User Panel
Posted: 5/1/2009 4:23:43 PM EDT
Basically, Enterprise rent-a-car returns a Saturn Outlook to the dealer after it quit running. Has 30,000 miles on it. Never had an oil change. Story and more pic's of carnage here:jalopnik.com link |
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thats kind of strange, you would think enterprise would have a maintenance schedule/plan on their cars to prevent things like this.
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Those copper looking thingies are supposed to be there, just not in that configuration, IIRC.
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I had an old beater that went about 30k without an oil change. I paid a few hundred bucks for it and drove the hell outta it. Finally, after about 5 years, I decided i should get the oil changed and try to make it last a little bit.
After that it only started up about 75% of the time, the mechanics couldnt figure out what the problem was so I just junked it. Moral of the story: If your jalopy is running good, dont let any greasemonkies get their dickskinners in it. |
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Idiot neighbor made it 60k with an RX-7. She said the dealer told her you didn't have to change the oil as often.
-JTP |
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they do, but keeping the cars rented is way more important than LOFR - (Lube Oil Filter Rotate)
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Shit, man...we get Enterprise cars for sale at work every week. They're usually in spectacular condition (granted, we usually recon them), but normally have 15k or less miles. Usually, under 10-11k. Damn things never sell, though. They just plain want too much for them.
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When I worked at a station in the late 80's, a 56 Chevy was brought in by a fellow worker. He bought it from a farmer who used it to haul hay on his farm. It had oil change records up to 1967 ubt nothing after. The farmer couldn't remember the last time the oil was changed. From talking to the farmer he said when the oil got a bit thick or low he would add a little kerosene to bring it back up to proper level. When we removed the oil plug it smelled just like kerosene.
Dolomite |
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Not particularly surprising...
Rental car companies all claim that their used cars have been "well-serviced", but has anyone ever actually SEEN one getting a oil change? |
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Rental cars only get the oil changed one time when they get sold!
people rent them continuously, they run it through the car wash and just check the tires and the oil level and add oil if needed and send them back out to be rented again, sometimes just minutes after being returned. I would never buy a former rental car. |
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That's ugly.
13 years ago I worked for a body shop that 90% of our work was from Enterprise Rent a Car. They used to be pretty strict on maintenance, at least in the Portland metro area. They had a good reputation for used cars, as any thing over 4 hours of "frame repair" and they totaled the car out and sold it at auction. We did 12 to 14 cars a week for them. Had one car back in less than 2 hours after leaving the shop wrecked again. |
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So not changing your oil will break off rocker arms?
BTW, my wife just had an Enterprise rental a couple weeks ago. For some reason I decided to check the oil. It was low. |
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So not changing your oil will break off rocker arms? On an engine like the one pictured, the rocker arm is held in place (under the camshaft) by the valve lash adjuster on one end and the valve itself on the other. If a valve were to stick open or a lash adjuster to collapse (due to the aforementioned sludge issue) the rockers will fall out. |
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I think the check engine light should have come one a little sooner. What good is that light if it only comes on after the engine quits working.
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Quoted:
I had an old beater that went about 30k without an oil change. I paid a few hundred bucks for it and drove the hell outta it. Finally, after about 5 years, I decided i should get the oil changed and try to make it last a little bit. After that it only started up about 75% of the time, the mechanics couldnt figure out what the problem was so I just junked it. Moral of the story: If your jalopy is running good, dont let any greasemonkies get their dickskinners in it. Friends brother drove a Dodge Dynasty for a few years, was always running it without water or oil. I think they finally wrecked it |
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When I was a kid, my buddy and I bought an old Chevy cause we wanted the 396 that was in it.
When we pulled the valve cover off, there was an almost perfect mold of it in sludge. You could even see part of the word Chevrolet that was stamped into the valve cover. |
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The farthest I've ever let my car go without an oil change was 5,000 miles and that was only because I kept forgetting to do it.
I'd never buy a former rental car either... After seeing the way they were (and are) treated, hell no. |
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Quoted:
That's ugly. 13 years ago I worked for a body shop that 90% of our work was from Enterprise Rent a Car. They used to be pretty strict on maintenance, at least in the Portland metro area. They had a good reputation for used cars, as any thing over 4 hours of "frame repair" and they totaled the car out and sold it at auction. We did 12 to 14 cars a week for them. Had one car back in less than 2 hours after leaving the shop wrecked again. LOL, I can only imagine what you guys must have been thinking when the car came right back again after spending all that time fixing it. |
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A repair shop i worked at a few years ago had an account with a rental company, and they were pretty good with maintenece, actually they rarely went over the mileage. i cant remember which company it was tho.
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GMs Oil Life Monitor system probably said it wasn't time for a change yet.
Dumb Asses. |
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I change my oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months. I had a Car that changed it's own oil every 1000 miles or so. I looked like a mosquito truck going down the road |
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My grandfather's 64 Ford pickup with straight 6 made it 100K before having problems, never changed the oil. We took the valve cover off and you couldn't even see the rockers, it was like one big blob of sludge over top the whole head. Somehow it still ran, barely.
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I change mine every 6-7K miles...
Of course I use Mobile 1...I wouldn't do that with dino oil. |
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Had a friend of mine come over one day. I could hear him coming from about a block away, knock-knock-knock, click-click-click.......
He pulled in my driveway and said his car was making a "funny" noise (no shit). It was an early-70's slant-6 Dodge. Definitely sounded lube-related, so I checked the oil. NONE on the stick. Grabbed 3 quarts, poured it in, started it up, and still knock-knock-click.......... Pulled the stick out again, NO OIL!! Then I noticed a river of oil running out on the driveway. It was still running "good" so I figured it hadn't thrown a rod or punched a hole in the pan or block. Went looking around and noticed the oil filter was MISSING. I asked him about it and he said that something had made a big "clunk" under the car and he ran over it.........TWO days ago. Screwed a filter back on it, filled it up with oil, started it, and it went knock-knock-click-click-hmmmmmmmmm. No bearing knocks, no lifter taps, nothing, just quiet. He drove off and as far as I know, never had another problem with it. Chalk one up for the Chrysler Slant 6. Those were some tough sum-bitches. |
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So not changing your oil will break off rocker arms? BTW, my wife just had an Enterprise rental a couple weeks ago. For some reason I decided to check the oil. It was low. My thoughts as well. Having seen the kind off abuse that people in the motorsports community heap onto rental cars there is no way in hell I would ever buy an ex rental car. Hell I'm surprised most of them make it to 30,00 miles. |
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I had a 92 dodge colt that had 270k miles on it. I changed it one time when it was new and thats all I ever did. It was running the day I gave it away. in 2004
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Changing every 3,000 miles is not neccesary. I change mine every 5,000 miles. I use a good oil (Valvoline), and a good filter(Wix). I would venture to guess that in the Op's situation with the rental car, the original filter was probably more of the problem than the old oil. I know of a guy who drove long distances for sales and never once changed the oil. Every 3,000 miles, he changed the filter only, and added back the one quart of oil that was lost. The last I heard, he had over 150,000 miles on the car, and not using any oil or any other problems. The filter is just that important. Its why I have no interest in the synthetic oils with the 15,000 mile intervals.
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I had a buddy with a 1989 chevy 3/4 ton. He just added oil when needed. Never changed it. Truck had 280,000 miles on it.
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Damn, Enterprise must be ran by women. LMAO if I didn't know any better I'd say my wife ran the joint!! |
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<snip> Had a very similar experience. 88 F150 300-6 shop truck. Oil pump shaft broke on the way to parts store, said "F it, it's time for a newer truck anyway" kept driving 5-7 miles to store then back to the shop. Got back to shop, decided to drop pan and inspect... put new shaft and pump in, drove it for another 50 K |
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we change out diesel truck oil every 20k and the motors look like brand new inside. of course we are running royal purple and have never had an oil related problem in 18 years
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Quoted:
Had a friend of mine come over one day. I could hear him coming from about a block away, knock-knock-knock, click-click-click....... He pulled in my driveway and said his car was making a "funny" noise (no shit). It was an early-70's slant-6 Dodge. Definitely sounded lube-related, so I checked the oil. NONE on the stick. Grabbed 3 quarts, poured it in, started it up, and still knock-knock-click.......... Pulled the stick out again, NO OIL!! Then I noticed a river of oil running out on the driveway. It was still running "good" so I figured it hadn't thrown a rod or punched a hole in the pan or block. Went looking around and noticed the oil filter was MISSING. I asked him about it and he said that something had made a big "clunk" under the car and he ran over it.........TWO days ago. Screwed a filter back on it, filled it up with oil, started it, and it went knock-knock-click-click-hmmmmmmmmm. No bearing knocks, no lifter taps, nothing, just quiet. He drove off and as far as I know, never had another problem with it. Chalk one up for the Chrysler Slant 6. Those were some tough sum-bitches. Yes, one heck of an engine. They seem to run forever. |
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Quoted: When I worked at a station in the late 80's, a 56 Chevy was brought in by a fellow worker. He bought it from a farmer who used it to haul hay on his farm. It had oil change records up to 1967 ubt nothing after. The farmer couldn't remember the last time the oil was changed. From talking to the farmer he said when the oil got a bit thick or low he would add a little kerosene to bring it back up to proper level. When we removed the oil plug it smelled just like kerosene. Dolomite Sounds like my dad...he changes the oil in his truck one quart at a time |
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That's ugly. 13 years ago I worked for a body shop that 90% of our work was from Enterprise Rent a Car. They used to be pretty strict on maintenance, at least in the Portland metro area. They had a good reputation for used cars, as any thing over 4 hours of "frame repair" and they totaled the car out and sold it at auction. We did 12 to 14 cars a week for them. Had one car back in less than 2 hours after leaving the shop wrecked again. LOL, I can only imagine what you guys must have been thinking when the car came right back again after spending all that time fixing it. I dropped the car off and was waiting for my ride back to the shop, I saw the wreck when it happened. We had to pickup another car across town and it beat me back to the shop. |
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we change out diesel truck oil every 20k and the motors look like brand new inside. of course we are running royal purple and have never had an oil related problem in 18 years It doesn't hurt that they hold 15qts to start with. |
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My sister bought a new Datsun sedan back when they were first imported in the US. Maybe in the 60's? Anyway she drove it without doing any maintenance including oil changes till it quit running. She gave it to my cousin. He tried to drain the oil and it was so thick it would hardly drain. He never got it running. It was a cool car too, it had Japanese text on the gauges IIRC.
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Im a little suprised its Enterprise. When I was a grease monkey many years ago in the early '90's, the shop I worked at had the fleet account for Enterprise. They were neurotic about maintanance. When a car came back, it got a oil change and a thurough inspection. I dont mean one of those half assed 15 point inspections either. We checked rotor thickness, A/C pressure, emmisions, everything. They had a very tough policy about maintanance to ensure safety to the customer. It was a pain in the ass some days.
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My grandfather talked about getting old Model T's to run smoother by putting grease and sawdust in the oil back in the 30's. I think what those engines must have looked like were cleaner than that shit in the picture.
I've always heard to never by an ex-rental, I guess it makes sense now. I just thought it was because people drove them like a rented slave, not because the guts looked like a Tijuana bathroom stall. |
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Changing every 3,000 miles is not neccesary. In general, that's true. Nowadays, for gas-engine vehicles that lack a oil life monitor, the typical manufacturer-recommended service interval is closer to 7,500 miles - and that's with ordinary dino oil! 3,000 miles is more like a severe-service interval. |
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Changing every 3,000 miles is not neccesary. I change mine every 5,000 miles. I use a good oil (Valvoline), and a good filter(Wix). I would venture to guess that in the Op's situation with the rental car, the original filter was probably more of the problem than the old oil. I know of a guy who drove long distances for sales and never once changed the oil. Every 3,000 miles, he changed the filter only, and added back the one quart of oil that was lost. The last I heard, he had over 150,000 miles on the car, and not using any oil or any other problems. The filter is just that important. Its why I have no interest in the synthetic oils with the 15,000 mile intervals. I don't recall the sites I've read up on but the filter isn't what made the difference. Yes they are important but replacing that one quart of oil periodically freshens up the additives and makes a huge difference in maintaining oil chemistry. |
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I change my oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months. I had a Car that changed it's own oil every 1000 miles or so. I looked like a mosquito truck going down the road |
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The leaning tower of power! I had an old Plymouth Valiant that drank more oil than gas, but it ran like a top.
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Had a friend of mine come over one day. I could hear him coming from about a block away, knock-knock-knock, click-click-click....... He pulled in my driveway and said his car was making a "funny" noise (no shit). It was an early-70's slant-6 Dodge. Definitely sounded lube-related, so I checked the oil. NONE on the stick. Grabbed 3 quarts, poured it in, started it up, and still knock-knock-click.......... Pulled the stick out again, NO OIL!! Then I noticed a river of oil running out on the driveway. It was still running "good" so I figured it hadn't thrown a rod or punched a hole in the pan or block. Went looking around and noticed the oil filter was MISSING. I asked him about it and he said that something had made a big "clunk" under the car and he ran over it.........TWO days ago. Screwed a filter back on it, filled it up with oil, started it, and it went knock-knock-click-click-hmmmmmmmmm. No bearing knocks, no lifter taps, nothing, just quiet. He drove off and as far as I know, never had another problem with it. Chalk one up for the Chrysler Slant 6. Those were some tough sum-bitches. Yes, one heck of an engine. They seem to run forever. |
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