Thought people were exaggerating about service at the dealership....

*warning rant*
I had thought that some of the stories about "questionable" service from the dealership was a bit exaggerated. I took my Passat in for it's 20k service this morning at Auffenberg Volkswagen in O'Fallon, IL. Everything seemed to have gone fine and they were pleasant to deal with. I went back home to take care of some things before going back out a few hours later. When I go to leave, I open the garage door and am hit with the strong smell of diesel fuel. I back the car out and see a big puddle of oil with a small metal ring with teeth sitting next to it (pic below). So a trip back to the dealership and an hour wait later it is "fixed" and cleaned up (supposedly) with a faulty oil filter gasket install explained as the culprit. While it was quite annoying that this happened, at least the service manager seemed to actually care about the mistake and was quite upset with the tech that did the original service. In order to stay good with my warranty do I need to have all services done at a VW dealership or can I go to a St. Louis area guru to get future services done? I would do it myself but I have neither the tools, time or expertise. If I have to have the service done at a VW dealership, has anyone had any experience with either Bommarito or Dean Team in St. Louis?

You don't need to use any dealer service to keep your warranty. Just keep your receipts showing correct 507.00 spec oil and correct filters. You got lucky... Been a few members who had their drain plugs under tightened and fall out causing oil starvation to the engine and turbo. The strong diesel smell was from the mess they made changing the fuel filter. I would look around that area too...

Although your car is under warranty, I would still do oil service using oil extraction procedure. The oil pan drain hole threads are flimsy as the pan is made of aluminum. Chance of damaging threads are there, whether it is done by dealer technician or yourself.

You are lucky to live around St.Louis. If I lived anywhere near St. Louis, nobody but oilhammer (and I) would ever touch my car. We really do wish that we were exaggerating about VW dealership service departments. There must be a few good ones out there, but they are remarkably hard to find.

Have Fun!

Don

Dodoma said:

The oil pan drain hole threads are flimsy as the pan is made of aluminum. Chance of damaging threads are there, whether it is done by dealer technician or yourself.

Click to expand...

I believe that the "trick" to not damaging the threads is to always use a torque wrench when tightening the bolt. However, I also usually use the extraction method.

Have Fun!

Don

Dodoma said:

Although your car is under warranty, I would still do oil service using oil extraction procedure. The oil pan drain hole threads are flimsy as the pan is made of CHEESE. Chance of damaging threads are there, whether it is done by dealer technician or yourself.

Click to expand...

Fixed it for ya!!!!

VW recommends that you replace the oil drain plug with each oil change to reduce the occurrence of stripping the threads in the oil drain pan.

BenzBob said:

VW recommends that you replace the oil drain plug with each oil change to reduce the occurrence of stripping the threads in the oil drain pan.

Click to expand...

I thought it was because the plug is built with a single use crush washer.

You only need to go to a dealership for actual warranty work as softrockrenegade said. A good indy shop will do all the regular pm's with you keeping all receipts. The indy shop if good will tell you up front they won't touch anything on your rig that is warranty related. At least they made it right as they should have and seemed concerned for your bad experience.

My original plan was to go to the dealership for the care free maintenance service and then go to oilhammer for all services thereafter. Time to re-evaluate and maybe move that timeframe up a bit.

njwalt said:

My original plan was to go to the dealership for the care free maintenance service and then go to oilhammer for all services thereafter. Time to re-evaluate and maybe move that timeframe up a bit.

Click to expand...

From what I've read on this forum you have a good one in oilhammer. I'd move the timeframe up.

Take a strong light and look down around the engine to the OEM splash pan. It should be clean and dry without any residuals on it. If that much oil spilled over the edge of it, then chances are its was holding quite a bit of oil and fuel. The dealer should've pulled it and made sure it was cleaned too. Otherwise it will be a dirt and grit magnet.

vw_norm said:

Take a strong light and look down around the engine to the OEM splash pan. It should be clean and dry without any residuals on it. If that much oil spilled over the edge of it, then chances are its was holding quite a bit of oil and fuel. The dealer should've pulled it and made sure it was cleaned too. Otherwise it will be a dirt and grit magnet.

Click to expand...

I took a look as best I could and while there was a little residual you could tell that they did clean up the area (as they said they had). I'm still getting an odor of diesel fuel coming from the back left part of the engine bay (where the cabin air intake is at the base of the windshield/passenger side). Hoping that it's just residual from the sloppy fuel filter replacement and that it will air out with time.

IMHO, it doesn't take much ULSD to stink up the engine compartment. Look carefully for any residual shiny diesel around the FF canister. Anything left on rubber hoses should be wiped clean.

well I'm not surprised people are upset, when they have even drop our cars from the lift. Well at least we know this incident but how many we don't?

phlfly said:

well I'm not surprised people are upset, when they have even drop our cars from the lift. Well at least we know this incident but how many we don't?

Click to expand...

Whose car got dropped from a lift at the service dept?

Roishe Cheng said:

Whose car got dropped from a lift at the service dept?

Click to expand...

This guy: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=403487

VeeDubTDI said:

This guy: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=403487

Click to expand...

Yes, that was me, I was a bit stressed to say the least

Dodoma said:

Although your car is under warranty, I would still do oil service using oil extraction procedure. The oil pan drain hole threads are flimsy as the pan is made of aluminum. Chance of damaging threads are there, whether it is done by dealer technician or yourself.

Click to expand...

I recently completed the 28th oil change on my wagon, all but one or two drained from the pan. Original pan, threads are fine. Same with my son's car, although his has only had 18 oil changes. There's nothing wrong with VW oil pans. They just don't like bolts cross-threaded, over-tightened, or being hit with large objects (like rocks). Otherwise fine.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

There's nothing wrong with VW oil pans. They just don't like bolts cross-threaded, over-tightened, or being hit with large objects (like rocks). Otherwise fine.

Click to expand...

Common sense stuff.. Whoda thunk it?

I've changed oil in all my cars and (knock on wood) I've never encountered problems with the plug.

no problems ever here. no leaks, no threading problems... the only reason to replace the bolt is because of the captive washer. but you can also easily cut it off and replace with a regular crush washer if need be. i've re-used the same oil pan bolt/washer 3-4 times with no leaks as well.

njwalt said:

If I have to have the service done at a VW dealership, has anyone had any experience with either Bommarito or Dean Team in St. Louis?

Click to expand...

I live in Shiloh and have used Auffenberg, Bommarito, and Oilhammer.

Oilhammer is, without a doubt, the best. It's not even close. I've stood and watched him work on my cars for more than 10 years at several locations, including his home, prior to him being at CarDoc Automotive. Have you ever watched Michael Jordan play basketball or Billy Joel play a piano? It's like that. Seriously.

When I use Auffenberg I always request (i.e. politely demand) that the German looking guy with the VW tattoo on his arm does the actual work. Wish I knew his name. I've never had a problem when he's done the work but I've never had anything major done there either because of Oilhammer. My reasoning was that if you're willing to tattoo a "VW" on your arm you're probably fairly passionate about the cars and that likely leads to passion and care for what you do.

Bommarito also just did the 10K on my new Passat TDI. When I took it in I politely told the service manager up front I was an anal retentive pain in a$$ and I wanted the car serviced by somebody who knew what they were doing and who could fill the DEF reservoir without spillage. No problems so far but it was basically only an oil change. I also asked the service manager about a specific sound I was hearing on the car. After providing very specific details he was of no help. A forum member correctly diagnosed it as the brake wipe feature less than 10 minutes after I posted it here. Once the included service period is over it's straight back to Oilhammer.

Bommarito did, however, misdiagnose a bad wiring harness on my friends '12 Passat TDI and ended up doing a complete engine change under warranty for $0. When the problem recurred with the new engine all that was left was the harness which fixed the problem. They also spilled urea in his trunk during another service and did such a poor job cleaning it up he took the car back to them and demanded the problem be fixed a second time.

I've yet to talk to anyone around here who said they would ever return to Dean Team. My car actually came from VW to Dean Team but I bought it from Bommarito through an inter-dealer trade because I didn't want to deal with Dean Team. Don't go there.

I never had a problem in all the years, that I owned VW's to find a bad Service at a Dealer. Since the car is out of Warranty since 80,000 km only the GURU shop here in Vancouver worked on the car.... No problem what so ever. Now it's over 300,000 km and the car will only drive into that shop under the Oak Bridge. Even if you have to drive a long way it pays to see YOUR GURU, that knows your car.

VeeDubTDI said:

This guy: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=403487

Click to expand...

Thanks for the thread, I thought one of the posters was kidding.

hudsonian said:

Yes, that was me, I was a bit stressed to say the least

Click to expand...

How is the new car working out?

Roishe Cheng said:

Thanks for the thread, I thought one of the posters was kidding.
How is the new car working out?

Click to expand...

Car is working fine, she broke through 100km today and did her first regeneration, all is well so far, thanks for asking.