) for 50 dollars when they were there screwing around. I don't recall the model of the car, but it had a slant six. They bought the car drained the oil and hit I-5 to drive home to Longview. When they got about 10 miles from Longview (doing 70-80 mph the whole way) they downshifted and ran the thing at really high R's in an attempt to blow it up...no good. They made the 60 mile journey with no oil in the car doing there best to blow it up. He said it got hotter than hell but kept running. When they finally shut it off it wouldn't turn over again. I don't know if the slant six was that good of an engine or if they just got lucky (slant six is before my time). Anyway I know there aren't any present day engines that would stand up to that kind of abuse. :D

[kastein]

Waking this thread up from its grave because it's pretty funny...

In high school I worked for Valvoline Instant Oil Change. We usually saw the normal idiots who wouldn't change their oil for ten thousand miles etc... but the one that really took the cake was the guy who drove in with some ratty old sedan one day. I drained the oil out, I had to use a screwdriver to punch a hole in the layer of sludge after pulling the drain plug out. It came out thick and chunky like soup, completely opaque even on a white rubber glove. I took one look at it and talked to the guy, said I was going to run a few quarts of oil through it for free to just flush some of that gunk out (I learned that doing this cost us something like two bucks, and usually made a customer for life) - he thanked me and I did it. Filled it back up, did our standard test of turning it over and revving it up to make sure there weren't any leaks, showed him the dipstick afterwards - new oil was already opaque. He accused me of not actually changing the oil, but when I told him that I did he called his wife, who owned the car...

"honey when did you last change the oil in your car?"
"oil?"

it'd been four years since the oil had been changed. He apologized, we laughed about it, flushed a few more quarts through it and sent him on his way... he came back every 3 months for the next year and a half that I worked there.

[5-90]

IHC DT466 w/Caterpillar 3208 Diesel engine. We got called out because "the engine had just quit."

The driver wasn't there - he'd hitched back to the yard.

I pulled the dipstick while my boss pulled the radiator cap. He went back to the truck for his flashlight, while I was busy trying to get a reading on the 'stick (it was both dead dry and blue. The significance of that didn't hit striaght away.)

It was spec'd for something like four and a half gallons of coolant - and he put in four. It had a twenty-four quart sump, and I put in twenty-one.

I finally realised what that awful smell coming from the oil filler cap was - ever "oil harden" a part by heating it red and dunking it in oil?

Yeah. After the truck had been sitting for an hour, it was still hot enough to oil harden!

We ended up changing the engine in the truck. I found out the driver got reassed to pushing an idiot stick around the yard (the yard boss was a creative fella. An "idiot stick" is a stick with a shovel blade or a broom head on one end and an idiot on the other...) and the former driver was getting docked on his paycheque for letting the truck go like that.

In that outfit, drivers were assigned to trucks. They had to sign off on operator checks every day. We did not find any leaks when we topped off the oil and coolant in that truck!

When I took that engine core in, I asked them to put it on a stand and flip it over (they were going to anyhow, but I wanted to see it.)

The crankshaft? Cobalt blue - probably the prettiest shade you ever saw.
The block and main caps? Not quite as blue as the crank, but close.
Even the sump was blue!

I think the final bill was something like eight grand for the engine, three for the labour, and another fifteen hundred for the core charge they wouldn't get back (the best thing to do with that engine was melt it down and recast it...)

And, the driver got his pay cut in the first place when he got knocked down to pushing an idiot stick...

[WebDog]

I just went 10,000 miles and 9 months on my XJ with out changing the oil.

I am using 5 quarts of Valvoline 20w50 racing oil and 1 quart of Lucas Heavy Duty oil stabilizer.

The oil came out looking like it only had 3k miles on it.

I probably wont go as long this time but i know it will work for longer then 3k.

[RTicUL8]

Now you guys have me worried.
I've GOT to call my mom - TODAY!



My stepfather died last December.
Mom bought a new car in March.

He had always taken care of the cars.



I hope she's been taking it in for service... :eek:

.

[GSequoia]

I just went 10,000 miles and 9 months on my XJ with out changing the oil.

I've hit 9 - 10k oil a few times. I'm better about it now that I live with my garage but I'm still about 1,000 miles behind on an oil change for the red Jeep..


I try to swap oil at 7,000 - 7,500.

[wolfpackjeeper]

When I worked for Advance Auto We saw this crap all the time.

I watched a guy fill the crank case with 85-140 because "These old ford motors love thick oil that wont leak out".

That poor van died for good about 800 yards from the parking lot.

[Coastie]

Last year when I was stationed in California, I was leaving my girlfriend at the time's house and a older lady was crying outside of her car. It was a late 80's Bonneville. I asked her if there was anything I could do and she said she needed to get to Nevada but her car was running funny. So I took a look at it and it had ZERO oil in and and hardly any coolant. I asked her how long she had owned the car and when the last time she serviced it, her response was "I've owned it for about 7 years and never knew you had to change the oil"

Being the guy I am I took her to get some oil and coolant but still suggested she didn't attempt the trip to Nevada.

After filling her up she took off and didn't even say thank you.

[themangeraaad]

My brother goes to college up in Maine (we are from MA). Parents got him an Ford expedition because
A) they didnt want to make the drive up to northern maine multiple times each year
and
B) My brother is pretty much going to school for wilderness survival, so he camps alot and needed a vehicle to transport his gear

Well he had the vehicle for half the summer and all through school until Xmas break when we all got back. I was doing an oil change on the XJ (probably about 4500 miles) and my buddy did one on his mustang, so we asked when the last time my brother did one was.. his response was a shrug and a "i dunno", well we talked him into doing one.. We walked him through doing it and about a quart of sludge slowly drained out.. not so sure I would call it oil anymore by that point. Not sure how much driving he did but when he pulled out the oil pan from under the vehicle my friends and I all just kinda stared at eachother :banghead:

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

this reminds me of when my buddy sold his truck to a sharriff.

my buddy bought this truck knowing it leaked oil. he took it to have the oil changed. and then used it only for hard offroading (big huge ford on like 38" boggers)

well after a full winter of wheelin the snot out of this big ass ford, he parked it one day. and it wouldnt start the next day. i came over to investigate. thought the battery had puked, tried a new battery! nothin. maybe a starter? Nope. after $130+ i wasnt sure. well, i checked the oil. and not a drip on the stick, added 4qts. still wouldnt move. i got suspicious.. tried to turn the crank over with a breaker bar. nothin!

He sold it on craigslist stating it needs a starter. the sherriff bought it sight unseen. a week later he had a certified letter with the promise of a small-claims suit if he was not refunded the money and give the truck back.

[Dundy]

We had an '09 Camry with around 50k on it towed into the shop about a month ago. Customer never changed the oil and though it still had oil in it the motor seized anyways...and back to the dealer they went...

[tbburg]

Similar problem approached from the other direction:

Buddy of mine is a dealership mec. 'Had a geezer bring a late model Ram in for service. It was running a check engine light. (new truck, nowhere near first service interval)
The problem turned out to be an engine code for oil viscosity(yes, it checks, scary!). The truck had a multi-displacement 5.9 hemi, which requires 5- weight oil for the multi-displacement system to work properly(something to do with the lifters, apparently) With the wrong oil viscosity,the computer locks out the MD system and throws a code.

They change the oil and filter(noting that it wasn't a factory filter), clear the codes and send him on his way. Problem solved.

Guy comes back 2 days later, running a check engine light. Again, viscosity issue. Again, a new non-OEM filter. 'Pulls the guy aside and asks whats up. Turns out the idiot drove straight from the dealership to a lube shop and had them change the oil because the dealership's oil "is crap". Had the lube shop put 20-50 in it. Wouldn't run the correct oil even when it was explained to him, and when told he was voiding the warranty.


As for personal interval: Once I went a tic over 7K miles without changing the oil in my XJ. I was on a 7K road trip and didn't feel like stopping somewhere to have it done. :rolleyes:

[pikey77]

Buddys wife drove her chevy trailblazer 22,000 miles when the engine light came on. She hadn't changed the oil in it.

She traded it in on a new honda. Figured why waste the money when she was gonna get a new car anyhow. Makes me nervous about buying used cars.

[Joshooha]

My sister had a 91 Grand Prix w/ the 3.1 multi port injected v-6 in it...strong motor, nice car It was fully loaded w/ power seats that crappy navigation, wiring nightmare etc....Well I had to put brakes on her car because they went to the floor after being metal to metal for so long and wearing THROUGH the rotor into the cooling fins. at one point I just so happen to take a look at the oil change sticker...I said to her "hey Tiff, this says 101,828 and the date is 10/20/01. Do you realise that its April 4th 2003 and you have 140k on your car?" Her reply was "oh I never knew that sticker was there." and dismissed it.

Well after I drained the sludge out and replaced it w/ some oil it still looked awful, but ran just fine. She ran the car up until 2004 when the frame finally rusted through and broke. I bought the car from her for 75 bucks and intended on welding the frame and driving the car because the inspection was good for another 7 months. I never ended up welding where it broke (it broke up near where the Right Front a-frame meets the unibody) I just drove it because I was in highschool and I simply just didn't care, ya it pulled a bit and grinded, clunked, and squatted really bad, but it ran like a top.

So time comes for me to graduate highschool and I decided I guess I should buy a real car in which a did ('99 olds alero). My friends and I decide that we will use the grand prix as a "senior prank"... (shorten the story considerably)....well the car would not start so we had to tow it to my highschool late at night before the last day of school. We ended up getting it pushed onto the soccer field removed all the lug nuts and tried removing the wheels. Well my friend was not the sharpest tool in the shed when he pulled the wheel off and dropped the jack destroying the jack and we were not able to continue the process....(flash forward) I get a call from the highschool security guard that morning and was told that me and my father needed to come to the highschool because there has been a problem w/ one of his vehicles. We get there and the grand prix is out in the field and they are trying to get a rollback to it...Well we go inside and they are threatening to arrest me and throw me in jail along w/ my friends....APPARENTLY a few of the "not-so-bright" students decided they needed to call in bomb threats and write on the car saying that there is a bomb in the car, they also grafitied the school parking lot and school building w/ penises and vulgar language...awesome. Well it all ties back to me because I removed all the vin plates....except the one on the block of the engine, they managed to locate that one and track me down. So I'm sitting here being blamed for $1,000's of dollars worth of damage to school property, where all I did was park a car on the soccer field. (flashforward) I had to rat one of the kids out (he was actually a friend of mine) that did all that other stupid crap so I wouldn't be charged w/ felony's. Unfortunate circumstances, but it was their fault for being retarded. So another bomb threat was called into the school and we had to evacuate the building. As the police officer was finishing up I was watching the monkey's try and load this car up on the roll back...they didn't know all the lug nuts were off :) . So one by one each wheel began falling off as they were loading it...good stuff....me and my dad were laughing histarically over the whole ordeal. (flash forward)

The day befoe graduation rolls around and I get a letter from my security officer at school stating that my friends and I were not allowed to be in graduation activities or be on the premises for graduation...didn't really bother me, I didn't want to sit in an auditorium for 6 hours and listen to names being called anyway. My parents didn't really mind either, they said that what I did was a practical joke and I should not have been punished for vandalism and blah blah blah..they were on my side. (flashforward to end)

My friends and I ended up being all charged w/ 100 hours of community service, and had one year of probation....Was it worth it....every second.

That's my story....little off the topic, but it started on topic right!?:cheers:

[AL BUNDY]

If people can't even change the oil, what chance do you think they ever changed the transmission, transfer case, axle, fluids or coolant?

The old saying is true "if it's not leaking, it's empty".

[Darky]

My sister had a 91 Grand Prix w/ the 3.1 multi port injected v-6 in it...strong motor, nice car It was fully loaded w/ power seats that crappy navigation, wiring nightmare etc....Well I had to put brakes on her car because they went to the floor after being metal to metal for so long and wearing THROUGH the rotor into the cooling fins. at one point I just so happen to take a look at the oil change sticker...I said to her "hey Tiff, this says 101,828 and the date is 10/20/01. Do you realise that its April 4th 2003 and you have 140k on your car?" Her reply was "oh I never knew that sticker was there." and dismissed it.

Well after I drained the sludge out and replaced it w/ some oil it still looked awful, but ran just fine. She ran the car up until 2004 when the frame finally rusted through and broke. I bought the car from her for 75 bucks and intended on welding the frame and driving the car because the inspection was good for another 7 months. I never ended up welding where it broke (it broke up near where the Right Front a-frame meets the unibody) I just drove it because I was in highschool and I simply just didn't care, ya it pulled a bit and grinded, clunked, and squatted really bad, but it ran like a top.

So time comes for me to graduate highschool and I decided I guess I should buy a real car in which a did ('99 olds alero). My friends and I decide that we will use the grand prix as a "senior prank"... (shorten the story considerably)....well the car would not start so we had to tow it to my highschool late at night before the last day of school. We ended up getting it pushed onto the soccer field removed all the lug nuts and tried removing the wheels. Well my friend was not the sharpest tool in the shed when he pulled the wheel off and dropped the jack destroying the jack and we were not able to continue the process....(flash forward) I get a call from the highschool security guard that morning and was told that me and my father needed to come to the highschool because there has been a problem w/ one of his vehicles. We get there and the grand prix is out in the field and they are trying to get a rollback to it...Well we go inside and they are threatening to arrest me and throw me in jail along w/ my friends....APPARENTLY a few of the "not-so-bright" students decided they needed to call in bomb threats and write on the car saying that there is a bomb in the car, they also grafitied the school parking lot and school building w/ penises and vulgar language...awesome. Well it all ties back to me because I removed all the vin plates....except the one on the block of the engine, they managed to locate that one and track me down. So I'm sitting here being blamed for $1,000's of dollars worth of damage to school property, where all I did was park a car on the soccer field. (flashforward) I had to rat one of the kids out (he was actually a friend of mine) that did all that other stupid crap so I wouldn't be charged w/ felony's. Unfortunate circumstances, but it was their fault for being retarded. So another bomb threat was called into the school and we had to evacuate the building. As the police officer was finishing up I was watching the monkey's try and load this car up on the roll back...they didn't know all the lug nuts were off :) . So one by one each wheel began falling off as they were loading it...good stuff....me and my dad were laughing histarically over the whole ordeal. (flash forward)

The day befoe graduation rolls around and I get a letter from my security officer at school stating that my friends and I were not allowed to be in graduation activities or be on the premises for graduation...didn't really bother me, I didn't want to sit in an auditorium for 6 hours and listen to names being called anyway. My parents didn't really mind either, they said that what I did was a practical joke and I should not have been punished for vandalism and blah blah blah..they were on my side. (flashforward to end)

My friends and I ended up being all charged w/ 100 hours of community service, and had one year of probation....Was it worth it....every second.

That's my story....little off the topic, but it started on topic right!?:cheers:
Nominated

[Rob Mayercik]

Well I had to put brakes on her car because they went to the floor after being metal to metal for so long and wearing THROUGH the rotor into the cooling fins.


Saw this on another forum a while back, thought of it when I read the above:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4534625

[Joshooha]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/joshooha/0916081630.jpg?t=1253908719
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/joshooha/0917081501.jpg?t=1253908941

This truck is actually Kasey Kahne's shop truck for his race team, and a few of the guys were driving it and realised they had a bad situation on there hands and stopped by to see what was up. Believe it or not they actually knew they had a brake problem..."the brakes have been bad for a while, but recently it has started pulling left really bad when I step on the brake pedal"
the caliper was locked up for sometime, well it got to the point where it didn't work at all and the truck only had the left front brake which was also metal to metal...

[Darky]

Awesome! :)

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Took my wifes car to the local lube shop today.

realized that it had been almost 10k since the last one after reading this story. and it happened to hit my mind while i was sitting in Jiffy lubes parking lot eatin taco bell.

[logdog]

I'm pushing 25k on my powerstroke since the last oil change....Amsoil rocks!!!

[beakie]

my '07 VW Golf is supposed to go 16k between changes (keep in mind thats kilometers up here)
I normally change the Jeep every 5k, and the wifes Sentra about the same... 16k just seems crazy, but thats what the manual and dealer said, so I go with it.

I know the old man used to run Chevettes all the time and I never remember him getting oil changes done. We had 3 or more of those little tanks, hated them as kids, looking back tho they never left us stranded.

[buzzbombxj]

One time a cousin of mine drove up to the bay from LA in his early 90s vw golf. After driving around here and sf for a few days he asked me why it didn’t run too well, so I said, "let’s check the oil", I pull the stick out and it is dry. So we went and got oil, and I put two quarts in. dipstick is still dry. I put in one more, finally the bottom of the stick is wet, and it takes one more quart to get it to "full". Turns out it was 4 quarts low...... on a car that only took 4 quarts. That car didnt last much longer. :doh:

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

vw golf. . That car didnt last much longer.
duh.

[5-90]

my '07 VW Golf is supposed to go 16k between changes (keep in mind thats kilometers up here)
I normally change the Jeep every 5k, and the wifes Sentra about the same... 16k just seems crazy, but thats what the manual and dealer said, so I go with it.

I know the old man used to run Chevettes all the time and I never remember him getting oil changes done. We had 3 or more of those little tanks, hated them as kids, looking back tho they never left us stranded.

Ran my wife's Verona on dino oil for the first 30Kmiles, 3Kmile change interval.

Switched to synthetic at 30K, running 20K change intervals. Yeah, the oil costs more - but the longer change intervals make up for it handily!

[Vince]

The disadvantage with longer oil change intervals is that other stuff gets neglected. Grease points go dry and brakes wear out. Regular short interval servicing catches this stuff on a preventative basis, with long service intervals breakdown maintenance is often required between oil changes.

[Coastie]

On the other end of the spectrum before I got to my front main, rear main, and oil filter adapter o-rings my Jeep was getting an oil change every month simply because it was leaking it all out:rof:

[tbburg]

...,my Jeep was getting an oil change every month simply because it was leaking it all out:rof:Had that same feature in my CJ-5.

[ktm racer 419]

a few months ago this guy had an oldsmobile minivan towed into the shop. owner is an older fellow, he said it died on the highway. Wouldn't turn over, we manage to get it running with the jump pack and the thing is knocking like a bastard pissin out oil. obviously the motor is garbage, but we stick it on the lift because we wanted to take a look at the carnage. There was a hole the size of my fist in the side of the block. We pull it out, call the guy, tell him he needs a motor, but the van isn't worth putting that kinda money into. We leave it outside, the next morning its gone. Apparently he picked it up overnight and drove it away.

Flash forward a week later, this guy pulls in with his van, still knocking like a bastard. He asks me "could ya check the oil? sounds noisy." I tell him "its noisy because you threw a rod." he tells me "well could ya check the oil anyway?" I tell him in the simplest form possible without insulting the guy "YOUR MOTOR IS BLOWN" he says "well just check it anyway. So i throw a quart of oil in it, charge the guy and he is on his way. I have to clean up the trail of oil he left as well as the puddle in the lot.

A couple weeks later, he pulls up AGAIN.

Same thing, "could ya check the oil, it's makin a lot of noise" I go through the same thing as last time. tell him the motor is junk and any oil i put in there will just pour out of the hole in the side of the block anyway. He is persistent and i end up putting a quart in there and I tell him the oil level is good.

Then he comes in a couple weeks later same story, he asks me "Could ya check the oil? it's makin some noise" This time i just pop the hood throw a quart in, charge him and he leaves happy.

This has been going on every couple weeks since may. The motor has been running on 3 cylinders with no oil since may. I assume he doesn't take it out often though.

[MahnkenVille]

Previous owner of my XJ said he did a tune-up a week before he took it off the road, and then I bought it 2 weeks later. The Valvoline sticker said it hadn't gotten the oil changed for roughly 10k...i'm really hoping he did his own oil change. Got it changed the other day out of fear that the sticker was right...oil was pretty black but not horrible.

Don't you hate when you go somewhere for an oil change and they print you out a detailed list of every problem with your car? Especially when you know whats wrong with it..but you have to listen to them explain how they found this-that-and the other thing.

[tbburg]

Don't you hate when you go somewhere for an oil change and they print you out a detailed list of every problem with your car? Especially when you know whats wrong with it..but you have to listen to them explain how they found this-that-and the other thing.That doesn't bother me too much. It bothers me when they make stuff up, tell me it's dangerous to drive, and offer to "fix" the "problem" for 10 times what the parts would cost me to buy retail.

[wolfpackjeeper]

That doesn't bother me too much. It bothers me when they make stuff up, tell me it's dangerous to drive, and offer to "fix" the "problem" for 10 times what the parts would cost me to buy retail.

I took my stroker cherokee in for a free diagnostic once just for the fun of it. The list of necessary parts that were missing was hilarious.

[xjclassic2000]

I took my stroker cherokee in for a free diagnostic once just for the fun of it. The list of necessary parts that were missing was hilarious.

What was on the list?

[wolfpackjeeper]

all of it,
ranging from missing support brackets, to non oem horns, to the motor being too loud despite running well which probably means it was going bad and needed to be replaced.

really?

[UNCC_99XJ]

When I worked for Advance Auto We saw this crap all the time.

I watched a guy fill the crank case with 85-140 because "These old ford motors love thick oil that wont leak out".

That poor van died for good about 800 yards from the parking lot.


Fortunately, I haven't had that type of person come in yet. Best one i've had in my month of working at Advance was last week this guy (who was trying way to hard to be the color that he wasn't) and his "girl" (prime example of inbreeding) brought the girls car to us to have some codes pulled. No problem I thought, it was a 97 Nissan Sentra so in the back of my mind i'm thinking there shouldn't be too much wrong with this car as it appeared to be in decent shape from just glancing at it...probably something stupid like a loose gas cap. Wrong! I pulled codes for the Oxygen Sensor, IAC Malfunction, MAF Malfunction, and Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire. The guy tells me that sometimes once it gets warmed up it won't start back up until the motor cools back down, and asked me if I could listen to it (keep in mind already doing more than i'm technically supposed to do). So I started it...cranked right up and minus the obvious running rich and misfire, it rain relatively well. So we walked back inside and I started to ask them some questions about the car, to try and help them diagnose the problems, rather than taking it to a shop to pay just to have it looked at..

Me: How long has it been running bad?

Girl: About a year...

Me: Noticed your gas mileage decrease at all?

Girl: Oh I don't pay no attention to them things...me and momma just put gas in and drive them

Dude: That's probably bad right?

Me: Very.

I ended up sending them down the road to Goodyear since they do a lot of business with us. When they went back out to the car, the stupid thing wouldn't run. It would sit there and crank all day long. Finally after 30 minutes of her repeatedly cranking it to the point where the starter got overheated (not a nice sound if you've never heard it) they ended up having to leave it for about 2 hours to cool off. After that it was good to go.

Other than that the worst i've seen on an oil change is in my step-sister's 2004 Malibu 4 banger....went 15,000 miles on Napa house brand oil and filter. On that motor it's not a canister type filter like on our Jeeps, rather a cartridge type filter that just snaps into a plastic housing (stupid design). Her commute at this time was about a half mile each way, so the motor never really got warmed up. When I pulled the filter not only did it match the color of the tires, but there were many chunks of sludge caught inside of it. Ended up running several quarts of fresh oil through to help it.

[wolfpackjeeper]

Part of the reason I was so glad to graduate, commission, and PCS out of that Job was all the people who thought it was my job to walk out the their car, diagnose every problem correctly on the first try, then install whatever part they might choose to buy. Usually the cheapest thing that could possibly have anything to do with the problem. Then if the part did not work they wanted me to remove it and return it because it was not the problem.

Now, I rarely if ever installed anything for anyone much over a headlight. But people thought we were a full service shop. We stopped doing anything over a headlight install. People would come in and say "But my friends cousin said you guys change oil here".

Can I diagnose your problem, possibly, can I do it in five minutes, without your car running, and with nothing more than my 5 senses and a dummy scan tool? Probably not accurately. Thats why all those shops in the area are in business. They fix cars, I sell parts to do it yourselfers and give advice as well.

BTW, don't tell people to pull around to the back and up to the garage door when they insist that you are supposed to change oil, and that you will not do it just because you are a racist. They will sit back there for about 30min before they come back up pissed. I got called a racist 2 or 3 times every day when working there.

[RTicUL8]

Now you guys have me worried.
I've GOT to call my mom - TODAY!



My stepfather died last December.
Mom bought a new car in March.

He had always taken care of the cars.



I hope she's been taking it in for service... :eek:

.


So I called her...

And she hadn't thought of taking it in.
6 months & 4,500 miles. I guess that's not too bad.

I did tell her though that she needed to keep copies of all oil changes as the dealer would look for any excuse to drop her warranty.

.


Call you moms!

[Stroketech]

We had a lady come into the dealer where I worked with a Hybrid Escape. Engine blew up at 34,000 miles. Still had the first oil change sticker in it from the dealer she bought it from. Service Mgr asked when the last time she changed the oil was, she said batteries have oil? He said what do you think you put gasoline in it for? She said........ I never thought of that. Warrenty DENIED!

[88manche]

I work at a ford truck dealership, and we do mostly fleet vehicles so we done see many of these people.

However, my girlfriends cousin wanted me to do an oil change on her car. its a 2007 chrysler pacifica. Me and jen(girlfriend) got in, and turned the radio on, drove it to my house. couldnt hear the motor, so we didnt think anything was wrong. parked it in my back driveway, and i came out about a half hour llater to do the oil change. I got out my ramps, oil pan, tools, oil and filter, and started the car up to drive onto the ramps.

That thing made the most horrible sound ive ever heard. rods knocking, lifters ticking, akjdghaskjgh bad sounds. I drove it on the ramps, checked the oil - bone dry. took the plug out, about a quart, maybe a quart and a half drained out. it takes 6 quarts of oil.:twak::twak:

My old ford has gotten to the point of using about a quart a week. I use motorcraft 10/30 so it gets expensive. it doesnt smoke or burn oil, it just leaks. I need to replace the oil pan gasket. i got to the point where it ran rough, went and checked the oil. i was about 3 quarts low in a 302 (5 quarts).:helpme:

[90XJay]

About a few weeks after I had bought my 2nd jeep I was driving back from an outting with friends. I hadn't thought the need to check the oil yet bc I thought the friend I bought it from knew how to take care of it (was in college as a mechanic). I happen to notice the oil gadge drop to zero, pause, then pop back up again. I stopped at a gas station and check the dipstick, nothing. Took 6 quarts to fill it. Proves ya can't trust anyone, check it yourself if your driving it lol.