Very upset that car wash damaged my Jeep

D

DickensCPA

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Joined
Feb 8, 2024
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Location
TN
I have one of those memberships to a car wash that has multiple locations. Yesterday coming home from the woods I really wanted to vacuum more than a car wash but you kinda have to go thru the car wash to get to the vacuums. Going thru and the rolly thing is going over my roof and I hear an awful noise and a crash behind me.

It got hung or something and ripped the roof rack with my roof boxes off. The rack is trash and one of my two boxes is trash and my black roof has gouges and scratches all over it.

Of course two teenage boys running the place and no idea what to do but I did fill out paper work and hope they get in touch with me soon.

Before someone tries to skewer me - it was a factory Mopar rack and the rack and boxes were approved as safe and no problem by the car wash. Somethings have to be approved I know, like my best friend had to drop his membership because part of his F250 is aluminum or something and they refuse to let him thru.
 
Just to add insult to injury on my luck lately - I was changing the oil in my Jeep just a few weeks back and my wife made a comment that her vehicle was ready for an oil change.

I ALWAYS change my own oil in EVERYTHING except three times in the last 10-15 years. One free oil change at the dealer when I bought this Jeep and I took it. January 2022 I drove the family from home here in TN to AZ with overnights along the way for two weeks and I changed my own oil before we left and found a dealer in AZ to change it for the drive home. Had Jiffy Lube change my oil on my Ram in 2015 when I was in a bind with time around a tax deadline and they filled the oil bag with transmission fluid and seized my engine.

My wife has a newer GMC SUV and the battery is under the back floorboard and the top and bottom of the engine bay is covered in some kind of shroud and it's the worst oil filter location I've ever seen. So after I changed my oil I took hers to an oil change place.

Next morning I'm about to hit the gym before work and walk thru the garage and oil is from the front of her vehicle out the back to the garage door. Dip stick is bone dry. I have enough oil here at the house to get it a short distance to this place and they said the oil filter wasn't screwed on all the way and hanging by a thread.
 
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You ran it through a automatic wash with a roof rack on the top? Not sure that would be advisable in any way, shape or form. I could see that being a thousand kinds of potential for things getting jacked up. Factory rack or not, it is a rack framework going through something that twirls around fabric bits to wash a vehicle. I am surprised they even let you in with. Not trying to flame you, jut stating the facts.

I expect you are just venting on the oil issue. That does suck. I am mostly a DIY guy, but have had oil filters go on wonky on me a few times and ended up in a similar situation with oil everywhere. It does suck!
 
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Ratbikerod said:
You ran it through a automatic wash with a roof rack on the top? Not sure that would be advisable in any way, shape or form. I could see that being a thousand kinds of potential for things getting jacked up. Factory rack or not, it is a rack framework going through something that twirls around fabric bits to wash a vehicle. I am surprised they even let you in with. Not trying to flame you, jut stating the facts.

I expect you are just venting on the oil issue. That does suck. I am mostly a DIY guy, but have had oil filters go on wonky on me a few times and ended up in a similar situation with oil everywhere. It does suck!
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It's supposed to be "touchless." The nozzles that rotate over the top are supposed to "sense" the height of your vehicle and go over them as long as you are under their tolerance thing hanging before the conveyor takes you in. Even if I didn't have a roof rack and boxes those metal nozzles came down and hit the metal trim on the drivers side and dented the metal and chipped my windshield so something was wrong with their machinery and would've damaged me even without a rack.

I was venting/ranting with my wife's oil change but the reason I brought it up and forgot to mention in that post is the same company, Take 5, owns both the oil change place and car wash. We have five Take 5 car washes within 10 miles of me. Three of them have an apparatus that comes down and touches your vehicle with strips or rollers. Whether they roll and "whip" the roof and sides or drag the strips across it. I go to the two that are touchless so that nothing gets beat or hung up. Their machine came down too low on me yesterday.

I joined when they were called Busy Bee and there were two of them and one was touchless and the other beat your vehicle. Take 5 came in and built three new locations and bought the two Busy Bees so I kinda inherited them.
 
Most of those places are franchised, so you may be in for a fight with the franchisee.

With respect to the oil filter thing.... some 40 years ago I had my car in the shop for a couple things and I asked them to change the oil while they were under the hood. When they pulled the old filter, the O-ring stock to the block and they never checked. So when the new filter went on, it was basically tightened to the old O-ring. 2 miles down the road my entire engine bay was covered in oil and I was on the side of the road waiting on a tow.
 
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Anybodyhome said:
Most of those places are franchised, so you may be in for a fight with the franchisee.

With respect to the oil filter thing.... some 40 years ago I had my car in the shop for a couple things and I asked them to change the oil while they were under the hood. When they pulled the old filter, the O-ring stock to the block and they never checked. So when the new filter went on, it was basically tightened to the old O-ring. 2 miles down the road my entire engine bay was covered in oil and I was on the side of the road waiting on a tow.
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Ouch! I hear so many horror stories from oil change places. I change the oil in everything I own - Harley, mower, ATV, boat & Jeep and always changed my wife's oil as well UNTIL she bought this GMC.
 
Was called to go out to the car wash and we watched the video of my Jeep going thru. The manager said the guy running the conveyor forgot to change a setting that senses the height of the vehicle. That's why it hit right where my windshield and metal trim meet and never did raise up and it became a battle of attrition between my Jeep and the torque of the conveyor I was on. They talk like they'll repair everything, we'll see.
 
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DickensCPA said:
Was called to go out to the car wash and we watched the video of my Jeep going thru. The manager said the guy running the conveyor forgot to change a setting that senses the height of the vehicle. That's why it hit right where my windshield and metal trim meet and never did raise up and it became a battle of attrition between my Jeep and the torque of the conveyor I was on. They talk like they'll repair everything, we'll see.
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Might want to get a copy of that recording.... just in case.
 
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My neighbor installs and works on car washes... he said to ALWAYS call out a top roller retract if you have a rack.
He also said that competent operators already know this.
 
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DickensCPA said:
Just to add insult to injury on my luck lately - I was changing the oil in my Jeep just a few weeks back and my wife made a comment that her vehicle was ready for an oil change.

I ALWAYS change my own oil in EVERYTHING except three times in the last 10-15 years. One free oil change at the dealer when I bought this Jeep and I took it. January 2022 I drove the family from home here in TN to AZ with overnights along the way for two weeks and I changed my own oil before we left and found a dealer in AZ to change it for the drive home. Had Jiffy Lube change my oil on my Ram in 2015 when I was in a bind with time around a tax deadline and they filled the oil bag with transmission fluid and seized my engine.

My wife has a newer GMC SUV and the battery is under the back floorboard and the top and bottom of the engine bay is covered in some kind of shroud and it's the worst oil filter location I've ever seen. So after I changed my oil I took hers to an oil change place.

Next morning I'm about to hit the gym before work and walk thru the garage and oil is from the front of her vehicle out the back to the garage door. Dip stick is bone dry. I have enough oil here at the house to get it a short distance to this place and they said the oil filter wasn't screwed on all the way and hanging by a thread.
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Oil changes are the easiest thing to do and I am sure we all have heard horror stories about a screwed up oil change at places.
 
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In 1975 after I'd returned from my first deployment to SE Asia, I was at a friend's house tinkering with my 1974 Chevy step-side short bed. I kept it in storage for about 5 months and we were changing fluids, drinking beer, cleaning plugs, drinking beer, checking tire pressure, drinking beer.... you get the picture.
I drained the oil, slid the plastic container out with the old oil and went to get a funnel when my buddy started pouring quart after quart of new oil in... I come back with the funnel to see a long stream of brand new oil running down his garage pad, down the driveway...
 
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Well Take 5's insurance company has decided to play games so I have no choice but to turn it in to my insurance. They said they would pay, insurance would not go up and they would sue to get their and my $250 deductible back.
 
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