It finally quit raining so I was checking a few things on the Barth. I had the oil changed Monday so I decided to check it... 1- 1 1/2 qts over!! There is also a drain plug missing on the bottom of the bell housing!!! Called Goodyear who put the tires on and changed the oil. They said to bring it down. I am hesitate to drive it ... they said it would be OK.. I am about 1 mile away. There is a plug about half way up the side of the oil pan .. is this to drain oil if it is over full? How about this drain plug on the bottom of the bell housing? They told me it was to drain moisture. From now on I will be changing the oil myself!!! 6bt 5.9 cummins Thanks for the help

On further investigation I noticed that there was some oil dripping from the filter. Called NAPA (it was their filter) the one that was on was for a 97 and up Freightliner!! I called the Service Manager at Goodyear...after having a discussion on qualified technicians and the replacement cost of a 5.9 they have decided that they will come to my house and make the needed repairs and changes...unbelievable!! Good thing I didn't go anywhere after the oil change... just drove it home.

You should feel luck you have extra oil. The Dodge dealer changed the oil in my conversion van when it had 35,000 miles on it and never put any oil in it. They then took it for a "test drive" and burned up the engine. They replaced it with a new crate motor and told me I was lucky because if it had 36,000 miles it would have been out of warranty and I would have had to pay for the new motor. Needless to say I quit going to them. I now change all my own vehicle's oil and filter. If you ever saw the containers they put the oil in to carry it to your car, you would always do it yourself.

You just can't be too careful.

My son had his pretty new Toyota truck serviced by Toyota the day before starting across the country, fully loaded.

When he backed out of his driveway to hook up the U Haul trailer, he noticed an oil stain. Investigation revealed a drain plug leak. It wouldn't tighten, apparently stripped from over-torquing. He called, and they took it back on a flatbed and replaced the pan.

I can't imagine the consequences of losing an engine a little farther down the road.

Unfortunately, many service facilities have their lowest-paid and least-trained help doing routine service.

And don't get me started on tire shop malfeasances.

You are absolutely right about the least trained doing routine maint. That is what got me to check to begin with. The guy who brought me my spare for the Barth (had it replaced with a better tire)told me he was the one that changed the oil. When I asked him how it went his reply was.. "Sure takes alot of oil" I'm guessing he was somewhere between 18-20. The filter wasn't his fault that was ordered by the shop foreman... he blames NAPA says he gave them the VIN #.... whatever. Still the kid should have noticed the leak on the filter. All in all it could have been a 10-15 thousand dollar oil change!!

Thanks to this site I found out about the GM genius idea to stick whatever dipstick was available in the 454 and send out a bulletin later. The first time I changed oil it took 8 quarts to reach the dipstick. Wrong! I now know where it is supposed to be on the dipper and I don't blow oil all over the place. Unfortunately, I can't find the GM note, but if somebody doesn't find it pretty soon I'll dig a little deeper and come up with it.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny Z:
I now know where it is supposed to be on the dipper and I don't blow oil all over the place. Unfortunately, I can't find the GM note, but if somebody doesn't find it pretty soon I'll dig a little deeper and come up with it.

Ziss it?

Bet you use a truck shop at least the next time, I can't imagine trusting it to a Goodyear tire shop, was it even a truck tire specialist or just the run of the mill car tire shop?

This Goodyear shop has been around for as long as I can remember. At least 50 years or so. They deal in everything from tractor and combine tires to a corvette, they also do all of the general maintance for the city vehicles, firetrucks, dump trucks, graders etc. Also agricultural. They have a good reputation, that's why I went there.... they should have known better!

The dipstick Bill mentions on the 454 was wrong on some 454's. I actually was able to find the correct part number and order it for my 85 Regal.
Jim

With the filter so accessible and sitting upright, I fill it with fresh oil before installing it. I've had diesel guys say it's a must with a diesel, but is it doing any good, or bad, to prefill a gasser?

I recently needed to change the oil in the BMW M3 I bought this spring. I went on line to see what kind of job it is as German cars can be different in ways of logic. To my surprise, I found there is a special oil, BMW / Castrol 10W-60 TWS Synthetic, that is specially formulated for BMW and Ferrari that MUST be used. Of course, it is $15 a litre and requires 6!!!

Thank goodness I checked on line. Imagine what would have happened if I went to the local Speedy Lube. What would they have poured in there? After reading more on line I heard lots of horror stories as the consequence of not using this oil is premature wear of the top end due to excessive breakdown of the oil through shearing. I know motorcycles that share oil between the crankcase and the transmission have a similar issue with standard oils shearing.

The lesson learned for all is that things are getting way more complicated in vehicle maintenance. You shouldn't take anything for granted. It pays to do research unless you are only servicing at the OEM dealer or you can really get yourself in hot water.

I also was reading about VWs efforts to build a performance diesel car. They are proposing to have an acid that injects into the exhaust which will add boost to the turbo and reduce emissions. The acid, they say, will get filled at each scheduled maintenance. I'm sure Speedy Lube will get the memo

We bought a VW Jetta diesel, only to find that changing the oil filter requires a special tool to remove the filter located on top of the engine and another special tool to install it to a very specific torque. It seems like the car makers don't want you to do your own maintenance. We got rid of the Jetta.
J

AH Goodyear service…that brings back memories!

I dropped off my pick up at the local place for an oil change and tire rotation. 5 miles down the road a front wheel fell off the truck. I did get them to pay for all damages, which was a small battle!

As for getting your M3 done at quickie change – they will turn you away! When in a hurry I used to use the Vavoline place near me. I took the Porsche 944 there once (this is an old car that cost me about $6k) and they refused to touch it because of the liability. There was a line of $30k + cars behind me!

BTW – a little known secret of many of the quickie lube places – they use recycled oil for the ‘base price’ oil changes. Recycled oil can be as good as new if done correctly….but I just don’t have then level of trust with a quickie lube!

Danny, any oil that you put in a filter is better than no oil. The filter on my jeep goes on upside down but i still put some oil in it to fill the baffles so that it takes less time to fill once i fire the engine up. On all of my other rigs i fill the filters as full as i can get them.