Rant: Price of Synthetic Oil Changes

[bretfraz]

Originally Posted By: Eddie
Critic: What vehicle do you have that requires a full synthetic oil and requires changing every 5,000 miles? If I must have someone do my oil changes and I thought the $$ were excessive, I would run the numbers. I'd figure the cost per years for that vehicle VS a std vehicle. Is the difference worth my joy of driving it or not. JMW Ed


Ahhh.... he mentioned it in his first sentence.

 

[Kestas]

Like Liquid turbo said, why not use dino? Why do you HAVE to use 0W-40? You could use a less expensive synthetic.

My buddy is out of work and has a Mercedes ML320 that specifies 0W-40. I use 10w30 dino for his oil changes and a shorter OCI. The motor will not grenade.

 

[HARTZSKY]

Guess Im fortunate Wal-Mart gives me 5 quarts for $4.40/qt, I can do a synthetic change for roughly $27.00.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Like Liquid turbo said, why not use dino? Why do you HAVE to use 0W-40? You could use a less expensive synthetic.

My buddy is out of work and has a Mercedes ML320 that specifies 0W-40. I use 10w30 dino for his oil changes and a shorter OCI. The motor will not grenade.

On a VW 2.0T? It would probably grenade in a very short time if you used conventional oil.

Anyway, the manager at the local Kragen gave me a break and allowed me to make some substitutions for the current Mobil 1 EP oil change special. So, I was able to get the items mentioned in the OP for about $35.

 

[wavinwayne]

W-M should sell M1 0w40 and the proper Fram filter for considerably less than Kragen, no?

 

[BrianWC]

In my local Wal-Marts, they cut loose of 0W40 M1 a good two years ago. I should know, I rounded up the clearance bottles for $2.50 a qt!

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Rotella T 5w-40?

 

[Nickdfresh]

Firstly, NEVER use conventional in a VW turbo engine. They had big problems with sludgging and coking with the old 1.8L Turbos. Secondly, the oil is expensive, but I believe VW requires a 10K OCI, which isn't really that bad.

Anyway, Autozone, Advance Auto, and PepBoys all offer $30 filter and five quart oil combos for Mobil1/Castrol SYNTEC, which I think is pretty reasonable...

 

[BGK]

I work at a VW dealer and we only use the German spec Castrol 5W-40

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
W-M should sell M1 0w40 and the proper Fram filter for considerably less than Kragen, no?


Maybe a dollar or two less. The filter is pretty expensive for the 2.0T. But since I got the manager to make me a special deal, I only paid $35 for 5 quarts and a filter.

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Firstly, NEVER use conventional in a VW turbo engine. They had big problems with sludgging and coking with the old 1.8L Turbos. Secondly, the oil is expensive, but I believe VW requires a 10K OCI, which isn't really that bad.

Anyway, Autozone, Advance Auto, and PepBoys all offer $30 filter and five quart oil combos for Mobil1/Castrol SYNTEC, which I think is pretty reasonable...


Seriously, right? Dino oil would lead to a quick death in a 2.0T. On this engine, if you remove the oil filler cap after a 3 mile drive, it's already steaming. Plus 10k is already a stretch for synthetic oil on this car.

Originally Posted By: BGK
I work at a VW dealer and we only use the German spec Castrol 5W-40


Can I bring the car over and have you change it?

 

[m37charlie]

It's a German car designed for autobahn speeds and has a highly stressed but little engine. If he wanted a car that is spec'd for cheap oil he should have gotten a Dodge Neon or one of the really bad GM products.
It costs me $250 to put 30 qts of synthetic in my Unimog. If I drove it a lot long distances I could go 20K miles or even longer OCIs.
Using synthetic and driving 2500 miles/month he should do quite well with 10000 mile OCIs as amply suggested above.

Charlie

 

[JohnBrowning]

What should worry you more then $6.99 Synthetic is that here in Michigan regular oil is around $4 a quart and we do not get those nice sales that some of you get where you can get your oil for $.69 a quart out the door.

 

[The Critic]

Just got in from changing the oil. Took me maybe 20 minutes.

It's actually a very easy oil change. I'm not sure why everyone is so scared of the cartridge filter. Once you drain the housing, there is absolutely ZERO oil spill.

Unfortunately, I did have to remove the eight T-25 screws in order to gain access to the filter housing and the drain plug. And the last monkey who changed the oil (dealer) tightened the plastic filter housing so tight that I was barely able to get it off with my foot long 1/2" drive ratchet. Same with the drain plug.

 

[Rand]

maybe go with rts 5w40.. its like 18/4qt around here

or you can get 5qt jugs of 5w40 for 22.99

next time you go out of state stash about 150$ for an oil reserve..

I just got 30qt of PP for about 36$ after rebate tax and postage.

last year I got bogo PP, maxlife syn for
how I buy oil is like How I buy groceries

I dont buy a cube of pepsi for 8$ I wait till they are 2/10$ etc.

 

[ionbeam22]

I'm not sure what all the drama is about. The trick to synthetic oil is to buy it when it is on sale. All autoparts stores will be running an oil change special at some time or other.

For example right now Autozone is running 5qt's of M1 + M1 Oil filter for $30, or 5qt of Valvoline Synthetic + Fram toughguard filter for $27 etc.

It costs around ~$10-$15 to have a mechanic do the oil change if you bring your own oil and filter.

So yes it is expensive if you pay full retail, (or pay more than full retail at a dealer), but if you shop around its not so expensive at all.

If you know the car requires something exotic like 0W-40 or 0W-20 etc, then it really makes sense to stock up when the right brand goes on sale.

 

[Dieselsrule]

I buy Mobil 1 at AutoZone when they run the 5qts+M1 filter for $29.95. I will buy 5 of these deals and then I get $20.00 off the 6th one because of having a AutoZone Rewards card. I wind up with 30qts of M1 and 6 M1 filters for about $160.00 + tax.

I also got in on the M1 0w30 $10.00 a jug rebate and the Pennzoil Platinum $15.00 a jug rebate.

Sales and rebates dictate when I buy oil.

So, to answer the OP's question: No, the price of Synthetic Oil would not effect my choice of vehicle.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: m37charlie
It's a German car designed for autobahn speeds and has a highly stressed but little engine. If he wanted a car that is spec'd for cheap oil he should have gotten a Dodge Neon or one of the really bad GM products.


How is a 200-horsepower car designed for Autobahn speeds more than any other car? They use synthetic oil now because they were too dumb to spec it initially and it caused engines to grenade...

And BTW, there are many GM products on the Autobahn as Opel was previously GM and GM used much of the same tech as here. Let's not get pretentious over our VWs. They're reliability records were nothing to shout about either, until very recently...

 

[mechtech2]

critic - You can still get a couple of qts of oil and a filter for $10. These prices are readily available.

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: tonycarguy
Lamborghini & Ferrari: $300-500 per oil change
GTR: http://blogs.edmunds.com/roadtests/2009/03/2009-nissan-gt-r-bargain-supercar-gets-expensive.html

If you can afford the car you can afford the service costs,,,, not for the weak of heart or $$$$.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
They use synthetic oil now because they were too dumb to spec it initially and it caused engines to grenade...


I believe that they spec'd synthetic oils back then too ..but they were in such limited distribution that you HAD to go to a dealer to find them. With Audi/VW dealers not around every corner, some people who shouldn't have bought them ..bought them ..and didn't think a whole lot about what ownership included. Given the choice between a $100+ dealer oil change ...and driving who knows how many miles for the privilege, and a $25 oil change at a convenient service center, they put oils in that didn't meet spec ...drove like they did ..and paid the consequences. A whole invasion of alphabet soup oils arrived on shore after these events.