I just changed my oil like a good car owner. As I was cleaning up the mess, I asked myself why I do it. Why don’t I just take it to a quickie lube or something?
It’s not the money. I spend about $15 for the oil and filter. Most places will change it for less than $20.
It’s not about the time. I could be in and out of a oil change place in 15min. Including going to get the oil and filter, it probably takes me a half hour.
It’s certainly not more convient. I have a 5 gallon bucket filling up with used oil and I have to figure out where I can dispose of it.
So on to the poll.
Do you change your oil regularly?
Do you do it yourself or pay to have it done?
Why do you do whatever you do in #2?
For me.
Yes. I start thinking about it around 3000 miles, but usually don’t do it until 5000-7000.
Do it myself.
I guess I just don’t trust other people with my car. Maybe it’s just because I can.
Well, I do know how to change oil. Dad made sure I knew how to do all those little miniscule things. However, I don’t have a house and no driveway, and no real place to put the car. I guess I’m just not willing to lay down on the street and do it.
Plus nowadays my car requires synthetic, so I’ve just given up the entire idea and now I let them do it and watch them like a hawk to make sure they use synthetic.
Sometimes I do it myself, sometimes I take it in. Like you, I have trouble trusting it to the Grease Monkey type places. I’ve heard some horror stories.
We have a solid six months of winter where I live. I don’t have a garage and just a gravel driveway. It’s frankly a pain for me to change it about half the time.
I change my own oil in vehicles that are out of warranty but go to a local independent garage to have it changed on warranted vehicles. Never had an engine failure under warranty, but the bills for oil changes back up your claim that you changed regularly.
If the oil in an out-of-warranty car needs changed in the dead of winter, I’ll wimp out and take it in. Didn’t when I was younger, but I’m less tolerant of cold ,lately.
Never use Jiffy Lube!! Find a good local mechanic if you need to have oil changed for you.
A car I bought a few years ago leaked a huge puddle of oil the first night I had it home. Knowing from the door sticker and the big red “J” on the oil filter that it was last serviced at Jiffy Lube, I grabbed the oil filter and tightened it a quarter turn , barehanded. Leak fixed!
I change it on my bangers and my classic cars, but not the newer stuff, some of which is very fussy about what it drinks (worst is probably the Murcielago, although I’m led to believe that pretty much any VAG car requires specialist oil now, although it probably isn’t as expensive!)
FWIW, I change it on the lawn mower and the generator too. I usually put used car engine oil in them.
Used to, then stopped when oil changes could be had for 24.95 for a long time. Now I am soooooo tired of the oil change place telling me I need everything from new wiper blades to a new Polution Control Valves and more plutonium in my flux capacitor that I just do the oil changes myself to skip the grief.
The real margins kick in for the oil change place when they sell you other stuff above and beyond the low-margin oil change they adverstise. Nothing wrong with that, but I got tired of telling the techs that I don’t care if my car blows up, just change the oil.
Two minutes elapsed time: Mr Philster, could I show you something?
Me: No. Just change the oil
Two more minutes later: Mr Philster, can I show you something about your air filter?
Me: Is it filthy? Good, I am winning a bet with a friend. Hope mine is dirtier than his.
Two more minutes later: We noticed you have a high performance engine and recommend the turbo package for 39.95.
Me: Now, I want the basic oil change.
Them: Can you sign here acknowledging that you did not go with the recommended turbo package.
Had horrible experiences with the “oil change” place. They stripped my drain plug AND underfilled my transmission by 2 QUARTS. It was close to work and only marginally more expensive than doing it myself, so I gave it a whirl. What a mistake, the first and last time I fell for that.
I’ve never actually taken any car to an oil change place, but this is exactly the kind of thing that I’ve heard about and choose to avoid. I really used to wonder if that kind of thing happened.
1 - Yes. I’m pretty anal about following the schedule I’ve arrived at for both of our vehicles.
2 - Do it myself.
3 - I enjoy doing my own repairs/maintenance. I’m not a professional mechanic, but I trust myself to be careful and thorough, and to know when a particular job is over my head. I’ve gotten more brave over the years, doing timing belts, water pumps, tie rod ends, what-have-you. Stuff that requires tools, equipment, or knowledge that I lack gets farmed out to pros.
Do you change your oil regularly?
Yes. Usually 8K - 12K Kms
Do you do it yourself or pay to have it done?
Myself.
Why do you do whatever you do in #2?
It’s cheaper. I can do it myself for about $20, or pay someone else about $35 - $40 CDN. It only takes 30 to 45 minutes.
I do it myself, like my dad and my auto shop teacher taught me.
I do it this way because I happen to think that there’s no way that a bunch of 18 year olds are going to take as much care with my car as I do, nor ensure that I am getting quality oil. My car requires oil that meets a certain spec (I drive a Pontiac G6, not a Mucilago) and while I’ll bet the oil change place will assure me they meet that spec, only one non-synthetic oil I know of meets it (Mobil). Since I drive a leased car, spending 4 times as much for synthetic oil just doesn’t make sense to me.
I make sure I hand tighten the oil filter, not wrench tighten. I make sure all the old oil is drained before I put the new oil in. I can check the air filter, wiper blades, etc myself, and install them for much less than what they charge at the shop, plus be ensured that I am putting quality parts on there.
I guess I just don’t trust people to be as conscientous as me if it’s something I can do myself.
By the way, an auto parts store ought to take your old oil. My local Advance takes it with no hassle in a big dumpster-like thing. I heard it was a law that if they sold oil, they had to accept it.
I’ve never changed my own oil and wouldn’t know how to off the top of my head, though I’m sure I could learn if there were sufficient motivation. But I wouldn’t be able to do it nearly as quickly or easily as the oil-change place. Plus, it’s reassuring to me to have somebody else look under the hood and check things out every once in a while, to see if there are any potential problems that I might not have noticed.
I just bought a new car that has passed 3000 miles. I’m going to have to look and see what the book says, but I do plan on changing it on a regular basis.
I plan on having a shop do it. The shop that I take my other cars to doesn’t ask for all the BS some of the other places do. They will make recommendations based on the mileage, but are not pushy about it. They also only charge $30 so it’s worth it to me.
I do change my own oil on my motorcycle. It costs way too much to have someone else do it and they keep it for a couple of days. I can do that myself.
[ol][li]Yes.[]Pay to have it done.[]Mostly I don’t particularly want to do it myself.[/li]At he behest of my dad, I did it myself for years to avoid the mischief of Evil Mechanics™ who desire to sabotage my engine and sell me wiper blades. Eventually I got tired of messing with it, started taking the car to the local dealer, and haven’t looked back. It’s much faster, a tiny bit more expensive, and the possibility of me having to clean up another oil spill is pleasantly nonexistent. Also, while they do occasionally suggest additional services, those services are described unambiguously on a chart which correlates model/mileage/maintenance information. If it is a scam, it is a consistent and transparent one. (Wiper blades aren’t on the chart.)[/ol]
I don’t much trust the quick-change places. Plus, my car has an undertray and diffuser that have to be removed to get access to the underside of the engine. They’re not really setup to deal with oddball situations like that. Lastly, I like to take my car to the track. Having the undertrays off gives me access to suspension and allows me to go through all my critical torque settings before an event.