The Qxxx4 was up on a hoist at a FORD shop! LOL

[Qxxx4]

So my buddy is a newly licensed mechanic and is working at ford for now, he wants to become a vw tech someday. After their shift their allowed to bring in their own cars and work on them. Instead of going to mr lube ive decided to bring it to him as i trust him more and i can actually help! We put it up on the hoist and wow....its near mint underneath. Here are the only problems we found

-bent strut bar, nothing major-front left wheel bearing will need to be replaced in a few months...a litttle loose-one of my belts is a little old but the others look new-need new tires next summer-the skid plate was missing SIX out of NINE bolts....mr lube lost them all and figured id never find out...

buying oil i found they dont sell castrol syntec blend semi synthetic in big jugs....so i SWITCHED.

switched over to castrol gtx high mileage. apparently it reduces oil burn off and leaking and i wasnt noticing results on the semi synth anyways so i switched.

Overall my q is in great shape underneath and has just over 60k miles and is...10 years old! my baby!

[fueler]

60 damn mines about to hit 160k, thats a baby u got on the wheel bearing, just repack it with grease and i guarantee it will be like new! they tend to loosen up when they arent packed in a while

[SixGuns]

If you're running sythetic blend, you're throwing your money away. Unless they've changed it in recent years, the manufacturers only have to put 5% true sythetic into a conventional oil base to market it as a blend....so really, what does that equate to....with 5 1/4 quarts, you're getting about 1/4 quart of sythetic oil...hardly worth the extra money you spend/quart. If you're gonna do it, do it right..run full synthetic..your engine will thank you, and you can feel it in the seat of your pants. That stock "skid" isn't really worth a damn anyway...if you take it off road at all, invest the money into the skid from 4x4parts.com...I got mine from fueler and I've thrashed the living hell out of it and have a couple nice scars to show for it...not that you can tell under all the mud caked on there right now....It's just a royal b*tch to get on, especially the first time....gotta catch opposite corners to get it to line up right, then sinch it down a couple turns at a time, playing the X game...good times. Makes oil changes real fun, too...think I'm gonna take the Pathy down to the local welding shop and have them use a plasma cuter to make a hole just big enough to get my hand into and swap out the filters....eliminate the need to drop it entirely.

[Chuck Tribolet]

More likely Mr. Lube didn't bother to put them all back in to save five minuteson the job. That's why I DIY.

[Chris92SE]

The idiots at my local Nissan dealership "lost" a bunch of the bolts on Q, too.

I had noticed, but didn't say anything because the service manager is a friend of my dad and it wasn't a big deal to me.

Anyway, recently I took it to a Nissan specialty shop to fix the oil cooler leak (I might have tackled it myself, but it was about 20 degrees F outside). The guy replaced the bolts and even told me about them being gone. Nice to see a little honesty.

[Densetsu]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who lost bolts on their skid plate. Bought my '03 used a couple years ago... went underneath to change oil and I only had 6 bolts left. Half a year later I had to grind the heads off of two bolts because they stripped and were stuck in the frame (and I only tighten them with a 10mm socket on a screwdriver!).

So now I just have four bolts, and I'm afraid to tighten them, lest I strip more of them.

[fueler]

oil change places are only gonna put a few bolts back on the skid plate cause time is money, they want to make the job fast and easy not only this time but for the next time you pull in for an oil change.

the good news is they are a common metric size bolt (10mm) and can be found at home depot for like 15 cents each

it dont really matter tho, it wont make any difference with 3 bolts vs. 9 bolts