Another reason NOT to go to Jiffy Lube

[Dana67Dart]

Back in August I had my daughter's car's oil changed at the local jiffy lube.

I always inspect the under hood area and the filter which I mark before hand to be sure everything is where it should be and that the filter had been changed.

The following week we drove to SD from CO about 800 miles. My daughter puts maybe another 400 miles a school year on the car.

3 weeks ago she called and said the oil light was coming on when she turns corners. I had her check and add oil, 2 qts later...

Yesterday she called again and said the car was making a tapping sound. I had her check the oil and again she had to add 2 more quarts. I asked her if there was any oil under the car, nothing.

I had her feel the oil filter to see if it was tight and she said her hand was covered in oil.

She took it to the Ford dealer in town and they discovered the filter had a split in it right where the crease was and was spraying oil out while the engine was running.

That explains everything, rapid loss of oil, no mess on the ground.

Im kicking myself in the butt for not making them change the filter. ( Won't happen again for a number of reasons)

Ultimately I think what happened is the crease became a point of stress that the expansion and contraction of the filter due to oil pressure changes metal fatigued the filter housing causing a crack and ultimately a hole.

Luckly the engine is running quiet, I'm sure it has a few tens of thousands of miles less life. But if it gets her through college it will be all good.

Side note... Wife had a 85 Chevy Cavalier 4 banger with at the time 150,000 miles. She drove it 60 miles and then told me it sounded like a sewing machine (my fault for not checking the oil enough) I added a bottle of Slick 50 in it. From that point on it had a low tone thunk sound from that point on

But we put another 100,000 miles on it before the trans finally gave up

 

[RAT ROD AL]

Hey Dana ! While T and I was out on our western road trip. I had to get the oil in my truck changed In Flagstaff. Found a Valvoline place . went to get an Oil Change, $125 later . We were back on the road. Wonder what you get for $39 ?

 

[Dana67Dart]

Wonder what you get for $39

A cracked oil filter

 

[tedsweet]

slick 50??? no!!!!

 

[MoparMike1974]

Any cheap oil filter is made with really thin sheet metal. Watch some oil filter comparison videos on youtube, very interesting.
After watching many of those videos I will never run a fram filter again. Wix seems to always come out on top.
I bet the filters that jiffy lube buys in bulk are the bottom of the barrel crap.

 

[tedsweet]

wix is now part of tearalator

 

[68gtxman]

@Dana67Dart I feel your pain my friend!

About 45 years ago, my mom took an after work class from a backyard mechanic. He taught all the ladies how to change their oil. He never taught them to look at the block or old oil filter to see if the old gasket didn’t go with the old filter. So mom changed the oil and I asked to borrow the car for a date the next day. Guess who was fogging for mosquitoes that day on the way to Atlantic City? I burned my hands removing the oil filter on the side of the AC Expressway. My friend walked 2 miles to buy 4 quarts of oil. Mom never tried that again.

 

[Swingin Chrome]

Back in August I had my daughter's car's oil changed at the local jiffy lube.

I always inspect the under hood area and the filter which I mark before hand to be sure everything is where it should be and that the filter had been changed.

The following week we drove to SD from CO about 800 miles. My daughter puts maybe another 400 miles a school year on the car.

3 weeks ago she called and said the oil light was coming on when she turns corners. I had her check and add oil, 2 qts later...

Yesterday she called again and said the car was making a tapping sound. I had her check the oil and again she had to add 2 more quarts. I asked her if there was any oil under the car, nothing.

I had her feel the oil filter to see if it was tight and she said her hand was covered in oil.

She took it to the Ford dealer in town and they discovered the filter had a split in it right where the crease was and was spraying oil out while the engine was running.

That explains everything, rapid loss of oil, no mess on the ground.

Im kicking myself in the butt for not making them change the filter. ( Won't happen again for a number of reasons)

Ultimately I think what happened is the crease became a point of stress that the expansion and contraction of the filter due to oil pressure changes metal fatigued the filter housing causing a crack and ultimately a hole.

Luckly the engine is running quiet, I'm sure it has a few tens of thousands of miles less life. But if it gets her through college it will be all good.

Side note... Wife had a 85 Chevy Cavalier 4 banger with at the time 150,000 miles. She drove it 60 miles and then told me it sounded like a sewing machine (my fault for not checking the oil enough) I added a bottle of Slick 50 in it. From that point on it had a low tone thunk sound from that point on

But we put another 100,000 miles on it before the trans finally gave up

Here is another reason to stay clear of jiffy lube. Had a caravan come into the shop yesterday with a massive oil leak. Oil was changed 100km ago at a local quick lube joint.Pulled the dipstick outside and added another 3 litres to bring the level up so I could read it. Quick to diagnose the leak as a torn o ring at the cartridge filter cap. Was surprised to find this filter replacement instruction sheet also stuck in beside the filter, obstructing flow.

 

[Dana67Dart]

Same jiffy lube, same car, 25,000 miles ago when I was driving 100 miles a day round trip to work. Had smoke and burnt oil smell when I would come to a particular stop light and had to stop.

Not a drop of oil on the ground ever.

Found that the oil filter was so loose that it could be rocked back and forth. Tightened it up, no more problem. Should have been my first clue not to go to that Jiffy Lube again.

 

[Slap Stick]

wix is now part of tearalator

Which is owned by Mann & Hummel.

 

[Dana67Dart]

The last wicks filter I bought had a Mann & Hummel filter inside relabeled and a paper explaining why.

slick 50??? no!!!!

Why?

 

[pishta]

Oil changes are easy. We should all be doing them! I think slick-50 is cheating, something to do with it not allowing the oil to cling to surfaces or something. I saw a cool demo of a slant six with no oil pan treated with slick 50 idling all day on propane at a car show/swap meet. Just churning away at about 500 RPM, rods visible under the pan rail

 

[6PakBee]

I think your diagnosis is spot on. I've had two oil filters fail by cracking. Both cracks were where the canister had been dented. When the engine was started, the dent popped out. When the engine was shut off, the dent popped back. Eventually the shell work hardens and cracks.

 

[moparmat2000]

I never install oil filters with a wrench. Always by hand. A little oil on the rubber seal to help make it tighter. Never had a cracked filter. I use PF1218s on my 94 chevy pickup. Have done so since new. Motorcraft on my mustang, I use Wix, Purolator, or Hastings on everything else. I have never done the jiffy lube thing. To me that's for lazy asses. Want a job done right, then do it yourself.

 

[Demonracer]

Jiffy Lube is notorious for screw ups. My sister took her 88 Chevy truck in to have the transmission fluid & filter changed. She got the truck back & went on her merry way, about 800 miles later the transmission began slipping. She took it to a very reliable transmission shop that I use for my transmission rebuilds. They dropped the pan & found a red shop rag in wrapped around the transmission filter. Due to the rag impeding the filter from getting enough fluid, it smoked the transmission. That was a costly mistake for Jiffy Lube because my sister is a bulldog & went after them. The judge awarded her the cost of the transmission rebuild, the cost of the rent car & another $10,000. Needless to say, the shop franchisee folded his tent & went elsewhere.

 

[Rat Bastid]

Oil changes are easy. We should all be doing them! I think slick-50 is cheating, something to do with it not allowing the oil to cling to surfaces or something. I saw a cool demo of a slant six with no oil pan treated with slick 50 idling all day on propane at a car show/swap meet. Just churning away at about 500 RPM, rods visible under the pan rail

What they didn’t tell you and what you didn’t see in that demo was the grease fittings on the mains. They did that by pumping grease into the crank and rod bearings. If I remember what I read correctly, DuPont refused to sell their Teflon to Slick 50 so Slick 50 took them to court and won. DuPont knew Teflon wasn’t developed for use in engine oils but they had to sell it anyway. That stuff plugged filters and what didn’t get to the filter laid in the bottom of the oil pan.

 

[azaustin]

All interesting stuff. Costco used to do oil changes and I let them do one in my 1986 Toyota pickup one weekend when I was in a hurry. On my way back to Lake Havasu I started smelling oil and pulled over. The front crank seal was blown and the engine was covered in oil. The dipstick showed oil up until about 3/4” of an inch below the top of the tube. Later on, they bent the skid plate on my 1990 Bronco when changing the tires. I watched them lifting the car on the plate, not the frame rails and ran over and complained to the manager. He stopped the tech and walked away, and the tech immediately did it again. Finally, I had to show him how to do. Costco bought me a skid plate.

One more thing, on additives. Has anyone tried BG lubricants? Their rep used to do the motor without oil demonstration. He came by the Kawasaki shop I worked at in Phoenix in 1976-78 and we started using the stuff. When we added it to a KZ900/1000 we would have to turn the idle down when the motor warmed up the first time, and that’s where we would leave it. The only problem we had was with the clutches in some of the motors we built with big-bore kits, big cams and carbs. We would save the “BG nickels” that came in the cams and turn them for jackets, etc.

 

[pishta]

That reminded me of a trip to jiffy lube that my wife pulled on me..."Hon, I got the oil changed at jiffy lube.." What? That DAY she smelled gas coming home and we took it to a Dodge dealership and they found the 1996 Breeze 2.0 fuel tank had a crack ON THE TOP SEAM...How did Jiffy do that? Dodge replaced it for labor only as there was some sort of TSB on it. But what a coincidence!