So I took my 2009 Grand Caravan to my regular oil change place and they said my plug was stripped and there was a giant metal shaving on it. He pulled it off and showed it to me. He tried to tell me that an oil plug should be change after every six oil changes. Well they are the only place to change my oil so I am guessing whichever employee of theirs did my oil last time they screwed it up. He couldn't replace the plug and said I needed my pan rethreaded. I asked a friend of mine and he said in all his years of working on and having old cars he has never had to replace an oil plug. I am so mad. I called them and the guy was kinda snotty but he said they could fix it, just to bring it in Tuesday. I am really hesitant to take it back there and am thinking about calling the dealer. Any advice???

 

ya I assume too that the guy used a tool to put it in with out first putting it in by hand with a few threads. I think the only fix is to replace the oil pan. not sure they going to be able to repair the threads. atleast I would be very concerned that if the oil leaked out who going to pay for a new engine.

 

This is why whenever possible I do it myself from oil changes to painting my house.The economy has everything so stretched out that finding trustworthy services is tough.

I took my van to a Dodge dealership once and got 5W20 instead of 10W30, and they rotated my tires fronts to rear (no cross pattern) and the cherry on top was they put my aftermarket wheels on wrong leaving one centering ring off, and putting two on another.
I have a tire pressure monitoring system and it gave them away on the rotation thing and when I went to correct it I found the centering ring issue. I was also promised they would use a torque wrench on the lugs and it was obvious they did not.

I am not lumping all dealerships into this thing, I am just speaking about my experience at this particular one. I was pressed for time and believed I would get a level of unquestionable professionalism there and was willing to pay extra for it.

I went back and go the correct oil and very diplomatically informed them of everything and when a Dodge dealership puts the wrong weight oil in a Dodge and tells me "We put that in everything", and tells me "Oh, he is new and just started doing rotations", its tough to trust anyone.

Mercy, Good Luck

 

Yup, replace the plug every 6 changes if you take your car to a Jiffey Lube type dump. Anywhere else they last forever. If the hunk of thread came off the bolt you should just have to replace the bolt. If it came off the pan you'll need a new pan.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/dodge-c...-it-again.html

 

If the oil change place was Jiffy Lube or its ilk, you should definitely take it in to a real mechanic or a dealership to diagnose it. You may have to pay them for another oil change as part of the diagnosis. If your oil pan is messed up then I agree it's better to get a new oil pan and not bother with getting the pan rethreaded. It may cost you more to get a new pan, but you may end up with more problems if you try to get the pan rethreaded.