Dealership Oil Changes: Just say no!
 

Admittedly, after owning my 2013 FRS new since June of 2013, today was the first time I did an oil change by myself on the car.

Now, hear me out. I'm not your typical "clean hands" Joe here. I will get down and dirty if need be. But being as this is my first brand new car and doing my due diligence of having the dealer do my oil changes in case of any warranty type issues, looking at my oil drain plug just pissed me off big time! G'damn monkeys! How can you pathetically almost round an oil drain bolt? I don't even remember being in high school auto class and this happening.

My warranty is nearly up so I guess it's safe to say, fvck the dealership for good. Heffner Toyota/Scion/Lexus to be exact.

I guess this gives me an excuse to get one of those Fumoto drain valve thingys.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l1...pshapvdwit.jpg

Drain valve = 100% worth it. I connect a threaded, braided metal hose to it, turn the valve, and out it comes. Takes like 5m and minimal work.

I had my coilovers installed at the dealership (long story) and looking at a couple of the bolts, they're a bit stripped. Needless to say I wasn't pleased about that. The kicker though is when I went to put my summer tires on, the spring preload on one of the shocks was loose. Lesson learned to do that shit myself. At least I only have myself to blame if that happens

I recently learned that a lot of technicians are required to bring their own tools to work. Little did i know that some of them just have really shitty tools that strip everything. Not true for everything however...

I could've done your coilovers for you. Just bring a case of beer LOL. Nah bro, anything outside of an oil change don't even bother with the dealership. Even they couldn't even get that right which is quite scary.

I was working out west from the beginning of January, was supposed to come home at the end of February then I had 2 straight weeks of courses to do to be further qualified in my field. I wanted the coils to be done when I got home, so I got my parents to take the car in for me. Turns out I came home a week early, and had a week off in which I could have done them. However, I do have new suspension on it's way (hopefully soon, damn Fortune Auto and them custom building every set of coils!). Maybe I'll hit you up for a hand then.

Edit: Just to clarify, I was going to do them myself from the beginning, but my schedule didn't really allow for it and I wanted to be able to enjoy my car instead of having it out of commission for about a day.

Heffner Toyota's tool chest?


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Xab2LILaHd...0/100_1479.JPG

Do you honestly think that ANYONE could round off the corners on an oil drain plug like that? On just two of the corners?
Was it torqued to 300 ft-lbs? I think not.

Maybe a little occam's razor.

What ELSE can fuck up your oil drain plug other than the dealer's gorilla squad?

I know where you are headed Stu but that certainly has all the earmarks of the wrong tool being used. Think it is more than the just two corners (although the one looks ok), there was obviously side torque on it and the space between the corners is un touched.
Did that exact same damage by using channel locks more than once over the years!

"free" maintenance or not, i still did both of my first two oil changes on my own. third one is coming up in about 2 months and ill do it the same way at home again :)

Yeah I do my own oil changes too, even though its only been once. What form of documentation do you have in the event of warranty and they ask you to prove you did your oil change or other "checks" as they recommend? All I have are receipts and the mileage written down.

If it wasn't a Toyota dealership I'd think they used a standard socket instead of a metric one. I have no idea why a Toyota dealer would have standard sockets though.

this is why I drill a new hole in my oil pan each time. Prevents rounded corners


but seriously, thats pretty bad.

Wait, are you blaming the OP?