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SPEEDCO LUBE CENTERS
Has anyone had any experience with Speedco changing your oil and filters? I have one close by, and thought about trying them. I have used them many times with over the road trucks, but have never seen a bus in there.
thanks
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10 Replies
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Avoid them.
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I have no experience with any lube centers, but while lubing can be done without much training, it can still turn out more damaging than it should be.
If you use a commercial lube shop there are two Prevost related concerns I have.
The first is excessive greasing of the slack adjuster shaft on buses equipped with Rockwell Meritor calipers can create a hydraulic “lock” and cause dragging brakes. The two grease fittings on those slack adjuster pivots should only get a light shot of grease. The same is true for the fittings on drum equipped brake shoe pivot points. Barely a shot of grease is more than adequate. Excessive grease will ooze out and can find its way onto the drum or shoes. So in some areas of the bus over greasing creates serious problems. O don’t think those are concerns on your coach.
The second area of concern is what you may have seen mnetioned by owners and that is cracked, broken or missing dust covers on some greased joints. It would seem grease monkeys get paid per pound so they keep pumping grease into fittings until the rubber boots or dust covers expand to the point where grease is escaping or the boot has split open. All that is required is to see some movement of the fitting or dust cover to know the joint has been lubed.
There are no hidden or less obvious fittings, except for those associated with the steering compartment. There are a couple in there such as the U joint at the bottom of the steering column, or those at the steering sector on the arm. Some older coaches (not yours) have some fittings on the base of the bus OTR air conditioning compressor and the pulley for the fan drive.
I would not hesitate to go to a commercial lube shop if I could supervise from beneath the coach ot insure the lube was done as mentioned above.
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Jon, just to mention, supervising is only good if you know what you are doing 🙂
If I were to have a mechanic work on one of my motorcycles, I would feel comfortable supervising them as I would know what is needed, how to do it and can make sure the mechanic wasn’t doing anything wrong. But for the Prevost, since I (a) dont know enough (yet) and (b) dont have the facility to do it myself, mechnics are needed. With that said, I look to experts such as jeff and reputable shops that are certified by prevost or are prevost.
Someday we will have a bus barn that I will be able to get under the coach without concerns of getting squished and can work on the coach myself. That is when I will be in my happy place. Working on the motorcycles and the coach, talk about simple needs 🙂
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Avoid them.
Went there 2 years ago. As I was driving off after the service, the engine died. Lost prime. They could not figure out what was wrong. Claimed I had priming problem when I came in. Took us 2 hours to figure out what they did wrong. I’m still surprised my starter held up during the endless starting attempts. I did have to parallel the house battery.
After one hour of repeatedly filling the filters, the guy wanted to use ether to help starting. He claimed it was not cranking fast enough to prime. I told them no way. Then they wanted to call a tow to get me out of their facility.
As a last resort I put a bit of air pressure in the fuel tank using a rag to seal. Fuel was gushing out of the primary fuel filter mount. It turns out they had put the wrong filter on and it was not sealing completely.
Go there at your own risk.
Gerald
PS: Does the fact that I could pressurize the fuel tank indicate that my vent is clogged?
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Greasing is something that anyone can do if they observe the simple rule that you do not overgrease anything.
The key is to supervise the guy with the grease gun and you get to slap him if he starts pumping in too much grease. He doesn’t need to know you don’t know.
About 20 years ago I was doing a lot of seminars and trade shows and on one trip it needed a scheduled lube so I pulled into a Union 76 and they could do it right away. The kid who was going to do it admitted he did not know what to do. The manager let me put on my coveralls and get in the pit with the kid. I showed him the fittings and explained how much grease I expected him to pump in them and why.
It blew him away that someone who was driving a Prevost coach knew where the grease fittings were and how much grease to shoot in them. Fake it.
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“It blew him away that someone who was driving a Prevost coach knew where the grease fittings were and how much grease to shoot in them. Fake it.”
Like one of the most respected men I ever knew said: “Bull shit goes a long ways.”
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I should say that I have never had personal experience with SpeedCo, just from what I hear from VERY experienced owner operators and small fleet owners, they do not come highly rated.
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You have to supervise them all. Don’t forget they put 35 gallons of oil in my bus at Prevost earlier this year!
Davy
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I couldn’t get thirty five gallons in my bus unless I added it to an empty fuel tank.
What were they thinking????????????
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Wow, 35 gallons! it should have been running out of everywhere!
I actually was just thinking about having them change the oil only, no fuel filters, or grease. Just to keep me from having to haul off the old oil. And, have fresh oil in the engine for the winter.
I’ll go back to Jax Prevost for full service.
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