The company I work for has a fleet account with Jiffy Lube. I have been taking my pickup there starting on 1-4-03. I generally average 3000 miles a months. I actually stopped using this Jiffy Lube and changed the oil myself for a period of about 3-4 months twice due to a lack of confidence in the employees.
Unfortunalely, I had started going back there in December. Jiffy Lube serviced my vehicle in December, January, February, and March. After my service on March 2nd, I drove the truck for exactly 1 1/2 days, when the transfer case suddenly locked up.
When I heard the transfer case go out, I immediately drifted off the side of the road. When I checked it, I found that the housing extension for the output shaft had broken off. When I tried to pull the fill plug to check it, it was full of dirt. I cleaned it out, but couldn't budge the plug. When I pulled the drain plug, there was no oil in the transfer case. There was also no indication of the massive leaking that should have happened when the case broke.
After quite a large ordeal (I was in the middle of nowhere, with no cell service), I was able to get the truck towed to my family's house nearby.
The next day, I called the store to tell them what had happened. I spoke with the assistant manager (who, by the way, was the one who had changed the oil). He said that the transfer case shouldn't effect anything but the 4 wheel drive. When I told him there was no oil in the case, his response was, "just put some oil in there and see if that takes care of it." I don't think so.
After several days and several calls, we finally got in touch with the store manager. We were told that the manager from a nearby store would run up and check it. He looked under the truck, but didn't pull either plug to check it. He said he would tell the other store manager what he had seen.
After another day of waiting, the original store manager told us to take the truck to an ASE certified mechanic, and to have them tear down the transfer case to see what had happened.
We had a nearby garage tow the truck to their facility. They pulled the transfer case and tore it down. I was in the area, and was at their garage when they tore it down. All of the plastic bushings in the tranfer case were melted, and much of the aluminum was cut up, fused, or melted. He said the seals looked fine, and that there was no evidence of leaking through the gaskets. This was on Friday, March 12th.
The manager was out of town, so the mechanic called him on Monday, March 15th to tell him what was found. The manager listened to the report, then said he would pass the information on to the franchise owner, and would get back to us.
After hearing nothing for two days, I called the manager on the evening of Wednesday, March 17th. He said he regretted to inform me that the owner had decided it wasn't their fault, because the truck had 105,000 miles, and Jiffy Lube had not changed the transfer case oil at 50,000 as recommended.
I questioned this logic, and asked how that made a difference when the transfer case had no visible leaks, and had been checked by their employee 1 1/2 days before it locked up. I was told that this was the owner's decision.
I asked if I could speak to the owner about this. I was told that he would call me first thing in the morning. After hearing nothing for several more days, we called the manager back on Friday, March 19th.
He said that the owner had been in meetings and unable to call us. When we inquired about how they would be paying for the tow bill to the mechanic and labor for the checkout, he said he couldn't authorize that. We told him that, as far as we were concerned, he authorized it when he told us to have the transfer case checked out.
So, now it looks like we are going to have to resort to legal action to get my truck fixed. I am not looking for anything excessive here. I just want the truck to run like it did before Jiffy Lube and Spaar Management destroyed the transfer case.
Joe
Milton, West Virginia
U.S.A.
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