Who does your oil change

[82DMC12]

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Well, Andy, I personally have had a perfectly functioning Mopar transmission start shuddering immediately after a Dexron based fluid change . . . and fail two weeks later. At the time, I didn't know shops actually did this sort of thing or I would have gone back and demanded the offending shop to fix it. I have seen friction and viscosity curves of Mopar fluid vs Lubegard added concoctions, and they are quite different . . . as is their ability to withstand the heat in Mopar transmissions. The high failure rate in Hyundai transmissions is largely from the same practice.

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BigAl,

Not to say I don't believe you but it sounds like the tranny shop didn't put the lubeguard in. I have literally done hundreds of these including to people I personally know and see on a regular basis and not once have I had a problem with it or had a comeback related to poor transmission performance or shuddering. I can think of one customer right now in fact that has over 300K on an early 90's caravan with the original transmission who has gotten a lubeguard trans service every 15-30K miles, which what the severe service recommendation is on it. No problems at all.

Is it 100% as good as using the OEM fluid? Not sure. Is synthetic better than dino? Depends on what you are comparing and what your needs are.

Andy

 

[Ben Boyle]

I don't like getting underneath cars. I change the oil on my '74 Volkswagen Super Beetle and '86 Citroen 2CV because I can do so without raising the car. My New Beetle is done by a friend of mine who works at a garage. Generally I buy the oil and filter and he's happy with a 2 liter of pop for his trouble!

 

[oldblueglide]

Heck I put 200k on a grand cherokee on MerconIII with no problems at all. At least not from the tranny

 

[rjundi]

My local Subaru dealer (I own a WRX and Legacy GT). For $24.95 with Exxon Super-Flo/OEM filter and done <40 mins or next is free. The best part they have free wireless internet access while I wait so I just work. I see some STI owners carry in their own synthetic motor oil for that price also.

 

[FordSVTGuy]

I proudly do my own. And some of the families as well. You can save a lot of clams that can be used to fuel other activities...

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[marcre]

I usually do my own change. I have it set up so the coldest months I don't have to do a change. I actuallly look forward to oil change time. It must be a sickness, but it's theraputic to me.

Friends ask me why I waste my time doing my own oil change. I point out it is a lot easier to do it yourself instead of going to sit somewhere and wait for them. Plus I get to use the oil of my choice and go to the auto parts store and browse. Added bonus, it saves money.

 

[eljefino]

I've got nothing against laying on my back in the snow for that mid-winter oil chnage. Sometimes the interval is off when I get a nice day and do all the cars early-- all set until april/may.

Would rather work in the snow than mosquito season.

 

[Kestas]

The trick is to wait until it's REALLY cold. That way the snow and water freeze over and you don't get wet.

 

[andyd]

I have always changed the oil in my cars. My current stable of BMW 528es are very easy to change oil on. In fact, the cars are very easy to maintain and I enjoy working on them. I havent had them "professionally " serviced in over 5 yrs. I maintain a small inventory of spares and just repair them as needed.

 

[Brikhead]

OK, I'll admit it...I'm spoiled. I work in the auto biz and have access to tools & lifts. I haven't done an "on the ground/outside" OC in over 15yrs.

 

[UncleS2]

I do it myself in my Neon, & have since 90-something-000 miles, when a guy at the local service station stripped out my oil pan(steel plug into aluminum pan. The 95-05 Neons are easy to do, the plug & vertical-hanging filter are only inches away from each other.

I still have Mom's big Mercury done at the svc station. Can't get to the 4.6 V-8 oil filter well enough from ramps- they get it on the lift, & then have to turn the front wheels to get to it. Good engine, but lousy oil filter placement!

 

[Blue_Goose]

I just started doing it with the Matrix after I used to do it off and on about 20 years ago. It is so easy to do an oil change on the Matrix/Corolla/Vibe it would be a sin to let someone else do it. I live in a condo development so I'm probably not supposed to do it but...........

Last OIC for my wife's Vue (3.5l Honda) I tried to get the drain plug off but no way Jose...that thing was CRANKED on there by the dealership...could not get any leverage at all and the ground was soaking wet from melting snow...decided to go to Pep Boys as after rebate the OIC was only 11 bucks..lo and behold I see the guy in there tighting up the drain plug with a rachet like there is no tomorrow! I can't wait to see how I'm gonna get it off this time...if it is dry I'll put her up on Rhino ramps(the Vue not the wife!) I hope that meatball didnt strip the threads or crush the oil pan gggrrrrrrrrrr

Goose

 

[racer12306]

i was the same way brikhead. my dad has had a lift for about 8 years and i had the benefit of doing an oil change in the air since i started driving (5 years). that all changed a couple weeks ago because the lift area was full of building supplies. i can say im not too thrilled with doing an oil change outside in the cold with wind.

 

[zombie_tech]

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i can say im not too thrilled with doing an oil change outside in the cold with wind.

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Try doing an engine swap in those conditions

 

[peterr]

I live in the city. And I live in Canada. Until a year ago I had never had a garage, or a convenient flat parking spot. So I always took it to a trusted mechanic.

I did go to a quick lube once (Mr. Lube) to have oil and filter changed on a Porsche. They did a perfectly fine job, but I did specify non- bulk oil. And this place is in essentially the second richest neighbourhood in Canada, so I figure they were a little more used to seeing oddball euro cars. Walmart, Midas, etc flat out will tell me "we don't have your filter"

The service advisor or whoever wrote up the order was not an idiot at all. He did not expect me to want the bulk 5w30 and when i asked for Castrol GTX 10w40 he poured it from sealed quart bottles into my engine. He was probably a little surprised that I did not want the Synth but I figured I did not have the time to explain that I was running a rinse cycle after Auto-RX. It was July, so I basically just wanted whatever 40 weight decent Dino oil they had to run for 1500 miles.

I had brought my own Mahle filter but they did have the Porsche OEM filter (Bosch built by Champion in NA). I would have preferred to use mine both because of cost and quality. maybe this is the timid CAnadian in me but I figure their business model is based on some calculation of where they make revenues from various service. If they wanted to charge me a fee for using my parts that would be reasonable. Anyhow - it was easier to just let them use their filter.

So overall I probably paid about 2.5 times as much as it costs to do it myself. That was the last time I paid someone to change the oil. Now that I have a garage with just enough room to (barely) work I do it myself. My main reason is just so that I can use exactly what fluids and filters I want, to be able to do things like Auto-RX and LC20 flushes, and to do it when I want.

Now that I have a garage even in the winter I have done an oil change and a transmission fluid change. I did wait for days where it got up to around freezing temperature. I really don't want to mess around with a lot of more involved work in the cold.

 

[Benzadmiral]

When I lived in Denver, CO, I had a Mercedes 280CE -- a Euro coupe with a 6-cyl. engine. "Euro" in this case meant that not everybody had the filter . . . though I could always get what I needed at the used car dealership where I'd bought the car.

Well, in this case, I went to a Grease Monkey franchise in the south part of town. Fortunately, the manager realized *before* they started the oil change that he didn't have the right filter. "Bring us the filter, we'll do it, no problem." So I ran over to the dealer, got the filter, came back, and they took the cost of the filter off the total.

-- Paul W.

 

[mike1qaz]

My first oil change was free at the dealer. For the last 151K miles, it's been me laying under the Accord. I've been doing my own for over 40yrs.

 

[ARB1977]

Ive been doing it myself since 1998 but when i bought my truck in 2003 i bought those prepaid maintence coupons, maintence paid up too 55K well im finally done and this spring will be my first oil change and i truely cant wait, why because im sick. You can use much better oil for what you pay at those quickie lubes for dino oil.

 

[Crashbox]

I've been changing my own oil since about '81 or so- I like to know what's going into the crankcase.

Once- only once- I drained the old oil out and poured five quarts of oil in, then I thought to myself, "Did I replace the drain plug?"

Only once, though!

 

[ARB1977]

Crashbox,

I did that once on an aircraft engine but luckly it was 100W oil and had a quick release valve so i only lost about .5 qrt.