Midas horror story. Little OT, but maybe not

[David Maxwell]

Took my Nissan truck to Midas recently for brakes because I had a coupon (bad reason). Anyhow, they gave me an outrageous quote. When I looked at the rep as if he was crazy, he seemed to realize his estimate might have been a bit out of line. I should have just turned and split, but he offered to do it for less and throw in a FREE oil change. Well, they fixed the brakes OK and the changed the oil. By that I mean they changed it from full to empty, put the cap back on and sent me on my way. I noticed the car was making some strange sounds the next morning and wasn't even thinking oil because, after all, I had a fresh 5 quarts in there. My friend came over and, not knowing I had just had an OIL CHANGE, said "sounds like you don't have any oil". I said "Nah! I just had it changed" We both looked at eachother and instantly said "oh @#$%". Checked the stick and sure enough, it was bone dry. Not only that, but they didn't change the filter either. Fortunately, we caught it before any apparent damage was done. Put on a fresh filter and filled it with oil and it seems to be running great. Moral of the story; Don't ever assume the did it just because the say they did, and never walk away from your car to have a bite to eat when some kid is working on it!

[oldmopar]

Got to watch them kids my 1st full time job was in a garage I mostly did tires, oil changes. The other guy (the one who knew what he was doing) was out to lunch. A customer comes in and wants a brake adjustment so I took care of him when he backed out he had no brakes I turned the adjuster wheel the wrong way. Only damage was to my pride I got the car back in and adjusted it correctly.

Ed

[Jerry Roberts]

Um , how far did you drive it without any oil in it ?

[PatS....]

My nephews first job was at an oil change drive thru and they did the same thing as happened to David except the fellow went from the oil change place to the highway!!!

They bought the guy a new engine and paid for a rental for six weeks and some compensation etc.

Nephew got fired a few weeks later for something unrelated...

I had some fool tell me my drain plug was stripped and I fell for it telling them to fix it

What didn't leak before leaked as long as I owned the car after they "fixed it"

I found a drive through that is attached to a service bay company and all the employees are 40 somethings but I still watch 'em like a hawk.

They don't like it but they understand.

[HalfdollarMayflower]

That sucks! But it's the exact reason I try to do as much of my own work as possible. I hope you went back and gave them an earful!

Bad thing about it is that most quick-lube places will not replace your engine with a new one if it has been damaged...they'll buck up for a junkyard motor with similar miles, but that's about it....or so I'm told.

[greg g]

Uh, you did go back there and report your sitution did you not??? Your engine might just be a time bomb slowly ticking. And it should be on them if it happens to let go one day soon.

I had my wife's car's oil changed the other day at the dealer where I work occasionally. Since I know the tech, I hung out in the bay and checked some other things down under. Since her car is a Subaru, the parts guy had to order the filter from a jobber. They use car quest. When it appeared, it was the wrong one. It fit but it only caught about 2 or three threads when screwed on. The fellow caught it and compared it to the on that came off the car, that one had a convex casting which held the thread up neat the same level as the gasket, the one they sent had a convex area and the threads started about 1/3 inch below where they should have been. A second filter solved the problem, and the one they sent origionally fit on a Hyundai in the next bay (go figure) Any way I'm glad the 19 year old kid hat normally does the oil changes had called in sick. My new oil could have been all over the road had he put in the incirrect filter.

[Captain Neon]

I never let any one else change my oil. I've read too many stories and seen too many hidden camera exposes where they never actually do the work charged or, worse, cause more damage.

I took my Neon to a Havoline Rapid Oil change a few times when I lived in Arkansas. When I changed my own oil later, I needed a breaker bar and a heavy hammer to loosen the drain plug. It took me at least 1/2 an hour of banging lying on my back before it came loose. They must'a put it on with an impact wrench. Never again, I swore.

[Captain Neon]

My father bought a used Chevy station wagon some years ago. There were several receipts in the glove box from Midas for brake work. We decided to rotate the tires. After fighting and soaking the lug nuts, we had to use a maul to loosen the wheels from the drums. The wheels likely had never been off the car! If Midas had just done brake work, the wheels should have come off easily. Midas charged the PO for brake work it never performed. I'll never go to a Midas!

[HalfdollarMayflower]

oh, come on...you can "Trust the Midas touch"

About as much as I'd trust Britney Spears & Paris Hilton to watch my kids.

[Captain Neon]

Britney's just a nice girl that's been having a rough time lately.

[HalfdollarMayflower]

nothing to see here...

[Captain Neon]

At least that's what all my mother's friends said about the girl w/ three kids all from different fathers that they wanted to fix me up with once I got settled into my first real job.

She just had made a few small mistakes...

[JerseyHarold]

David,

Go back to Midas and put your complaint in writing. The shop has a garageman's insurance policy for screw-ups like this. Engines are expensive! CYA.

For what it's worth, I worked at a Saturn dealer several years back when the 'L' series came out. The Wix catalog that year listed the wrong oil filter number for the 6-cylinder car, and we put several new engines into cars that had their engines destroyed at local garages because of it.

[Norm's Coupe]

Changing your own oil isn't always a sure thing either.

I put a brand new Purealator Oil filter on my van myself about a year ago. Got on the freeway to drive home from a relatives house about 10 PM on a Sunday night and the thing blew. Just split at the seam. Had to stop at a grocery store that was luckily open on Easter Sunday that time of night to fill up the crankcase so I could make it the rest of the way home. That filter only had about 1500 miles or less at the time on it.

[Captain Neon]

There isn't a whole lot one can do in regards to a defective filter. I just stick with a brand I like and keep my ear to the ground if there are QA problems and product failures in the field. I've been told to avoid Fram filters because the filter element has been known to come apart in the field. I've always been happy w/ Wix aka. NAPA Gold and (currently) MoPar.

Changing my own oil at least insures that it was actually changed and filled w/ my preferred oil brand and weight.

[bob_amos]

David, That's why my shop does so well. While we seem expensive at first we really are not. In the end it is done right and you don't generally have troubles with anything we have done later. I say "generally" because in this day and age of big businesses trying to squeese every cent out of their dollars we are now finding that the parts the "BIG GUYS" are selling are no longer up to speed all the time. By the way, Midus guarantees thier brak jobs for life because they use VERY HARD pads and linings. This eventually will distroy rotors and drums so keep an eye on them and replace the lining and pads at the first sign of noise. And don't go to Midus again for the brakes. Get a quality job with quality parts next time. In this case, "A penny saved is a dollar spent later".

[62rebelP23]

the first "classic" car i had was a 1962 Continental; really nice old car and the glovebox was full of warranties/reciepts for work done. got settled in reading through these; one was a Midas folder dating back 18 years(!!!)for exhaust work done, replacing mufflers about every two years, and whole systems about half that.... gee, i thought; the mufflers were "no charge" but the labor and pipe weren't.... and then i discovered that this big black beauty had chronic head gasket blowouts. the coolant fortunately never went into the oil but it did blow down the exhaust...... effectively rusting the system away little by little all the time. you'd think the Midas guy might have caught this, but they were making money on labor and pipe every couple of years.

i actually only discovered the real cause when changing plugs; the center pair on each side had light rust on the insulators around the electrodes, and were wet when i pulled them. lucky not to have hydrolocked that 430....

[Normspeed]

Midas burned me on a complete exhaust for a 69 Skylark way back in the late 70's. I took it back in one time, recognized bulls**t when I was hearing it, and never went back to any Midas again. Buncha losers.

[JerseyHarold]

62rebelp23,

I had a '63 Lincoln....one of the most unreliable cars I ever had, but loved those suicide doors.

The exhausts were prone to rusting out because the resonators were mounted at an angle and held condensation in the ends, leading to early failure. I, too, got hooked on the Midas merry-go-round with resonators and pipes every couple of years.

In our area, we couldn't find a shop that would replace the water pump when it quit (too difficult a job, they all said), so my father and I had to repair it ourselves.

[james curl]

All one has to do is read their franchise agreement and talk to the corp. bosses and you will find that a person with values could not operate any of the franchised muffler shops. I checked into all of them 20 years ago, they all told me you would sell a complete exhaust every two years at the most to every customer. I told them that I have never had a header pipe that did not last 20 years if not damaged by running over something. They show you the big waterpump pliers and tell you that if the pipe gives when you squeeze it with them the pipe needs replacing. I took a brand new pipe and squeezed it and it gave. In a small town of 10,000 people you cannot screw your customers but once, that is why you only see them located in larger cities.

[Young Ed]

Harold sure have heard bad stories about the engines and wiring of those Lincolns. But I sure do love them. That's another convert I'd like to have someday.

[Normspeed]

My father in law had one of those big Lincolns, maybe a 61. The hood release cable broke. Talk about a job getting that hood open. It was ugly.

[Niel Hoback]

I had 65 Lincoln, big black monster. The power steering pump quit and when I found out what it took to fix it, off the big scrap yard in the sky it went. It too, as a car, was a big disappointment.

[Young Ed]

I've heard about those things being bad too. Aren't they incorporated with the timing cover?

[Plymouthy Adams]

mounted behind the lower damper/pulley and runs directly off the crankshaft