Should I do first oil change at dealership?

[roadpilot]

Yep, visual only of all fluid levels, brake pads, etc. Also try to rip you off for topping up washer fluid, some even change wiper blades every service. Any excuse to squeeze out a few bucks more.
Don't they do that in the US?

No. By US law, automakers and dealerships cannot make you perform regular maintenance at a dealership for a new car warranty to remain valid. You simply have to keep records of having the services done elsewhere or when doing them yourself.

Sponsored

 

[AZ_Ryan]

The oil monkeys at dealerships are the bottom of the barrel in terms of knowledge and skill. Ive heard some real horror stories. Unfortunately its not much better anywhere else. At least I can watch them do the work at a Jiffy lube and I know they aren't going to back it into anything, or do a burnout in the back lot.

 

[LouG]

No. By US law, automakers and dealerships cannot make you perform regular maintenance at a dealership for a new car warranty to remain valid. You simply have to keep records of having the services done elsewhere or when doing them yourself.

OK, I misunderstood your post. We're the same here, you can do maintenance yourself, you have to keep receipts etc.
But if the dealer can prove your incorrect work, or not doing a required check caused a failure, they can deny a claim.
It can be a very difficult situation, needing expert witnesses etc.

 

[JohnWimsey]

I have the maintenance warranty so dealer does mine it's great I have 4500 kilometer's on my car and have already had three oil and filter changes. It pops up on the screen when I start the car when I reach their set times and then I go in it's great. Now if I didn't have that I would change my own it is not that hard to do if you have the tools.

Metro Ford, a local dealer here boost free oil changes for life then adds 3k to the price to cover those free oil changes for life. No they wont take it off and no I wont buy from Metro Ford. Yes life is that easy.

 

[JohnWimsey]

You got warranty so yes I think so at least the first to years. You never know if cars is Going to develop some issues. It even did 1 after the first 1000km

check oil level before you leave and look for leaks

 

[Cz_Ziemniak]

Between the restorations and work being done on the classic cars, I would often get some gravy work throughout the day on modern cars to pad the inbetween longer stuff. I got a few gems that I've seen come in from dealers.

- Was working on an original Boss 302 when a fella got towed in with a Subaru after having the oil done at the dealer. Car arrived with the oil cap missing and oil all over the engine bay. That was fun

- Lady came in stating the dealer told her she needed brakes and tires in addition to the alignment they just did. She, in fact, did not need brakes or tires. What she DID need was for the locknut to be tightened down on one of the tie rods. I suppose a fella forgot to tighten it all the way or something.

- Car came in the shop, had apparently followed the service interval that the dealer recommended. Had around 120ish thousand miles iirc. I checked the interval just for giggles, and it was, like, 15K mile oil changes. Sludgy, to say the least. He was not happy to hear that.

- Got pulled off an XKE to help some lady with her Jetta. Dealer couldn't figure out why the windows were inop. Took, like, 10 minutes to figure out that a fuse was in the wrong location. I presume that she took it in, dealer figured out the fuse was blown, accidentally put the new fuse in the wrong spot, then spent a week unable to work out why the windows were still not working.

- I noticed a few Range Rovers come in the shop with a sorta shitty brake pedal, occasionally squeaking or rubbing noises. Every single time, without fail, the slide pins on the calipers were completely dry. Needed to be fully cleaned, lubed, etc. Came to find out later that the local Range Rover dealer does not supply grease to techs for the sildepins, and informs the techs that its not required. Fucking preposterous, hahah.

- Countless amounts of cars with stripped hardware and overtightened bolts/nuts/whatever else.

- Lady came in the shop hoping for a second opinion on her S-class. Dealer told her that she needed new brake lines and that it would cost something like 3G or 4G's + parts. They weren't wrong, she definitely did need those brake lines, totally rotted through. Ended up saving her a few thousand by beating the dealers book time, which required a bunch of extra work like dropping the gas tank. This ended up being a semi frequent occurrence, those Mercedes brakelines were very very prone to rusting completely through. By the third or fourth job I was beating book time by half. I suspect somehow people caught wind that we were the guys for that specific job, not the dealer.

- This sorta doesn't count, but sorta does. SAAB came in because the Chevrolet dealer refused to do work on his car, even though much of his 9-3 underneath was a Cobalt. whatever. A car is a car, and work is work. They could've easily figured out the wiring issue on the car, but I also understand its not in the dealers interest to get hung up on jobs. They want the car in and out.

You gotta understand that dealers work off book time, and the techs get paid for x hours regardless of how long it takes to do the job. If the tech takes 30 mins to do a 1 hr job, they get paid 1 hr of time. If they take 2 hours to do a 1 hr job, they get paid 1 hr of time.

They're incentivized to take as little time as possible to do every job, and this leads to a whole lot of accidents, mistakes, or just overpriced work. Furthermore, they hire a lot of green mechanics who are still learning the ropes, which leads to even more issues.

I've seen how dealers operate, and while there are a lot of great guys, there's also a lot of idiots. I wouldn't trust anyone with my cars but myself, because the idea of some asshat saving time and not tightening something down properly, or joy riding my car on a cold engine during the road test (this happens more than you'd like to know) doesn't sit well with me.

Every mechanic makes mistakes, but dealers unintentionally incentivize it with the way they pay the technicians.

 

[Dxm]

In my opinion and experience, do oil changes at the dealership, and all their inspection until you run out of warranty. Then do whatever you want. Less things to try to prove if something goes wrong.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

In my opinion and experience, do oil changes at the dealership, and all their inspection until you run out of warranty. Then do whatever you want. Less things to try to prove if something goes wrong.

Why? It's not hard to document oil changes outside of a dealer. If you pay for a carfax on your vehicle, you can even update all the services and oil changes yourself.

 

[Dxm]

Why? It's not hard to document oil changes outside of a dealer. If you pay for a carfax on your vehicle, you can even update all the services and oil changes yourself.

But if something goes wrong, then you will need to prove you did everything correctly. As opposed to there being a record of you bringing your car into the dealership.

(even though dealerships can often screw things up).

 

[AZ_Ryan]

But if something goes wrong, then you will need to prove you did everything correctly. As opposed to there being a record of you bringing your car into the dealership.

(even though dealerships can often screw things up).

Again, It's not hard to save documentation. I just throw my jiffy lube receipts in the glove box. Your vin and odometer are on every invoice.

Also, if something goes wrong and they think improper oil changes where a factor (which is extremely unlikely unless the oil was in terrible shape or low when brought in), then THEY need to prove it to deny any warranty work. The customer is not automatically guilty until proven innocent.

 

[dusman59]

I would like to know if anyone for real had a warranty claim denied from them doing their own oil changes and having receipts,videos, etc. I would maybe believe the dealer just didn't want to deal with the claim. There is so much speculation and no real data.

 

[Cz_Ziemniak]

I would like to know if anyone for real had a warranty claim denied from them doing their own oil changes and having receipts,videos, etc. I would maybe believe the dealer just didn't want to deal with the claim. There is so much speculation and no real data.

As would I.

I spent a considerable amount of time discussing this with my sales person, as it was a genuine concern.

I probably should've gotten it in writing before getting a build order, honestly.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

I would like to know if anyone for real had a warranty claim denied from them doing their own oil changes and having receipts,videos, etc. I would maybe believe the dealer just didn't want to deal with the claim. There is so much speculation and no real data.

You'd be very hard pressed to find an example.

The only reason the dealer would ever question the oil history, is if the vehicle came in with dirty or low oil.

 

[dusman59]

When documenting with videos/pictures one should have shots of mileage and oil monitor percent reading.

 

[Fender5803]

So perfect if you have the means !

Sponsored