My wife took her oil, Mopar oil filter, and burnt orange '05, with 12k miles on it, to her family garage. Her mother's dad started the shop, and left it to her dad and brothers, none of whom have had any training, although they are extremely proud of their labor. They are, at best, parts swappers. I don't have any way to get myself under her SRT-4 for a simple oil change, my Jeep Liberty by comparison, being far easier. We bought one brother and his wife a lunch several Sunday's ago, with a promise that he'd change her oil and rotate her tires. Oops!

She took it over Friday PM - they saw the blowby oil (I will finally put an OCC on tomorrow!) and said that the PCV, or more likely, the engine, was bad - thus the blowby oil! No codes, of course... and, it runs like a bat out of Hades. The next kicker was the tire rotation - he wanted to cross them, rather than swap them front-back! Gads! I should have known... they changed her AT fluid in her '95 LeBaron GTC several years ago - Mitsubishi V6/MOPAR AT - and they put in Ford AT fluid, as they didn't stock the Chrysler type. Yes, it trashed the seals, etc - and, with 70k miles on it and now leaving a telltale snail trail of AT fluid wherever it went, it was traded at a huge loss. The good news - three days after the wayward fluid foul-up, she had a new '03 Neon SXT, two years later, her beloved '05 SRT-4.

The moral to this story is simple: Brother-in-law shadetree mechanics, even if they have had a family shop for generations, are not a good place for even a simple oil change on our SRT-4's. I will change it next time, I will change it next time,....

Stainz

 

Yeahhhhh stay away from those shops. Just take it to the dealer for the oil change. I mean yeah you pay a bit more than you'd like to, but if anything goes wrong, its on them, not you. And if the engine ever WERE to go, you have documented proof that you've been taking it there every 3k.

Ughhhh ford fluids....grossness [:'(]

 

Yeah I'm a mechanic at a dealership for deisel trucks and I've got formal training, but I'm here to tell ya, when it comes to shadetreeing my SRT-4, I'm hardly any better off than the average Joe. A huge part of that is the computer diagnostics. Our dealership has propreitory laptops and computer programs that I do not own and the shop manuals be they paper or the new online ones are hugely more informative to those of us who can use a multimeter than the stupid Clymer or Haynes manuals you get from the auto parts store. Those books only show how to R+R the hardware but not how to diagnose. In fact they often say if you have KOEO flashcode XX, you must take it to the dealer. Their wiring diagrams are often wrong or suspiciously lacking too. The days of the shadetree mech are over bud. Even the well equipped corner garage is at a huge disadvantage. The factories have won.