How many of you change your own oil?

[Rogodin2]

No, you don't-as long as you use synthetic you can go 69000 miles without a change

Rogo

 

[Linflas]

I used to but now would rather pay $30.00 and save myself the trouble.

 

[BW86]

yes

 

[IronWing]

I've never changed my own oil. I could die happy having never changed my own oil. That's what high school dropouts are for.

Besides if I did it myself I would have to drive to buy the oil and drive again get rid of the waste oil so having someone else do it isn't much more expensive and far more convenient than I imagine doing it myself would be.

 

[Lithium381]

i do it myself about 95% of the time....if the truck is in for service or maintenance, they do it then, but i never make a special trip to have the oil changed

 

[Shawn]

I do all of my own work.

 

[d33pt]

my truck has never been to a mechanic except for alignments and tires. i change the oil myself because i know it's done right, not for the cost savings.

 

[BUTCH1]

I have mine done at the dealer while the car is under warranty, that way if a major
problem develops in the motor there would be no question as to the car being serviced
on schedule. Once the warranty runs out I'll do it myself and get better quality filter
and oil...

 

[sao123]

changing oil is easy.

 

[Rogodin2]

changing oil is easy.

Yes it is! I have to put my car on ramps because it's really low with a deep front valence, but it still takes me less than 15 minutes to do it-and it's a good time for an engine bay inspection.

Even making $50 an hour I'd rather spend the 15 minutes to know it's done right-and I put on a new brass washer every time just to make sure I don't have any leaks. No jiffylube will do that

Rogo

 

[eits]

i can't... i've always just taken it to a place where they do it.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Yes!

I use SuperTech 5W30 and a Motorcraft filter for my daily driver. The weekend convertible gets SuperTech 5W30 and a SuperTech filter.

DINO oil is DINO oil in my opinion. Suposedly relabeled Quaker State.

 

[brtspears2]

I used to do it with my old car, but new Mazda6, the oil filter is annoying.
Beside it is only $10 at the dealer and only 29 minutes or less in and out.

 

[troytime]

i can, but i don't

local place does it for about 12 bucks in 15 to 20 minutes

it'd take me longer, and my hour is worth more than 12 bucks

 

[WildHorse]

Everybody please be sure to take your used oil to your friendly local recycling center.

 

[IGBT]

..just did one today. On my 92 4wd Dakota 5.2L v8. Fresh crank of Mobil 1.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: Jahee
Wow americans do change oil a hell of alot! must be costly how much does say a gallon of oil cost you people?

There's a big emphasis on oil changes but not so much on stuff like air filters etc, do people pay as much attention to these too?

Gallon of oil isn't bad, depending on what you use.
Other filters & such should be changed regularly for peak performance as well.

Originally posted by: Jahee
You flush brake fluid after every 5000 miles too? that stuff lasts for years!

Actually, no. Brake fluid is hygroscopic, (absorbs water from the atmosphere) and water has a couple of bad points:
a) boils at a lower temp than brake fluid, so under a hard braking situation, you COULD end up with no brakes.
b)Water can (and does) cause components in the brake system to rust...which is not a good thing in an application that depends on parts of fairly close tolerances sliding together in a controlled manner.
c) Being heavier than brake fluid, water will tend to sink to the lowest point in your braking system, which in MOST applications, is your calipers, although some of it may stay in your ABS module...neither is good for braking.

The exception to the hygroscopic issue, is what here is called D.O.T. 5 fluid, which IIRC, is a silicone based fluid instead of petroleum based. While it won't actually mix with the brake fluid, the general thought is that the water still just sinks to the lowest point in the system, (calipers) where it can cause rust, and/or boil off under hard braking.
Most "driving enthusiasts" change their brake fluid at least every 2 years, most change it annually. It's not very expensive or hard, just time consuming...(for my BMW's it takes about 30 minutes to an hour max.)

 

[0roo0roo]

its cheaper for me, about 2 bucks for cheap filter at wallyworld, rated decent online so its not junk like fram which actually costs more. oil is like 1.50 qt or less depending if you have rebate at kragen or wherever. regular wallyworld oil is 1.50ish, 3bucks for synth. mix and match if you want and its still cheap.

as for disposal, its retarded easy in the bay area, they pick up the jugs of oil on garbage day along with the trash and leave you a new jug and filter bag.

its one of the easier car maintenance things to do. if you don't know how just buy a service manual or chiltons/haynes manual, got pics and instructions, good to learn about your car so you don't get too easily ripped off when you do need to go to the mechanic, and so you know when something isn't quite right, do basic checks etc. car is too integral to american life to not know anything about em, i guess if your rich you can take that risk or being ripped off or whatever and not care since u have other cars if one breaks

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: troytime
i can, but i don't

local place does it for about 12 bucks in 15 to 20 minutes

it'd take me longer, and my hour is worth more than 12 bucks

Werd. Oil change is like pulling out my motherboard and doing cable management. It takes about that much time, And if someone can do the same job I can in 15 - 20 minutes for a mere $12, then I'll easily pay that so I don't have to worry about 20 different things when I do it myself.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Fritzo
I've never seen the point of doing it myself. For around $20, I get 5 quarts of oil, the filter, all of my fluids topped off, and the oil gets properly disposed of. Seems like a fine deal to me.

Some places even throw in a free car wash.

For $20, you're probably getting half your used oil changed, if you're lucky they'll use a new crappy filter (instead of just not changing the filter at all), maybe they'll bother to retighten your drain plug, and you get a friendly young guy to tell you that "while they were working" they "noticed" that you needed new muffler bearings at $200 each. For me, it's worth a few extra minutes and a bit more hassle to know that it was changed correctly, with quality fluids and parts.

They must spend a lot of time refilling those 1 QT oil containers and resealing all the oil boxes against the wall, because they pour the oil right out of the container, plus they use Fram filters, which is what I would buy if I went to Autozone anyway. Been doing it for 15 years now and have never had a single problem. If your filter needs changed, they'll show it to you. If you want to buy one, there's like a $3 premium, or I can go buy one myself. They don't deal with any other repairs other than fluid replacement, so they don't try to find fake repairs to fix (which I've never experienced anyway). I think you guys are overly paranoid. You should be more worried about the guy making your hamburger picking his nose as it's a lot more likely.

 

[JS80]

yes, i fill up my own gas tank

 

[FoBoT]

only in the summer time, no way i would fool with it when it is 20F and snow/ice out, i don't have a big enough garage to mess with it inside

 

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: Fritzo

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Fritzo
I've never seen the point of doing it myself. For around $20, I get 5 quarts of oil, the filter, all of my fluids topped off, and the oil gets properly disposed of. Seems like a fine deal to me.

Some places even throw in a free car wash.

For $20, you're probably getting half your used oil changed, if you're lucky they'll use a new crappy filter (instead of just not changing the filter at all), maybe they'll bother to retighten your drain plug, and you get a friendly young guy to tell you that "while they were working" they "noticed" that you needed new muffler bearings at $200 each. For me, it's worth a few extra minutes and a bit more hassle to know that it was changed correctly, with quality fluids and parts.

They must spend a lot of time refilling those 1 QT oil containers and resealing all the oil boxes against the wall, because they pour the oil right out of the container, plus they use Fram filters, which is what I would buy if I went to Autozone anyway. Been doing it for 15 years now and have never had a single problem. If your filter needs changed, they'll show it to you. If you want to buy one, there's like a $3 premium, or I can go buy one myself. They don't deal with any other repairs other than fluid replacement, so they don't try to find fake repairs to fix (which I've never experienced anyway). I think you guys are overly paranoid. You should be more worried about the guy making your hamburger picking his nose as it's a lot more likely.

Fram sucks bigtime. Use purolator, it's worth buying your own filter even if they use yours rather than theirs.

 

[spaceman]

always.
not fun, messy most of the time, but i know its done correctly with the oil i want and the filter i want.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: sao123
changing oil is easy.

Getting rid of the used oil is a PITA though.