What should I do about Jiffy Lube purposely tightening my drain plug and oil filter too tight?

My husband took his truck to Jiffy Lube a couple months back for a quick oil change- I didn't have time to do it myself.





Today I made an attempt to change the oil as it was a little overdue. The filter on his truck is in a very odd spot where even a filter wrench is impossible to use (unless you remove shrouds and other things.) I've never had problems changing his oil before simply because I line the filter with oil and hand-tighten it... like you're supposed to.





Luckily, I made friends with an employee at a local shop. Jiffy Lube cranked the drain plug so tight, stripping the threads was almost inevitable. They crushed the filter getting IT off. Everything turned out to be okay though.





I read online that places like Jiffy Lube (not all) will do this on purpose so that you'll have to go back because it's nearly impossible to do the oil change yourself.





Is there anything I can do besides write bad reviews online? My oil change is already done so there's no proving it was ever as bad as it really was.








Thanks in advance!What should I do about Jiffy Lube purposely tightening my drain plug and oil filter too tight?
Tightening the plug enough to strip the threads is wrong, if they stripped the threads they should pay to repair it.





Crushing the old filter to remove it is not unusual, an old mechanics trick to remove a stubborn filter is to drive a screwdriver through it and twist it off. It's being thrown away anyway so it doesn't matter if the old filter is damaged.





It isn't common to overtighten a filter since too much torque will crush the filter .





You are not supposed to only hand tighten a filter, you are supposed to hand tighten it and then tighten it about a quarter turn with a filter wrench.





If you only hand tighten it, there is a risk that it will come loose while driving. At best you get a big leak and a dirty engine, at worst you get an engine fire.





I don't think they were trying to screw you, they may just be incompetentWhat should I do about Jiffy Lube purposely tightening my drain plug and oil filter too tight?
If a person tightened it, it can be untightened. You may not be strong enough to do it yourself, but it physically can be done. So there's really no way to ';purposely'; do this to make you come back. The most they can do it use a hydraulic ratchet to tighten it (which is more about doing the job quickly than it is about making you come back), but that just means you could loosen it using one too.
Don't go to places like that anymore. They've done way too much damage to my vehicles over the years. The people who work there are the ones McDonald's rejected. I spend the extra dollars to have a real mechanic change my oil when I don't have the time to do it myself. But finding a good and honest mechanic these days can be difficult.
i m sure they used an air gun to tighten it which is really hard for a person to loosen it by him self.





i say just bring a strong pipe and then put it at the end of the oil changing tool (at the hand of the tool) and then try to loosen it!








i had the same problem and then i did what i told you and then it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck proving it....that is what they are going to say...unless you have video or photographic evidence of them purposly doing that then I think the court system is going to to rule in your favor...





I wouldnt put it by them however, that they did something like that though....good luck with this! :)
yea don't go there again. tires plus does the same thing. if you buy a tire and have it put on they will always tell you something else is wrong with the car. most of the time they fix it even without you asking them. you were lucky they were able to get it off without breaking anything. hopefully it was the threads on the plug that got stripped and not the oil pan itself. my hats off to you for being able to change your oil yourself. you are my kind of girl.