Oil and coolant leaks

An interesting pattern we noticed of late. We’ve been having an unusual number of vehicles come back for oil leaks we had previously repaired.

As we began to put the data together, we could see the cars were not coming back for the work we had done, they were coming back for other oil leaks we may have missed. Oil pan and valve cover gaskets were the familiar culprits, an occasional timing belt cover or the rear main seal, transmission front pump and tail shaft seal, even an occasional differential pinion seal. We asked ourselves what we could as a business do to prevent the client from having one oil leak fixed, yet still having to come back for other oil leaks.

We went back to basics and started at the beginning. How we intake the vehicle and what questions we ask. From an office perspective, all seemed okay, the right questions went on the repair order and the tech got to work.

And that’s when we noticed the weak link in the process. You see, advice is only worth as much as you pay for it. And we were not asking anything for the oil leak advice.  We expected our mechanics to spend a great deal of their time trying to find the oil leaks when in fact, they would stop at the very first sign of oil and blame the apparent source.

We expected them to spend their valuable work time without the possibility of reward. The message we sent was that their time was not valuable.

We decided to try a pilot program. To charge a fee to the client for the advice on oil and coolant leaks, and to reward the mechanic with a half hours’ worth of time paid. We did have the expectation the mechanic would spend the half hour checking the vehicle for oil leaks, and not to stop at the first sign of oil.

Once we did that, the mechanics started to remove panels, covers, shields, air cleaners, snorkels and all other necessary items to come up with the correct answer. Why? You ask, because now, they are being paid for their time. That’s why!

A lot of unnecessary work is being done on cars simply because mechanics did not take the necessary time to check and inspect things properly. And why would a mechanic not take the time to do the inspection correctly you say? Because the client wasn’t paying for it,