Simoniz/Valvoline Experience

[capt512]

I recently had a bad experience with the local Simoniz Valvoline Quick Lube, and was wondering if anyone else has had any bad experiences with either Simoniz or Valvoline, if so please post.
Thanks,
Mike

[jgc61sr2002]

I would never recommend a quick lube. The majority of their help is inexperienced. IMO. :down:

[Lowell]

I only go to the dealer. They know I love the car. $22.95. :up:

[Stephen Soulsby]

I only go to Valvoline for transmission flushes. Everything else I do myself. I worked at a Valvoline when I was 17 and they were very big on training, so I know the guys there are good (at least at the one in my town). How stupid I felt for some guy to tell me "Make sure the drain plug is tight". Because I was always under the assumption that you had to wrench on the oil filter and install the drain plug finger tight :rolleyes:

[junehhan]

I cannot recommend a quick lube joint either. I've had a pair of terrible experiences at Jiffy Boob, and another bad experience at a Valvoline quick lube place that installed the wrong fluid a while ago on my Taurus. I also know of too many people who have had terrible experiences at Jiffy Boob or Valvoline as well...........

One of my very first vehicles was a handed down 89 Chevy van a long time ago, and Jiffy Boob ruined my engine when they put the filter on so loose that it fell off on the highway. I submitted the repair bill to them and Jiffy Boob corporate refused to honor the claim, which is why I will never go there ever again, and i'll do everything I can to keep anyone else from going there.

On anothe occasion, I had an oil change done there as well when I asked for the Pennzoil full synthetic. They didn't think I was watching and put in the semi-synthetic stuff, while charging me for the full synthetic.

[RF Overlord]

I recently had a bad experience with the local Simoniz Valvoline Quick Lube,

Can you share the details?

[martyo]

Can you share the details?

Understand that Bob rubbernecks at accidents, so he likes the gruesome details...

[RF Overlord]

Understand that Bob rubbernecks at accidents, so he likes the gruesome details...

Actually, this is purely professional...I need this information for my Master's thesis on "How to Deal With the Aftermath of Starting Yet ANOTHER Oil Thread"...

[junehhan]

Actually, this is purely professional...I need this information for my Master's thesis on "How to Deal With the Aftermath of Starting Yet ANOTHER Oil Thread"...


I find it amazing the number of possible oil threads that you can start. Whether it's a thread on nasty quick lube joints, or a Mobil 1 vs. Castrol un-Syntec argument, oil threads have pretty much become a constant that is true as the stars on any given message board.

[capt512]

well guys you asked for them, so here is the condensed version of the details.
I went in to Simoniz/Valvoline Oil Change (Really clean place, that I have had good experiences before) to get my coolant flushed on my 00 Crown Vic PI. So they flushed the coolant and then went to fill it up again. Well the guy that was refilling the coolant didn't watch it fill so it overflowed onto the engine. Then he proceeded to wash the engine off with a hose (while the car was running). So I immediatly figured the worst. I went out and got in the car and it was barely running, so I went right back in and told the manager that he must have ruined some of the coil packs if not all of them, and that he would have to pay for the fix. I said that the guy working on the car washed the coil packs while the car was running and that must have caused this. He then went out and asked the guy that was workin on the car if he washed off part of the engine. Were the "mechanic" said no that instead he washed all of the engine off. He came back in and said ok that he would pay for it, and I drove the car to the Ford dealership. They checked the coils and found 3 bad, then as soon as I started driving it home it started bucking so I took it back, where Ford found another 3 bad coils. Then I drove it to leave again and it was still bucking so i brought it back. Where Ford found that the last 2 coils that hadn't been replaced were also bad.
The manager at Simoniz then said that they would only pay for the first 3, which he did. I then told him that he would have to pay for the others too, because they were the "mechanic's" fault too. He said no, so I called the head manager of Simoniz, and they refused to pay. So as of now I am taking them to court for the payment.
So there ya go. Needless to say that was one expensive coolant flush!

[marauder307]

...and listen as I tell the tale of the 5.0 Mustang and the Express Oil Change.

Spring, 2000. Daytona Beach, FL. I've got a fairly steady working relationship with an quickie oil change place (might have been Jiffy Lube, but I don't remember now), and I pull in for oil/transmission fluid change. Things go well enough, but I note that as they're finishing up the transmission, there's a bit of mild commotion in the pit under my car. Seems to be a lot of activity going on. Situation gets resolved quickly before I can get out there, and I take the car and head for the house. When I get home I notice of bit of the "Evil Red" under my car...thinks I, no problem, probably just got messy during the change and the residue is dripping off. I run back real quick, get 'em to put some shop towels on it. There's a bit more commotion in the pit. Problem solved....and I run home. The next day I'm on the road, I-4 from Daytona to St. Pete@no less than 75mph the whole way, except for Orlando (Curses!), on my way to reserve duty. The incident goes out of my mind.

Fast forward a bit. 2-5 months later (again, I don't remember exactly---lotsa schtuff has occurred in the interim). I'm flush with some misappropriated student loan funds and a fat IRS refund; the call goes out to Steeda for clutch parts. SVO and Steeda combination. The parts come in, and I'm off to the tender loving hands (Hah!) of Yeomans Ford, where a wrench named "Wheels" takes my car back to drop out the H-pipe, and the tranny right behind it.

45 mins later, he appears in the waiting area. "Mr. Quinby?" Yes. "Think you want to come with me sir." Uhhh...okay. We troop back to the rack, my precious red baby 4 wheels to the air and an H-pipe lying in rusty repose on the ground. "Wheels" hands me a red gooey piece of something that vaguely resembles melted silver duct tape in appearance. "Did you know this was on your transmission casing?"

I don't remember the rest of the conversation too clearly at that point. There's a hazy recollection: The red gooey something was JB Weld. It became clear fast: The little ***** that had done the transmission, in the process of reinserting the drain plug, had overtorqued it and split the entire transmission casing. Guess he didn't realize that that plug was NOT supposed to go all the way in , and when it didn't look right, he just kept on torquing...until there was a cracking noise and my tranny started bleeding out all over his face. The return trip to the place had been necessary because he hadn't "welded" it enough.

Eight hours, over $600, a used but intact $125 trans casing, AND my new clutch parts later, AND being late for a college class that I was supposed to attend that afternoon,.......

I was a lot older and wiser for the experience.

Moral of the story: Don't ever, ever, ever , EVER , no matter how good they claim to be, no matter how broke you are, no matter ANYTHING , go to any quickie lube place. Might be cheaper in the long run, but the long-term costs will d-amn near kill ya. Had that housing grenaded on me during the long cross-country haul to drill and back, there's no telling what coulda happened. I-4's no place to break down; the FL MM owners will bear me out on this.

Think my guardian angels put in too much overtime on this one. A few months after the big replacement, the car was almost totaled in a freak accident; kid in '68 F-bird came out of a side street and torpedoed the driver's side quarter...he missed the driver's door by 5 inches. The airbag (it was a '93 LX 5.0) did not deploy. Two months and $6000 later, it rolled out of Yeomans Ford body shop as good as new and sporting new warpaint; you can probably see it prowling Daytona today, a bright red LX hatchback with retroreflective Boss-style 5.0 stripes running down the sides.

Sermon over.

P.S. I was never able to prove conclusively that it the quickie place's fault, so I ended up eating the whole repair bill...

[dbrown4bbl]

Bought a brandy new Toyota Camry V6 (don't throw that tomato at me, I've learned) in 1989. FIRST OIL CHANGE at a quikie lube, they cross threaded the drain plg and I ended up with oil all over the driveway - fortunately, I didn't drive far enough to do any real damage - had the owner send two flunkies out who spent the better part of a day cleaning it out of the pores in the concrete.

[Sactown]

First and last quick lube place forgot to tighten the plug. When I noticed it the next day, I had lost about 1/2 my oil and once I crawled under the truck, I saw the plug was almost out. About 1 full turn left to drop the plug entirely. From then on out, it was either me or the dealer who touches my car. Only exception being smog stations, and I'm on those guys like a hawk!

[RF Overlord]

In all fairness, Jiffy Lube-type places are not exactly the top of the ladder, career-wise, and I'm sure good help is hard to keep. I've been going to the local JL approx every 6 months for the last 3 years (my company requires us to take our vehicles there) and each time only one face is the same: the manager, and I can't believe she's lasted this long (yes, SHE).

Changing scalding hot motor oil all day long is neither pleasant nor challenging, so I'm not surprised there's a high turnover. Someone who takes pride in their work is not likely to last long in an environment where management DOES NOT care about the quality of your work, only that you meet your SALES quota of ancillary services...quicky-lubes make very little profit on a simple oil change...they make much more on air filters, wiper blades, tranny flushes, fuel injector cleanings, etc...

I believe that quicky-lubes CAN be a good thing for the person that hasn't the time/tools/knowledge/desire to do it themselves, but unfortunately, the business model of the quicky-lube is not geared toward satisfying the customer, but rather is geared toward satisfying investors, stockholders, Wall Street, whomever has a financial interest in the business...

[junehhan]

In all fairness, Jiffy Lube-type places are not exactly the top of the ladder, career-wise, and I'm sure good help is hard to keep. I've been going to the local JL approx every 6 months for the last 3 years (my company requires us to take our vehicles there) and each time only one face is the same: the manager, and I can't believe she's lasted this long (yes, SHE).

Changing scalding hot motor oil all day long is neither pleasant nor challenging, so I'm not surprised there's a high turnover. Someone who takes pride in their work is not likely to last long in an environment where management DOES NOT care about the quality of your work, only that you meet your SALES quota of ancillary services...quicky-lubes make very little profit on a simple oil change...they make much more on air filters, wiper blades, tranny flushes, fuel injector cleanings, etc...

I believe that quicky-lubes CAN be a good thing for the person that hasn't the time/tools/knowledge/desire to do it themselves, but unfortunately, the business model of the quicky-lube is not geared toward satisfying the customer, but rather is geared toward satisfying investors, stockholders, Wall Street, whomever has a financial interest in the business...

My goodness, it's bad enough your company has an account with Jiffy Boob, but the fact that JL exclusively uses Fram oil filters makes it even worse. Oh well, if you don't have a choice, I guess you don't have a choice. It seems lately, that mobil quick lubes are starting to become a trend lately, where they actually come to you and change your oil for you on-site.

[mrjones]

I recently had a bad experience with the local Simoniz Valvoline Quick Lube, and was wondering if anyone else has had any bad experiences with either Simoniz or Valvoline Mike

How interesting. I had this problem Friday. Took my MM to the Valvoline place for three reasons: I've used it before successfully, they offer the free (not really, it's built into the price of the oil change) car wash, and it's right next to my favorite Mexican restaurant, so I can eat while they change and wash. Came back to find a small but deep scratch on the car on the door above the window. I know it's new, it's in a place right in front of my eyes everytime I get into the car.

I'm still pissed. The manager wouldn't return my call, and when I went back to visit him that afternoon, the head flunkie said that the manager said that they couldn't have done it. I'm planning on talking to the owner of the franchise. I'd probably be happy with an apology and a tube of touch up paint instead of the "kiss our a$$eS, we didn't do it", but at this point, they won't get any more of my business either way.