took car to dealer for service, quick oil question

[TheMAN]

You put 3K miles on in 1 month . Sucks that they put that oil in. Dealers always charge out the ass for any routine work. My first / last oil change at the dealer was over 100 bucks for non synthetic. Might CEL was on too and my car was brand new so I had them check it out. They had to put it on some "special" machine to scan the code that costed me over 60 bucks. All that to tell me there was some dirt in the gas cap. What a rip off. I learned the hard way.

you went to a crooked dealer also
diagnosing "CEL"s is part of the warranty!

 

[NRRfrogmanP5]

and auto zone will check em for free

 

[NCZ13]

you went to a crooked dealer also
diagnosing "CEL"s is part of the warranty!

Nope. Diagnosis is about about 1 shop hour. The 90 or so bucks you pay (give or take) is contributed to the work done, and covered under warranty if the diagnosis determined its a warranty issue.

Dealers dont diag cars for free. He had to pay out of pocket because they realized it was a gas cap issue (whatever that issue was) thus not covered under warranty.

The "special machine" dealers hook it up to is a computer. Think OBD2 reader on roids. They are mazda specific computers that fully diag cars, it takes a code, the code history, the sensors malfuctioning, etc. At hyundai we use a computer called a GDS. Its a 15XXX dollar piece of equipment.

So yes. its a special machine

 

[GoFast]

Don't take what I write and analyze a part of it. Look at the whole thing. I NEVER implied ALL dealers were crooks. Had you taken the whole thing in context rather than snipping a part of it you would have noticed. the second sentence " Either do it yourself or ask around before letting them do anything."

That implies he needs to ask around if he doesn't know better, which obviously he didn't. Perhaps if he had already learned this expensive lesson he may not have gotten ripped so badly. Which you obviously find amusing based on your first response.

you said:

that's nonsense!



what you implied in your original post was that ALL car dealers are crooks, which is NOT true... there's plenty of honest dealers around that charge honest prices... he just happened to step foot on a crooked dealer, that's all

 

[GoFast]

you went to a crooked dealer also
diagnosing "CEL"s is part of the warranty!

Diagnosing CELs is only part of the warranty if the problem is warranty related.

Example...Joe blow decides he is going to hook up an amp himself. Then he goes to the dealer because the car is running rough and he has a CEL. They discover the reason for the CEL light is because he drilled through the harness and one of his sensor wires are cut. Now he only has 6500 miles on it so it is still clearly under warranty. Do you think the dealer is not going to charge him a diagnostic fee?

 

[TheMAN]

BRAND new car, ZERO mods, CEL comes on

give me a break!

and learn to write s*** CLEARLY

 

[GoFast]

BRAND new car, ZERO mods, CEL comes on

give me a break!

and learn to write s*** CLEARLY

The cars mileage and lack of mods were never mentioned in your post or in his.

Learn to read the whole thought/post before arguing your semantics.

 

[NRRfrogmanP5]

when i took my car in they said it would be about 100 bux to diagnose my problem but if it was warrenty then it would just pay the deductable anyway so if its not covered then 100 bux for something that coulda got read for free.. but if it is then u had to pay it anyways so no matter what they wanted to say its for they were getting the 100 from me.

 

[TheMAN]

there is only a deductable if its an extended warranty
you pay ZERO dollars for ANYTHING non-wear and tear under the bumper to bumper warranty

you guys really need to RTM and read the warranty book! these crooked dealers are out there preying on people who don't read them!

 

[NCZ13]

there is only a deductable if its an extended warranty
you pay ZERO dollars for ANYTHING non-wear and tear under the bumper to bumper warranty

you guys really need to RTM and read the warranty book! these crooked dealers are out there preying on people who don't read them!

Do you understand how the warranty process works? Why will mazda pay the dealer to diag a car for a user created CEL?

For example, customer leaves their gascap loose, car throws a CEL, and the cust. takes it in for diag to the dealer only to find out they left the gas cap loose. Why would mazda pay warranty money for a non-warrantable cause?

Heres a recent example from about a week or so ago.

Customer came in w/ a 08 Veracruz w/ a CEL. Tech diaged the car and determined it needed a B1S2 o2 sensor. This was done with the computer, the technician doesnt even need to pop the hood. The work was ok'd by the customer and was covered under warranty. However when the technician popped the hood and looked at the wires, they had been chewed up by rodents, and the warranty issue just became customer pay. Hyundai (or any car company) will not reimburse a dealer for non warrantable work (have i said it enough times?)

 

[jon619]

For example, customer leaves their gascap loose, car throws a CEL, and the cust. takes it in for diag to the dealer only to find out they left the gas cap loose. Why would mazda pay warranty money for a non-warrantable cause?

So if it's not a customer created CEL, will you be reimbursed for the diagnostic fee?

 

[NCZ13]

Well not as much reimbursed as you dont pay anything. You dont pay for the work anyway until after it is done.

 

[TheMAN]

Do you understand how the warranty process works? Why will mazda pay the dealer to diag a car for a user created CEL?

For example, customer leaves their gascap loose, car throws a CEL, and the cust. takes it in for diag to the dealer only to find out they left the gas cap loose. Why would mazda pay warranty money for a non-warrantable cause?

Heres a recent example from about a week or so ago.

Customer came in w/ a 08 Veracruz w/ a CEL. Tech diaged the car and determined it needed a B1S2 o2 sensor. This was done with the computer, the technician doesnt even need to pop the hood. The work was ok'd by the customer and was covered under warranty. However when the technician popped the hood and looked at the wires, they had been chewed up by rodents, and the warranty issue just became customer pay. Hyundai (or any car company) will not reimburse a dealer for non warrantable work (have i said it enough times?)

I know exactly how the warranty process works, don't lecture me like I'm a n00b

I've seen plenty of cars go in with "loose gas gaps" and there was NO charge for the code reading.... just 0.3 hours of general diagnostic labor op was charged out.... no questions asked by anyone, not the manufacturer... all good... like a few years ago during the cx7 gas cap issues... half of them came in with loose gas caps and the customers swear up and down that they tighten their s*** to the clicks! wtf do you do? piss off the customer and have them not come to your dealer again and not buy another mazda? NO, you stfu and just smile, clear the code and just charge it off to warranty! eventually it was seen as a trend and so mazda first attempted at modifying existing gas caps (which didn't work), then finally issuing the recall

now if it is truely external influence like a rats nest, then yeah... there's no denying that the customer has to pay.... or if the customer keeps coming back with the same dumbass CEL and it's always a loose gas cap, then it MAY warrant denying the warranty.... you have to be very careful denying warranty because it's a customer relations issue!

 

[NCZ13]

so i guess were all on the same page lol?

And while my post was directed it at you, it was written more for the people who dont know and understand the ins and outs of the dealer business.

 

[sleeperms6]

Ok got my oil changed this morning for free service guys didn't seem to happy about it but I didn't care. I just know not to go there again.

 

[NCZ13]

What they were probably were annoyed with was that the technician didnt use the correct oil, HOWEVER, it is still up to the SA to put on the work order the kind of oil thats to be used, for the sake of the record. So maybe the anger you saw was not that you came back, but that you came back because the job wasnt done right, making him look bad.

Service advisors rely a ton on customer feedback and retention to make money. If they arent pleasing customers and meeting their service goals, than they wont make any money...

 

[coyfish]

Yeah NCZ is right. They have that diagnostic machine that they explained to me after I was charged 70 bucks or so. Took the shop a while. The thing is my car was brand new with less then 200 miles. I always closed the gas cap properly so I was annoyed I had to pay 70 bucks for mazdas hiccup. Some dirt was apparently in the gas cap which didn't allow it to seal properly or something along those lines.

Back to the topic at hand I think we can all agree that getting your oil changed at the dealer is generally not the best idea. A fellow speed 6er around here in the orlando area recommended a mobil oil change place. I went and they were all super cool asking me about my mods, track times, if I wanted to watch, etc. They don't give me any special deals but they were respectfull, professional, and have earned my trust.

 

[TheMAN]

What they were probably were annoyed with was that the technician didnt use the correct oil, HOWEVER, it is still up to the SA to put on the work order the kind of oil thats to be used, for the sake of the record. So maybe the anger you saw was not that you came back, but that you came back because the job wasnt done right, making him look bad.

Service advisors rely a ton on customer feedback and retention to make money. If they arent pleasing customers and meeting their service goals, than they wont make any money...

it's not the service advisor's job to tell the technician what to use and how to fix things... their job is to simply relay customer's concerns to the technician... if they did anything else, they WILL get yelled at.... you don't tell someone how to do their job! it goes that way in any field! now if the custom REQUESTS certain things to be done, it is explicitly written so on the work order so that its there on record and is not something the service advisor came up with... in otherwords, the service advisor is nothing more than a messenger for the tech and the customer and provide PR/customer service

it is ultimately the technician's responsibility to diagnose, repair, and use the correct parts... even if the parts department ordered the wrong part, it is still the technician's responsibility to catch it before the part even touches the car... technicians are always quick to blame the parts department when it could be either side's fault!

but even with all the s*** going on back there, the service advisor is the one that takes all the heat... even if nothing is his fault, everything will still reflect badly on him in the surveys because of how it is written and structured... its another one of those JD powers bulls*** that makes flawed statistics/data

 

[TheMAN]

Yeah NCZ is right. They have that diagnostic machine that they explained to me after I was charged 70 bucks or so. Took the shop a while. The thing is my car was brand new with less then 200 miles. I always closed the gas cap properly so I was annoyed I had to pay 70 bucks for mazdas hiccup. Some dirt was apparently in the gas cap which didn't allow it to seal properly or something along those lines.

Back to the topic at hand I think we can all agree that getting your oil changed at the dealer is generally not the best idea. A fellow speed 6er around here in the orlando area recommended a mobil oil change place. I went and they were all super cool asking me about my mods, track times, if I wanted to watch, etc. They don't give me any special deals but they were respectfull, professional, and have earned my trust.

mobil1 lube express = jiffy lube

enough said!

 

[NCZ13]

Exactly. There have been many occasions where the technician will order the wrong part, or parts has ordered an incorrect part. Service ALWAYS takes the heat. Its the unfortunate side of working in the service dept.

What i meant was the SA has to tell the tech what to use was that at my dealer, when the SA writes up the work order, he lists on each line of work exactly what is being changed.

for example for a LOF, It will say something along the lines of customer requests replacement of oil filter and oil replaced with 5W20 or 5w30 oil (depending on which one the customer wants.

When the techs locate on a job the read the work order to see what to use. Parts gets a copy of the work order printed, so they know what parts to bill out, and so on and so forth. So yes its absolutely the technicians duty to ensure the correct parts and fluids are used.

I work in parts, so ive learned alot about how the service part of the dealership works. Theres alot of different things that happen in order to keep the flow of work going smoothly and efficiently. Im fortunate enough to have a passion for cars, so it makes my job of looking up parts and working with shops much easier. Theres alot of parts people i dealt with who are clearly not car people and could care less about their jobs, making them difficult to work with.