So my girlfriend took the car to Jiffy Lube...
 

Not the FR-S of course, I would have had to murder her. But we also have a 2000 Impala that we keep around to beat up. Her mother is a mechanic's daughter, and she knows her way around a car rather well. She smelt oil burning while riding with my GF, and so she advised her to take it to Jiffy Lube for an oil change and to turn down any extras.

So, my GF calls me and says that there is no air filter in the car. Now I know this is BS for a fact, because the last person to change the air filter was my brother, and it hasn't been to a dealership since then. So I'm guessing they're trying to prey on her ignorance to try and sell her another one. But now I'm afraid that they may have just taken the air filter out. Now if that's the case, I have a serious problem, because they're literally stealing parts from the car, and making it unstable.

I've hear of independent garages doing this, but you would think that this place wouldn't try and pull something like that. Anyway, if it is in fact missing when she gets back, I'm going to have to head back over with a hammer.

Make sure you check in with your brother before making false accusations. Otherwise give'em hell for messing around with your car.

Everyone should get into a habit of re-reading their own words

I do this 2-3 times for everything I write, sometimes noticing glaring holes in logic or structure that force me to just delete the whole thing.

If you re-read your story, you should realize that it seems that your brother may be the culprit here, but that’s just the writer in me.

Happy hammering!

I checked the reviews on Google for the one she went to. 1 star review, of course. Like I said, it's our beater car, so I didn't think much of it. I'll take a look at it when she gets to my place. I mean it's impossible for something like that to just fall out of the car, and my brother lives with me, and he's worked on the car a number of times (He used to own an '03 Impala himself). I'll post back with results.

Hopefully it's nothing like this:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiCAJ8ULnaI"]This.[/ame]

I can see how one could make that mistake. He was the last person to change it. I'm assuming that they had to have at least looked at the air filter at Jiffy Lube.

sigh... reasons like this are why people don't trust the rest of us in the industry. Scumbaggery at it's finest. Good luck bro

Shows a good reason to check reviews and rating on any shop. I usually go back to the dealer for maintenacne on my car. I'll only go to other shops if I can trust trust them because I have to get a state sticker. Then I'll figure, what the hell, I'll get my oil changed or whatever done at the same time too. But I never go to jiffy lube anyway and glad I never will.

Wow, so she got hit coming out of the Jiffy Lube... she called me about 2 minutes ago. Says she can't even open the driver's door. Will post pics if she's able to drive it home, or if I need to pick her up.

Lesson of the day:
Change your own oil or your car will get hit and you'll lose an air filter (possibly).

When you say air filter are you talking about a cabin air filter? Or the air intake filter?

Air intake. Sorry for not specifying.

Hope everyone is ok from the accident. Good luck getting everything straightened out.

I wouldn't have expected to hear that. Hope all is well for you gf.

Oh Wow,

That story took a turn for the worse...please let us know that everything turned out OK (really i dont care about the impala...more the GF)

Hope she is ok

She's fine, just shook up. Wasn't as bad as I thought, and there was indeed no air filter. I'll post back, taking her home now.