I work part time at Mueller's Auto Service, Inc. in Magnoila, TX. We had a funny experience with a '96 F-350 Powerstroke yesterday.

This guy brought the truck in last week because it was running weird. Well, they put it on the rack yesterday to service the rear brakes, but Billy, the boss, wanted to see what was wrong with the engine first. Well, it ran at first, but it idled funny with a weird lope as though the injectors weren't firing right. So Billy put the scanner on it to see if the comp read an injector problem. While scanning the computer he found a code that said the oil pressure was too low. So we pulled out the dipstick only to find that it was bone dry. Of course, I stated the obvious by saying "Well, that can't be good."

We proceeded to add a gallon of oil and checked the dipstick again. Once again...bone dry. So we added a second gallon of oil which, much to our relief, managed to fill it to the ADD line. A few turns and it cranked right up. We ran it for a while with the oil pressure where it was supposed to be and it eventually started running like new.

We believe that the guy, or whoever he let change his oil, forgot that diesels hold a few gallons of oil instead of a few quarts.

Remember, friends don't let friends drink and change oil.


Then I started to take the rear wheels off and 3 of the lug nuts on the passenger side were stuck. Took quite a bit of persuading with the impact to get them off. So I learned the hard way that it is never fun to have to deal with frozen nuts.

 

Well, its better to at least "change" the oil. I met woman up in Denton that actually thought an oil change meant just ADDING the oil every three months. Obviously her engine was running with about 6qts instead of the "recommended" 4qts. I changed the oil for her and taught how. Her car is still running.

 

How long was the F350 without oil?

 

No clue, thats what was scary about it.

 

i've heard two stories in the past month of instances where a little old lady is left to deal with her car after her husband passed away and they never did any kind of maintenance to the thing and ended up turning the oil into gommy gunk that left the stick reading dry because it just made a hole in the gunk. *shrug*

 

or you could take it to jiffy lube and have the monkeys there strip your oil drain plug with their 500$ impact on max setting.

Ray

 

Thats why i change my own oil, so I dont have to worry about someone else stripping the drain plug, putting the wrong amount of oil, or not even snugging the filter down. I changed the oil in this Ranger the other day and whoever had changed the oil last had left the filter so loose that you could spin it with one finger. It wasn't even snug, i'm surprised it wasn't leaking.

 

I might start changing my own oil too. I rotate my own tires so what the heck. If I go to Jiffy Lube I stand out there and watch the monkeys as they are not the brightest bunch of guys.

 

7 dollar an hour kids.

Ray

 

Hey I get paid 7 dollars an hour to do crap like that, but I have an ASE certified technician there to check my work for me.

 

well not all of them are bad.. its just most of them, learn on people 50000$ truck for 30$ oil change

Ray

 

I've had the oil changed in my road truck at the same family business for ten years. The owner and his 30 year old son are the only ones under the truck. They wash their hands between vehicles. Very clean and consientious.

 

And yet you still go there

 

HAHAH billC ya he will go there tell his engine gets destroyed then he will be all pissed off.. do it yourself no one cares more about your vehicle then you do.

Ray

 

I try my dangdest to do all my own "mechanicking", change my own oil, I usually go to discount tire for the rotations, but considering the wait is over 2 hours now, I do that on my own as well...city takes the old oil and filters for free...takes me about an hour and a half to do it all by hand...