Tow vehicle servicing gap

minnow wrote:

Coach-man wrote:
Todays mordern greeses are not your fathers greese! They are sealed at the factory and are designed to hold up for a loooong time! Putting in zerks and replacing that greese defeats the design, since you would be using inferior greese. You can not buy the greese used at the factory. That being said, I agree that service stations including dealers will do the absolute minimum when servicing your vehicle. For the most part they are paid by the job, so if they cut conners they will get paid more!? Go figure! I try and do all servicing myself, I care for my vehicle and even if it takes a long time I know what I did and I am confident that the job was done right.

Special grease ?? Only available to manufacturer's ??

Yes!

It's exclusive and unique to/for dealers!

Dealers have and liberally apply...."WALLET GREASE" !!..:S

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Coach-man wrote:
Todays mordern greeses are not your fathers greese! They are sealed at the factory and are designed to hold up for a loooong time! Putting in zerks and replacing that greese defeats the design, since you would be using inferior greese. You can not buy the greese used at the factory. That being said, I agree that service stations including dealers will do the absolute minimum when servicing your vehicle. For the most part they are paid by the job, so if they cut conners they will get paid more!? Go figure! I try and do all servicing myself, I care for my vehicle and even if it takes a long time I know what I did and I am confident that the job was done right.

Special grease ?? Only available to manufacturer's ??

richfaa wrote:
We have ALL our work done by Ford dealers and abide by the recommended maint schedule. We have never had a issue.

"....abide by the recommended maint schedule."

"We have never had an issue".

Deep pockets?
Fan of the **** tables in Vegas?
(ROTFL - Forum won't allow the slang term beginning with a "C" for dice! - automatically changes it to four ****)..:B

Dealers (Stealers) are *not* your friends - even if they would like you to believe that - akin to a Vegas Casino, with as good or better odds in their favor.
Only difference - in Vegas you *might* enjoy losing your bucks!

Dealer's motto:
"An ounce of image is worth a pound of performance" - and LOTS of $$.

Having had trucks mfg by the all of the "Big Three" -and- been to more than one dealer when I had a Ford......"service" really means "servicing" your wallet..:S

Dealer/s for the brand I have now, rate no better..:(
No joy - when under warranty = "come backs" to get it right.
(Just like when *I* had a Ford).
Rental car agencies happy!

Out of warranty - thought I should give dealer a try. (Dumb!)
Fortunately, I left without drinking the cool aid offered by the clueless service writer!
Results were WAY less $$ - for the same mechanical repairs by an independent.

****************************************************************

Back to "The lube man":
The guy that performs "service" (oil changes, etc.) - has always been the low man on the totem pole at dealerships.

Normally paid a percentage of the cost of the service.
Dates to the 1950's when I had cronies who were so employed.
Maybe it's changed now - but the results most likely are still "hit and miss".
The guy you are happy with, may be "here today, gone tomorrow" - for any number of reasons. Personnel change may be: good - bad - ugly.

If you can't do it yourself - find an independent.

"Mechanics" are now "parts changers" following a script for codes.

Sure the hourly rate for repairs may be the same, but you will usually have contact (and/or "eyes on") with the guy/s doing the work.

.

Edited due to a.... " **** Shoot " - kinda like dealer service!.;)


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Coach-man wrote:
Todays mordern greeses are not your fathers greese! They are sealed at the factory and are designed to hold up for a loooong time! Putting in zerks and replacing that greese defeats the design, since you would be using inferior greese. You can not buy the greese used at the factory. That being said, I agree that service stations including dealers will do the absolute minimum when servicing your vehicle. For the most part they are paid by the job, so if they cut conners they will get paid more!? Go figure! I try and do all servicing myself, I care for my vehicle and even if it takes a long time I know what I did and I am confident that the job was done right.

Is there anyway you can tell us more about this special grease? Where can we buy it?

Todays mordern greeses are not your fathers greese! They are sealed at the factory and are designed to hold up for a loooong time! Putting in zerks and replacing that greese defeats the design, since you would be using inferior greese. You can not buy the greese used at the factory. That being said, I agree that service stations including dealers will do the absolute minimum when servicing your vehicle. For the most part they are paid by the job, so if they cut conners they will get paid more!? Go figure! I try and do all servicing myself, I care for my vehicle and even if it takes a long time I know what I did and I am confident that the job was done right.

My dealer is 120 miles away. I have a very good friend, who is 100% honest that does most of my maintain. He has me bring in oil and filters, and I know when I pick up vehicles all has been checked and taken care of. Way better then the speedy oil changes.

We have ALL our work done by Ford dealers and abide by the recommended maint schedule. We have never had a issue.

Iirc the ball joints on my 99 Superduty were sealed, but when I had my steering box replaced the shop said they regreassed them by using a needle and slowly injecting the ballpoints.

msgtord wrote:
The dealer only wants you to bring your vehicle in for an oil change so the tech can find something wrong that is more profitable to repair.

I've found that most dealers now days use contract mechanics who are not employees of the dealership. They are paid by the job, probably according to the Flat Rate Manual. Because of this a lot of the mechanics are always looking for shortcuts on jobs. The quality of the work I've seen done on some of my vehicles at dealerships could easily be surpassed by a six year old with a Playschool mechanics toolkit. I do most of the work myself now and have a couple of independent mechanics that I trust for the more complicated stuff.

I need to check my 350, on the the 2004 2500 it didn't have zerks but it had the plugs to install them so I made the dealership install them. Planned obsolesce…just to keep you a serious paying customer...