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a moron burned up his Caddy Seville's engine

I was at the drive through oil change place, getting the oil changed in my wife's '99 Olds 88, 3800 series II cream puff. It was so hot, I got out of the car to stand in the shop.

A nice looking, shiny, 2000 or so Caddy Seville (or STS?) pulls up to the back of the place where you drive in. It's knocking heavily, smoking. There are 2 younger black dudes in it. It's got $2000 oversize rims on it. Instead of shutting it off, they sit there and idle it, waiting for the car up front to get done and leave the service bay. It's knocking away. So the service guy runs out there and tells him to shut it off! They finally get it into the service bay, and there's no oil showing on the dipstick. He asks the black dude "when was the last time you had an oil change?" The kid said "never." "How long you own the Caddy?" "about a year or so."

"Well, I'm afraid your engine is fried due to dirty, burned up oil."

"Yeah, that's why I brought it in to get it serviced. It was knocking loud. Can you fix it?"

"We don't rebuild engines here, sir."

"How much does that cost?................"

Let's see.....Northstar V8 rebuild or replace........um, not cheap

Instead of buying $2000 "bling" type rims, he should have bought a few oil changes. It amazes me how many people don't change their oil on a regular basis, if at all. That's why I would never buy a used car that doesn't have all oil change receipts. As for "well I did change the oil but just don't have the receipts", they don't sound too dependable (if they can't even throw oil change receipts in the glovebox) and probably did miss a few oil changes. Also, keep your receipts, helps in resale value.

Reply to
grappletech
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Guess you'll never buy my cars. I know I changed the oil at a proper interval (not 3000 miles either) and I know of only one receipt for both cars. Of course when you keep a car for 15+ years, resale value does not mean much anyway.

But you make me feel undependable and now I' depressed and sad.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

There's medication you can take for that. I heard it works even better if you take with alcohol!

Al

Reply to
ajtessier

"ajtessier" wrote in news:AbUvg.432335$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

I'm talking about cars that are sold that are like 5 to 7 years old. Of course, whether or not a 15 year old car has maintenance receipts is a lot less important than on a newer car. I knew a 22 year old guy whose daddy/mommy bought him a brand new Corolla. After about a year of no oil changes or even oil topoffs, the Corolla's engine was toast, sitting in his parents' yard. What did they do to teach him a lesson? They bought him a brand new Acura Integra. Some people have more money than brains.

Reply to
grappletech

My neighbor's car was smoking as she started it to go to work so she shut it off and came inside. She was prepared to just forget about it for the day. Mistakenly, I got involved and cut the AC belt because it was seized. The car ran fine. I never leave from under a hood without knowing the other fluid levels. It was low on oil and tranny fluid. She only had enough AFT+4 to bring it up to a very marginal level. I told her to get some fluid TODAY and I would top it off. It's been several days now and she's still running low. Some are in total denial and don't want to hear anything regarding a car until it fails. I say, "Let em fail."

Reply to
Al Bundy

"Al Bundy" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

knocking

Yep, they almost deserve what they get. I used to work at this place where we had a delivery box truck (a small Toyota with like a 10 foot box on the back, like a Uhaul truck) to deliver our products in. The general manager of the place was a woman, an aggressive "know it all" type lady. When I started working there, I didn't notice a service log on the Toyota truck, so I asked when the oil was changed last. She said "don't worry about it; it's fine." Out of sheer curiosity, I went and checked the oil and found that it wasn't even registering on the dipstick. I told her about it, and she got angry because: "I told you not to worry about it, and you went and wasted company time checking the oil! If it were low on oil, the oil light would be on!"

So I, as calmly and professionally as possible, informed her that the oil light, assuming it works, only measures oil PRESSURE, not volume. And that I checked the oil manually (which only takes a minute) and it doesn't even register on the dipstick. And I am not "wasting" company time by making sure they won't have to pay $4000 for a replacement engine! So she said: "well, you're being ridiculous; the oil light isn't even on yet." At this point it was personal, so I notified the DM (a male so he knows a little about engines) and he told me to take it down and get it serviced. It was like 2.5 quarts low and what oil was there was filthy dirty. The oil change guy shook his head and was surprised that the engine hadn't spun a bearing. My worklife there went downhill from that. The bitch manager holds grudges and took it all personally.

Reply to
grappletech

Hey gt. I sold cars in a rural SC town near where I grew up. Didn't take long to find out that there were MANY people in the area who thought oil was quite like gasoline--if the car quit running due to lack of either, then add whatever is 'out' and go back driving. I once sold a Catalina with 'good' mileage, with very good tires, to a couple. About 12-14 months later, having put 25000+ miles on it, they brought it in to trade. Said it was the best car they had ever had. They had spent NOTHING on the car--except gas--in all that time & distance. Good thing the tires wore down to needing replacement; else they'd have eventually ruined the engine. And as luck would have it, the crankcase was still full of "oil". Some people just don't know, whereas others just don't care; obviously, I have much more compassion with those who simply do not know. s

Reply to
sdlomi2

Garpple,

I don't know about oil change places receipts but the Shell Gas receipt are blank in a year - the ink disappears.

A similar thing happened to me in Myrtle Beach, SC around 1993. A Toyota with 4 gurls came into a gas station with zero oil in the engine, they drove it down from Maine. I added 4 quarts for them and the car actually started up and they were on their way again.

harryface

Reply to
Harry Face

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