asudan96Runner

Todd,

I would hardly say that Jiffy-Lube is a fly by night operation. In fact I've seen Jiffy Lube locations that stay around longer than some dealerships and MUCH longer than most "mom and pop mechanic shops."

One of my good friends managed a Jiffy Lube for 9 years, and he seemed pretty confident that they know how to change fluids. One thing I like about Jiffy Lube is that they do what you ask, right on the spot - and you can watch. I don't know how you could screw that up. At least you don't pay $200, leave the car with the dealer, and pray they did what you asked them to.

I'm not accusing dealers of not fixing things, but I can think of a few times I knew exactly what needed to be repaired and the dealer found two or three other things that were wrong. (that weren't) Once my grandfather took his caddilac to get a new water pump and he marked the bolts. They never replaced the water pump, they simply greased the bearings - but they charged him for a new one. When he asked for the old one, they found one off of some other car and said that was his old one - all the time it was still on the car.

Yeah, he was a mechanic for 30 years, he knew what was wrong, and they did also - but charging him $400 and doing $20 worth of work was good enough in their eyes.

Please don't think I am coming down on YOUR service center. I pray to find someone at the dealership that is into 4Runners as much as I am. If that were to happen I would have complete faith in that person to work on my runner Until then, I can only be skeptical.

Dan

rimpainter.com

Dan-

Try Jason Briggs at the Tempe Toyota service center. Very cool guy. I demanded that the shop foreman work on my 4Runner (HG Recall, coil spring recall, clutch, belts, and timing belt) and they obliged. They even put me down for a water pump, but when they got in there they told me it did NOT need to be replaced. and took it off the invoice. Now that's cool.

-Christian

asudan96Runner

I'll look him up next time I need Factory service. Is he a mechanic or a parts sales guy?

TOR

I understand your point and it is a valid one. Don't worry I am not taking this personally by any means. I believe we have a decent service center here at TOR. The fact is, you have a service advisor trying to cram as many hours in as possible and you have a team of 5 or 6 techs that are trying to crank it out as quickly as possible. The techs are generally not the culprit when it comes to shotty work though the advisor is. As for the Jiffy Lube, I am just speaking from my experience and what I have seen.

TP

rimpainter.com

Jason is a service adviser. Trust me, I am just as leary as you are. I hate leaving my ride ANYWHERE.

Sac State

I used Jiffy Lube for years until I took my Exploder in for an oil change, tan interior. When they returned my vehicle it looked like somebody had slithered throughout the whole cab. Oil stains everywhere, steering wheel, carpet, dash. Same with the dealer, it amazes me you drop off your car and they return it with oil smears along the door jams! Another Jiffy story, an acquaintance had his oil changed at Jiffy Lube in the Bay area, as he was driving across the Bay bridge the engine froze in his Honda. Jiffy had failed to replace the washer on the drain plug and his oil slowly/quickly leaked out leaving him with a burnt, locked motor. I don't know what was finally resolved between him and Jiffy.

Citykid

So I go this morning. After a little wait the guy tells me that he spoke with a number of the mechanics and that I am very off with my numbers. I said that about 15qts should be replaced. They can do a coolant line flush but that will ONLY replace about another half a Qt. Remember, they did a drain & fill with 5 qts. So the coolant line tranny flush will only replace 5.5 qts.

His argument was the "We don't touch the torque converter at all and this is where most of the fluid is." Then he tells me "You know who does have the equipment you're looking for? Jiffy Lube. But you didn't hear that from me."


Jiffy Screw's web page says they have something called a T-tech, an automatic transmission fluid exchange. They state that it replaces all the fluid with new fluid, including the torque converter.

WTF?

I was pissed cause I had plans to go into the city and now I had to take my truck back home, find parking, and then high tail it to the subway.

Why is it that I am not the least bit surprised that this happened? A simple phone call BEFORE I came in could have done it.