I knew this guy once who worked at a quick lube — not a real auto repair shop, mind you, but one of those places that guarantee your oil changed in 15 minutes.  I don’t recommend those kinds of places, and by the time you finish reading this you’ll see why.

Anyway, this guy was pretty clueless about cars.  He had problems remembering which way to turn the oil drain plug to loosen or tighten it, especially when he wasn’t looking at it dead-on.  As a result, the quick lube place eventually moved him out of the pit and up to the top level.

Quick lube places are often able to go so quickly because they divide up the labor involved in changing a car’s oil.  They have one guy underneath, who removes the plug, drains the oil, and replaces the plug.  Then they have one guy on top, who refills the engine oil, and does other things such as checking the other fluids.

On the last day of this guy’s job, he forgot to put oil back into one of the engines.  Now, mind you, he didn’t have much else that he had to remember!  The end result was the poor owner — a teen and a new car owner, to boot — didn’t get very far before his engine fried.  The lube shop had to pay for a new engine, and the guy responsible got fired.

This is pretty much any car owner’s worst nightmare: to take your car in to get maintenanced, like a good little car owner, and then to end up with no car at all.  At least it’s not your fault, but still, you have to go through the hassle of getting the responsible parties to fix the problem.  This is why I recommend that you always take your car to someone who really knows about foreign or domestic car repair, and not someone whose only credentials is that they can change your oil really quickly.

Done right is always better than done fast.  Getting your oil change Houston style — which means the best of the "done right" category — is even better.

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