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What Shocked Me!
Southside Speedy LubeI made a point of changing my own oil in my 1993 Dodge Dakota till the hassle of disposing of the old oil made me start going to South Side Speedy Lube, choosing them because of their handy location. I was always careful & know that the plug & pan were in good shape when I first went there.
On at least three occasions over the next year the workers at the South Side Speedy Lube damaged the threads in the oil pan of & had to install oversize plugs. Each time it happened, I mentioned it to the manager,
The last time this happened was 07/06/07. The manager of the South side location (Paul?) was doing the actual work & I heard him call for an oversize plug. He was handed one, but said "no - the next size bigger". He installed the larger plug.
The following Monday, after driving for well over 100 miles, I found oil dripping steadily from my oil pan. The plug was only finger tight and was too badly stripped to be tightened properly. I was very lucky to catch it before my engine lost oil pressure and was damaged.
I added oil, took it back to the South Side Speedy Lube, and talked to the manager, who apologized & accepted responsibility. He showed me a two-piece metal plug and said he would install it and change the oil. He also gave me oil to replace what I added.
I left my name & number with him with a request to talk to the owner. I also called the east side location and did the same thing with the manager there.
Two days later, I still had not heard from the owner (Gerald Friesen) so I repeated the process, including leaving a business card at the south side location.
The next day, still not having heard from him, I looked up what was apparently his home phone number (though he answered it as "Friesen Enterprises"), called him and spoke to him. He said that the businesses had notified him of the incident but not given him my phone number (very odd, if true). After a short discussion he arranged to meet me at his business.
I did that 7/17/07. He looked at the pan, stated that it was too old for the threads to be in good shape, and told me that his manager had installed a rubber plug instead of the two-piece metal plug (so the manager lied to me - basically, what they had installed was a rubber twist-in plug). He said that it was normal for the pan threads to be worn out after 10-15 years.
I mentioned to Friesen that it seemed a bit hard to believe that a nicely-machined & lubricated steel bolt could not be removed & inserted into a matching hole more than a few dozen times without damage .
He also told me that my truck was so old that most lube places like Walmart would not even change oil in one of that vintage. (another lie - I called and NO other lube place refused to offer an oil change, saying that age of the vehicle was irrelevant..)
Talking to most of the other lube places and a number of mechanics I was told that age did not matter as long as the plug was started properly, not cross-threaded or over-torqued, and that damage like my oil pan received was strictly due to carelessness on the part of the worker.
When I stopped in and point-blank asked the manager why he lied to me, he just said he didn't have to listen to me and I needed to deal with the owner.
I feel that the company owes me a new oil pan, but they refuse to install a good pan or reimburse me for having the damage repaired, only offering to replace the rubber plug every few years when it wears out.