West Seattle Blog...

WSB Forum » West Seattle Rants & Raves

1. mannamc
   Member Profile

   I had been taking my cars here for years. First a 4Runner and now my Prius that I have had for 2 years. Never really had any problems.

   In December I got an oil change and my car immediately stopped working. Power failures, warning lights, etc. Jiffy Lube denied responsibility and told me to take it to the dealership. I almost had to have it towed there - drove 30 mph the whole way.

   The dealership discovered they had filled the oil too quickly, oil was in the intake valve, two gaskets on the drain plug which is apparently bad, etc. After two months of back and forth with the Jiffy Lube manager they said they will reimburse me for the visit to the dealership, but not for the oil change they performed that caused the problem in the first place! They said they sent the check weeks ago and I still haven't gotten it. I have also tried to call the district manager several times and he is not returning my phone calls. RANT!!! I will suck it up and drive to the dealership for my oil changes from now on.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

2. test517
   Member Profile

   Having been a Nissan/Jeep tech for 10 years, I have never heard of filling the oil too quickly. Also oil in the intake valve is an odd description. That description would lead me to believe that they pulled the head, which I would find very unlikely. Two gaskets on the drain plug might cause a small leak, two gaskets on the oil filter can cause a big one, but neither should set off warning lights until you are low on oil.

   Was you car blowing blue smoke as well as the warning lights? Were you leaking oil?

   I have to say I would be suspicious of what this dealer is telling you as well..

   Posted 1 year ago #         

3. mannamc
   Member Profile

   I guess the oil too quickly thing is because jiffy lube uses an oil gun to fill it, and there is something to do with Priuses (Priusii?) in particular where you have to slowly fill it due to the placement of the oil cap or it gets all over. This is what they tell me anyway, I don't know anything about cars (clearly). I do know it didn't work when I left Jiffy Lube and it did work when I left Toyota.

   Apparently Jiffy Lube reads the boards because they finally called me back and offered me a full refund.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

4. flowerpetal
   Member Profile

   

   Wow, that is a fast response. You mean they called you within the fifty minutes that you first posted? The power of the press!

   Posted 1 year ago #         

5. test517
   Member Profile

   Hey I am glad that you got this resolved. Talking to my friend who has a Prius, I think I *might* understand what happened here.

   You are right in that most oil change places use a oil gun to fill oil, and according to my friend, the oil cap for the Prius is buried in the back and fills slowly, so if they did not use a funnel, it could have poured all over the back of the engine and on to the intake manifold. If it got into any of the sensors or wiring and caused a false reading or short, then this would have definitely set off warning lights.

   Anyway, I am glad you got closure on this. Your car is ok now correct?

   Posted 1 year ago #         

6. test517
   Member Profile

   My buddy sent me this, and it looks like exactly what happened to you:

   http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-care-maintenance-troubleshooting/59116-post-oil-change-stalling-no-start.html

   Based on this, I apologize to the dealer, apparently with the prius, filling the oil too fast is a problem.

   Cheers

   Posted 1 year ago #         

7. mannamc
   Member Profile

   Yep, my car is fine now! Thank you!

   Crazy timing... this has been going on for 3 months, been trying to get a hold of the district manager in particular for over a week. He called 10 minutes after I posted this.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

8. Aim
   Member Profile

   

   Sounds like somebody has a Google Alert set up for Jiffy Lube + a keyword like "rant" or "district manager." Or they're just psychic. My bet is on the former. :)

   Glad to hear your car is up and running again and that the situation is resolved!!

   Posted 1 year ago #         

9. dhg
   Member Profile

   

   I gave up using 3rd party services a few years ago. I found that the dealer (Carter) uses better filters and oil and charges no more than the quick change guys PLUS they don't try to pad their service.

   Posted 1 year ago #         

10. JoB
    Member Profile

    dhg...

    sometimes it's about convenience..
    no matter how much my mechanic frowns at me when i bring the car in with a jiffy sticker...

    however... i once dumped the contents of my radiator beside the freeway because a jiffy guy didn't bother making sure the plug was tight after a routine radiator flush...

    i know.. it could have happened to anyone...
    but that incident.. combined with a dead cell phone batery... did make me rethink the term convenience...

    it wasn't so convenient to wait by the side of the hiway for 4 hours to get help and get towed to a garage:(

    Posted 1 year ago #         

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.