I recently posted here about using synthetic on my 05 Escape. Thanks everyone for your comments.
My next question is, How diificult is it for me to change the oil myself? I haven't really looked underneath yet, but I would like the convenience of changing it when I want to and not bring it to a shop and sit around for hours. I change the oil in my Crown Vic and it is moderately difficult to get under there to get at the filter and the plug, but I manage.
I realize that the Escape is high off the ground and it will be somewhat easy to get under the vehicle to undo the plug, but I'm wondering if I am in store for any difficulty do to the design of the vehicle.
Easy. The only flaw [on V6] is the oil filter will drip on the exhaust. Best wrap the exhaust with foil/paper to absorb the drip. You'll need a cap wrench.
I generally do most of my own maintenaince including the major stuff like trans, differential, steering and engine rebuilds as well as routine maintenance. My bread and butter work has allowed me to witness too many times when the dealer used a lack of proof of maintenance to decline a warranty repair which is within their rights if required under the terms of the warranty. For that reason, I always have the dealer handle the oil, filter and lube work while under warranty. It seems to keep my face there often enough to establish a good working relationship with them which has paid off in spades a couple of times as far as getting the call on a toss-up repair. The couple of dealers I usually buy from have the fastlane service. If they can't get me out in 30 minutes, they comp the oil change or give me an IOU for the next service.
I generally visit the dealer for maintenance during the warranty period. This might be some marginal waste of money, but on the off chance that they might really do all of the checking that they say they do, something might be caught that might otherwise go too long.
My Civic is at 40,000, and I just had a dealer service done. There are varying lengths of warranty on different parts of the car, same is true on my Escape, with the CVT transmission being covered for 100,000, so I don't really know what I'm going to do long term.
I won't be changing oil for the first couple of years, though.
I've never had a dealer do an oil change. It is not the expense, just the hassle of driving over to the dealership. I an change it myself in less time that a one way trip to the dealer. I've never had a dealer refuse warranty work either. However, for many years I did spend a lot of time cultivating the guys in the parts department. I always got a discount, and now one of the former counter guys runs the parts department. That was really a help on one job that the service department botched. The parts manager took the service writer aside and chewed him out on my behalf. It also may help that I bought a number of vehicles from the same dealership and they know my face (even if it is ugly).
As far as refusing warranty work because the oil wasn't changed at a dealership, I find that hard to believe. Right now I have my oil changed by a local shop that does good work. This should be good enough for the warranty. Nothing is mentioned in my warranty documentation indicating that it has to be serviced at Ford dealership, just that it has to be done at required intervals.
So if I have a problem and my car needs warranty service, will I be refused because I changed the oil myself or it was done at a local shop other than a Ford dealer? I relaized that if I do it myself, it can't be proven other than the fact that the appearance of the oil may indicate that it was changed often enough.
I need to get this straight before I decide to do anything myself. The service people where I bought my Escape are not very competent. I have heard some horror stories. Luckily over the years, I haven't needed any major warranty work done on my AMERICAN cars. Couple of recalls here and there, but nothing major. Maybe my luck is on borrowed time? M
I have the dealer do the work because of the hundred things that they say they are going to inspect, adjust, and monitor, at $1 each ;-)
By law, you are not required to use a dealer for routine maintenance in order to maintain your warranty. I have them do the work because i don't want to, and I consider the bozos at Jiffy Lube more hazardous to my vehicle than not doing the maintenance at all.
I took my Durango to Jiffy Lube for a transmission fluid and filter replacement. I was changing the oil on it myself, but I couldn't figure out how I was going to drain a transmission with no drain plug without making a mess. They didn't have a filter in stock. Kind of odd, I see lots of Durangos on the road. The local parts house brought one over. Wrong one, obviously. Some phone calls, dealer-only part. Then they had to get authorization to buy a dealer-only part... 2000 Dodge Durango 4WD must be rare. Somebody goes to the dealer and gets the filter. My car has been on the lift for two hours, causing quite the service backup for the sole remaining lift. The manager is talking about refilling the transmission so they can drive my car off the lift when the filter arrives from the dealer.
Finally, it looked like they were all done. I heard the car start. I saw the backup lights come on and go off. I instantly new something was wrong. On fast idle after having cooled down, I didn't see the body lurch at all. A few more backup light on/off cycles, and the engine was shut off.
A few more tries, with different people looking on. Off comes the pan for the third time. Something about the filter was in backwards. Reassembled, everything seemed to be okay. The "best" they could do for my troubles was to give me 10% off the price of the service.
They insisted no damage had been done to the transmission. I pointed out that it had been run for at least a couple of minutes with no fluid. They insisted that it hadn't engaged, so no problem. I had them make note on the receipt that it had been run with no fluid for five minutes.
Of course, 50,000 miles later, if the transmission fails, they will deny any connection... but who knows. I have over 300,000 miles on a Chevy automatic transmission. If the Dodge fails at 110,000, is it inferior quality Dodge materials, or a lack of lubrication 80,000 miles ago?
Next time, I had my wife take the Durango to the local tire shop. They changed the engine oil, drained the transmission, oops, no filter. Refill the transmission. Order part, no dealer in town. Take it back, replace filter, refill transmission. Two days later, it won't go into reverse. Take it back, add some fluid. A little while later, stalling, unrelated, methinks. I take it to the dealer, transmission clutch pack is shot, not releasing, killing the engine. That's $200 plus labor, some other service done anyway, $800 bill. As I type this, that seems pretty clearly like I should have taken it back to the tire place and claimed some cost against them, and I can't remember why I didn't. I think it was over
10,000 miles later.
A friend called and asked where she should take her car for some diagnostic repair. All I could tell her was the dealer. I get newer cars serviced so infrequently, and when they do go bad, it seems like the independents can't solve the problem, and the dealers can, immediately, that there's just no point. The dealer is $90 per hour, the independent is $60, but he wastes time in diagnosis. I take my old truck to the local guy for things I could do myself, but don't want to, like changing the radiator. Anything that requires skill, it's off to the dealer.
After reading your reply to my post, I see your point. However, the service dept where I bought my car is not to swift. There is another Ford dealer in my neighborhood that I can try, but Im' wondering if they would be ticked that I did'nt buy the car from them. I heard that their service dept was okay, but the sales dept is sleezy. The place where I bought my Escape has a decent salesw dept but service has produced horro stories.
For transmission fluid, I found a great transmission place nesar where I work and the chareg $75.00 for fluid and filter change.
Think it's not the location, but the fact since it wasn't at a dealership, proof of regularly required oil changes needs to be satified. I've been always told to keep a maintance book/folder of all work done on a car. Kinda like a medical record, so current mechanics can find out what work was previously done for any type of diagnosis situation.
You can keep reciepts from the when you bought oil, filters, etc. And keep a log. That should be good enough. Plus, if you have a transmission problem, it doesn't matter for the warranty if you ever changed your oil.
The question that comes to mind is why did you buy from this dealer?
Another question: Why not go to another dealer? Do you really think that another dealer would refuse to make money from you because you got the car someplace else?
They hate it when they make money off of someone who bought the car someplace else. If they didn't sell the car, then they never want to make money off of you. Never.
As long as they are making money (and the shop brings in about 1/2 the profit), they won't mind./
My transmission has over 110,000 mi and never had a fluid change!
You make some good points here. You say you never change your transmission fluid in 110,000 miles? I sort of felt that way too about not having to bother with the transmission fluid changes but when I bought the Crown Vic I got a liitle paranoid when several people told me that if you don't change the fluid you get the dreaded "transmission shudder" after 35,000 miles.
After hearing that I thought I get the fluid changed. The guy who did the change said it the old fluid was clean and no grit in the fliter.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.