Used to. Never enjoyed it, and I need to keep my local mechanic (who’s always ready to work me in for emergency work/service) employed.
My family’s been going to this same garage since the 1950’s. They’ve worked on our Studebaker, our Delorean, and our diesel tractor at various times.
My dad even had one of the mechanics out to the airstrip to service the Stearman once! (Payment was a ride in it.)
I know how to do it, and had to change my own oil (plus change a tire, check fluid levels, and install a fan belt, maybe something else like install a new spark plug) before my mom would let me get my license. But I have a good mechanic, and the shop charges under $30 bucks to do the job, so hell no!
Places like AutoZone or O’Reilly take used oil.
I do it myself and use the opportunity to look over the car and replace other stuff like the air filter, wiper blades, or whatever else is due.
I do it myself. I could name a lot of reasons that have already been mentioned in this thread, like how I trust my own work more than others’. Or that I can do it at my own leisure. Or that I can use it as quality time to check over everything else on the car.
But the main reason I do it myself? I enjoy it…plain and simple.
Change my own - 2 cars.
I like to use full synthetic in both and I save a fair amount of $$$ doing it myself and buying oil when it’s on sale. The lube joint’s markup on synthetic is just stoopid.
That and you get the benefit of properly draining the oil pan. I let the car sit on the jack stands with the reservoir open for at least a half-hour. That last bit is where the heaviest material (tiny metallic shavings) that does the most damage is sitting. That stuff doesn’t all drain out in 5-10 minutes.
I am not going to let some minimum wage yahoo touch my car. I do everything myself and have my own well-equiped garage to do it in.
Oil change, belts, fuel filter, spark plugs, coolant, O2 sensors, clean the air fiter and MAF sensor, all maintenance that I can do I take care of myself. I just changed the rear shocks and am about to change the front struts. I over-maintain things and the car isn’t even due for any of these things yet.
I would take it to a shop only if it needed some internal engine work.
I do it, because I know it will be done right. Plus, I don’t want to be hounded to buy a new airfileter, wipers, transmission flsh,etc., at highly inflated prices.
I can and I have when I was younger, but I have far too many things going to justify spending any time on it. Usually get it done for about 30 bucks somewhere.
I go about 6k between oil changes – sometimes more.
Another vote for hell no. I wouldn’t know how and I don’t care to learn.
We change our own oil because it would be silly to drive 20 miles to have it done. If we lived in town, I’m sure we’d have it done at a shop.
Ahahahahahahaha!
You might as well ask me if I build my own houses or dig my own ditches. Um, no. I am slightly perturbed that I even have to put gas in the fucking thing- somebody else can do the rest.
Well put me down for sort of. Either I do it myself or one of the guys at work do it as a favor to the boss.
If I do it, I do it at the shop on a hoist (a couple of advantages of running a dealer service dept)
No. It’s –10°C, 14°F, with a north wind and blowing snow, and it’s not even half past November.
In the summer, of course, it’s much too hot.
Beulah, peel me a grape.
My son-in-law owns an auto shop within easy driving distance, so my oil changes cost about zip.
Our shop does have more than a few cars come in (towed in, actually) where the minimum wage tech at the lube specialty shop has had a teeny bit of trouble getting the oil plug back in properly, and the car now needs a new engine. That’s always really big bucks.
Eek. Who pays for that?
I have changed it in the past, but I don’t anymore. The difference in price is relatively small, but I get the benefit of not having to have any equipment and they do a free check on other stuff as well, I don’t have to dispose of the used oil, and I don’t have to get dirty. I can just take my car there on a lunch break, get lunch, and it’s usually done not long thereafter. All of those benefits for like $10 and “man points”? Seems worth it to me.
I used to change my own oil and store the waste in a 5 gallon container. Then one day I moved something that punctured the container. It wasn’t quite as bad as the Gulf Coast spill but it was still a pain to clean up. Now I just take it in.
Nope. I’m mechanically disinclined, and have never learned how to do it (much less what else to look at while I’d be down there, as Al Bundy notes). I am at least a little impressed at people who can do it themselves, but it’s not something I ever seriously considered trying myself.
Generally yes, although I have had a few vehicles over the years that was not worth the bother.
You can occasionally find a garage that will do an oil change for less the the cost I can buy the oil and filter, if it’s convenient I will let them do it.
Hell no. I go to Valvoline.