Took the Camry to Jiffy Lube June 18 for 'signature service' (this apperantly means destroy your car in jiffy-speak). This was at 96k miles. They did an oil change, we left. Drove to Boston for a wedding.
Two weeks later, oil light began coming on when braking, so we took the car to the Toyota dealer. I cannot stress enough, if you find yourself in this place, DO NOT TAKE THE VEHICLE BACK TO JIFFY LUBE. They will replace oil, fix leaking filter, and lie about any permenant damage to your engine.
Take it to the dealer, nobody but a factory trained technician should see it at this point. Jiffy Lube will tell you they aren't liable unless you bring it back to them, this is a complete lie, and an attempt to get the vehicle to begin covering their tracks for the ensuing lawsuit.
When Toyota saw my car, it was at 98k miles, or around 1700 miles after the oil change from Jiffy Lube.
Dealer reported a leaking oil filter, and the oil light coming on during braking. No lubrication damage was evident at that point, they replaced the filter and the oil and informed us.
My Fiancee went to Jiffy Lube to get them to refund her $80, they gave her a district manager's phone number, who refused to return repeated calls, eventually we gave up on collecting that.
At the start of December '04, took the Camry to the dealer, reporting a knocking sound during acceleration. They said diagnosed a bad connecting rod and recomended full engine replacement.
I contacted Jiffy Lube, and spoke to a person named Chris. Chris can be reached at 919-828-9511, extension 250. Chris informed me that if I could show a lubrication damaged engine, they would pay for replacement. They also informed me that tearing an engine down is very expensive, and I was liable for this cost if there was no lubrication damage. Chris also opinioned that if it was connecting rod damage (an upper engine part) then the lower engine much be terribly scored.
He was correct, our lower engine was so damaged as to be considerably beyond repair, and would require replacement: $5800
The paperwork I faxed Chris at the start of this sham stated the problem with the lubrication directly, here it is, word for word:
'A customer states getting oil drops on ground from under engine area & oil level going down slightly. Customer Has not added any oil, advise wash engine'
Next line
'Clean engine area & run engine with vehicle on the lift. Non-Toyota Oil Filt leaking oil.'
After this they go on to discuss replacing engine lubricant, and how they found the oil light blinking on and off during test drive.
When I reported Toyota's findings to Chris, he said, and I'm qouting here: 'Our inspector says there is way too much lubrication damage for what Toyota described as a slight leak, your claim is denied'.
Too MUCH damage?
First off, Toyota didn't use the adverb slight, or actually slightly, my fiancee did. When she took her JIFFY LUBE RUINED car to the DEALER. The only indication of oil level at all on the paperwork from Toyota is indicated by the report of the technician test driving the car, and seeing the oil light blinking at braking. According to Toyota, this directly indicates one quart of lubricant or less in the engine, period. I tend to believe them, as they designed the engine. They also assure me that 1700 miles of driving on one quart of oil is more than sufficient to produce the damage found.
Jiffy Lube is now trying to say we must have let the lubricant get low at some other point, and that is the reason, but they have serviced this car oil change wise since we have owned it, and every 3000 miles or less, instead of the factory recomended 7500 miles. And yes, we use the synthetic oil they recomend.
Needless to say, they will be going to court in the near future.
An interesting side note. These crooks actually have the audacity to name their corporation 'commonwealth lubes, inc'. Ask my future wife her opinion about whether or not Jiffy Lube does anything for the wealth of anyone except Jiffy Lube, and you will get an earful.in fact, I can testify to the exact opposite - they routinely try and deny perfectly legitimate and provable claims (something made obvious to me from reading the 60 complaints against them on this website), and this time, Im going to get it from them in court. There is also a local television news organization investigating these people now. Be careful who you screw, Jiffy Lube, you never know who went to college with whom.
R.
Richmond, Virginia
U.S.A.
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