I've had my share of car problems...

[CellarDoor]

First I'll say that I'm a very cautious driver. I drive relatively slow and I don't push my car at all. However, over the last 3 years I've had some terrible luck with my cars. I had a 1999 Acura integra that required a new tranmission (auto) after 75,000 miles, then had a radiator burst, then the back brakes "fell off." I got all that stuff fixed, and then a few months later my car was stolen, stripped down, and subsequently totaled.

I used the money from insurance to purchase a brand new 2005 Mazda 3. 9 months after purchasing the mazda 3, I got hit head-on by a drunk driver going the wrong way on a divided highway. The damage was around $12,600 but since the damage wasn't over 85% of the value of the car (they don't include the loss of value due to having an accident history, the damage was at 82.6%) they didn't total the car. The car got fixed and they did do an excellent job.

On Friday I went to Sears to get an oil change (I'm sure you car fanatics are sighing at this point) and the guy assigned to change the oil on my car was apparently an idiot. He drained the transmission oil instead of the engine oil, and then topped off my engine oil. I get the car back and go to drive it home when my check engine light and a transmission light go on. Then my car has problems upshifting, downshifting etc. It's acting all messed up. So I go back to Sears and that's when they realize that they drained the transmission instead of the engine oil. They give me another oil change, refund my money, and fill up the tranmission. At that point I called for the store manager to tell him the situation and made sure I had them document what they had done. Then I go to drive home and I realize that my car no longer shifts into 4th gear. I head back to Sears, they tell me to go to Mazda and that they'll pay for the damages. Mazda can't check out the car until monday (today). I just got a call from them saying that my transmission had internal damage and that it would need replacing. Wow. So Sears is now calling their insurance.

Given my history with cars I'm not really all that upset. Poor car though.

Cliffs:
1. Lots of previous car issues.
2. Takes car to Sears for oil change.
3. Sears tech drains transmission instead of engine oil.
4. Tranny all messed up, needs replacing.

Update 8-22-07: I actually got this news last week but didn't get around updating until now. The cost for repairs and to replace the transmission ended up being around $4600. If you combine that with the cost of repairs to the car after I got hit by the drunk driver ($12,500), the total cost for repairs has now exceeded the price I paid for the car.

Also I'd like to say that Sears did an excellent job of taking care of me. Their insurance company got me a rental car immediately and I haven't had any problems at all.

 

[necine]

Wow dude.... just wow.

 

[ognabor]

jesus! that's awful!

 

[faenix]

owned

 

[Zenmervolt]

Sounds like Sears is doing the right thing at least by paying for the transmission repair. Be sure to have the dealership check the engine, it's not good if they over-filled the oil, so make sure that there is the correct amount of oil in the engine too.

Good luck, Sears is usually very good about making things right.

ZV

 

[Gibson486]

wow....but personally I would have just sucked it up and sold the car right after the accident. that sucks that you were that close to being totaled. That said...i am glad to hear that Sears is making things right.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Happens all the time with lube shops everywhere. Sorry for you, but it goes without saying that lube shop monkeys are NOT the best of the best.

 

[Kestnuts]

Sears does some messed up things from my experience. I've known them to put oil filters in backwards, forget to replace the plug in the oil pan, among other things. I had a front end alignment done there and my car actually pulled to the left more AFTER they did the alignment. They also do everything they can to weasel out of their warranties. I had a set of tires there that went bad after 6 months, and they gave me every thing they could think of to keep from honoring the warranty on them. They told me my brakes must have locked up. They told me my alignment was off, even though i had THEM do the alignment 3 times in a year and rotated the tires there religiously every 5,000 miles until the mechanic refused to rotate them again because they were so bad. (I put 15,000 miles on in that six months) Eventually i gave up and bought a set from their competitors down the street just to be rid of the headache.

Oh, but this takes the cake...more than once, when I took my car there they didn't even have a person there who was capable of driving a manual transmission. I had to pull it into the garage myself.

 

[shocksyde]

Once I worked across the way from a Jiffy Lube, and one day there were cops everywhere. One of the employees came into my store so I asked him what happened. Apparently some dude brought his car in for an oil change and had a large amount of pot in his glove compartment. The JL employees found it and used the central vac to suck it up (in order to collect it from the vacuum container later). The IDIOT driver called the cops on THEM! HAHA!

I believe at least 5 people were arrested that day, including the driver.

 

[steppinthrax]

Someone must of lost their job at Sears that day?.. LOL


That is why I never go anywhere to get my car serviced. Unless you know the people real well and/or it?s their car you never will get good service. It is also the little things that someone can do that you can?t trace back to them. Like if some idiot over tightens the oil filter or never changes the crush washer or strips the engine drain plug. I don?t understand how someone can get confused between transmission and engine oil. I mean once you crack the plug you can tell that transmission fluid has a different viscosity as well as different smell. Unless the transmission fluid coming out from your car was Black which I strongly doubt it. Also on imports isn?t the transmission drain plug a 10 or 12mm allen wrench key and the oil drain plug a 14mm hex.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Kestnuts
Sears does some messed up things from my experience. I've known them to put oil filters in backwards, forget to replace the plug in the oil pan, among other things. I had a front end alignment done there and my car actually pulled to the left more AFTER they did the alignment. They also do everything they can to weasel out of their warranties. I had a set of tires there that went bad after 6 months, and they gave me every thing they could think of to keep from honoring the warranty on them. They told me my brakes must have locked up. They told me my alignment was off, even though i had THEM do the alignment 3 times in a year and rotated the tires there religiously every 5,000 miles until the mechanic refused to rotate them again because they were so bad. (I put 15,000 miles on in that six months) Eventually i gave up and bought a set from their competitors down the street just to be rid of the headache.

Oh, but this takes the cake...more than once, when I took my car there they didn't even have a person there who was capable of driving a manual transmission. I had to pull it into the garage myself.

I also had a bad experience with Sears where they did a full tire change and alignment and when I drove the car the alignment went out for some reason. I took it back and the (foreign) guy got angry and said the alignment was never this bad when he did the car. He almost had a pride kind of thing like the fact I took back the car made him look bad because he of course did the allignment. The guy jacked up the car to look underneath and see why the alignment was off. Instead of fixing the problem he found a lower-ball joint that was brand new (replaced before alignment was done). He said that was never there when he serviced the car and I never got my allignemnt redone. I called the district manager of Sears and bitched. I got my allignment done at another location.

 

[dustmann]

Originally posted by: CellarDoor
-snip-
On Friday I went to Sears to get an oil change (I'm sure you car fanatics are sighing at this point)
-snip-

I actually did sigh after reading that

 

[thirdeye]

YIKES! Good luck with the repairs. Let's hope Sears doesn't screw you in the end.

 

[ViviTheMage]

not bad, at least you get a free tranny out of it

 

[CellarDoor]

Update: I actually got this news last week but didn't get around updating until now. The cost for repairs and to replace the transmission ended up being around $4600. If you combine that with the cost of repairs to the car after I got hit by the drunk driver ($12,500), the total cost for repairs has now exceeded the price I paid for the car.

Also I'd like to say that Sears did an excellent job of taking care of me. Their insurance company got me a rental car immediately and I haven't had any problems at all.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: CellarDoor
Update: I actually got this news last week but didn't get around updating until now. The cost for repairs and to replace the transmission ended up being around $4600. If you combine that with the cost of repairs to the car after I got hit by the drunk driver ($12,500), the total cost for repairs has now exceeded the price I paid for the car.

Also I'd like to say that Sears did an excellent job of taking care of me. Their insurance company got me a rental car immediately and I haven't had any problems at all.

Shit, you got to tell me which sears that is. "Every customer gets a new transmission with oil change"