Do you change your own oil?

Nope, I have a really nice oil change place here in town I like to go to.

Yep, last time was @2002 in my 1995 Vandura Conversion Van with a V-8 and most of the fix-ins.

I miss it.

radcen said:

Do you change your own oil?

I used to all the time. For many years. Now I do it myself only about 1/3 of the time.

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I do change my own oil, only because it's hard to find time to have it changed, and a couple of times in the past, places have overfilled my crankcase. You don't really save any money by doing it yourself.

Did in my Kia, did not for the Saturn. Sits way too low and just no safe place to do it

countryboy said:

I do change my own oil, only because it's hard to find time to have it changed, and a couple of times in the past, places have overfilled my crankcase. You don't really save any money by doing it yourself.

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Over filled
put no oil in
put wrong oil in
Over torque filter
Under torque filter
Over torque drain plug
Under torque drain plug
Claimed you did a change, put a new sticker on my window, but never change the oil, and then blame it on a shop communication glitch no big deal after I call and ask WTF?


All has happened to me

Hawkeye10 said:

Over filled
put no oil in
put wrong oil in
Over torque filter
Under torque filter
Over torque drain plug
Under torque drain plug
Claimed you did a change, put a new sticker on my window, but never change the oil, and then blame it on a shop communication glitch no big deal after I call and ask WTF?


All has happened to me

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Yep, that's basically why I change my own.

countryboy said:

Yep, that's basically why I change my own.

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I feel your pain.

I went with finding a very good mechanic that I trust (took three tries, not a story that I want to tell, too much pain), and no one else touches my car except for emergancies. I am lazy and am a mechanical clutz. I am sometimes ashamed that I dont change my oil because back in the 70's 80's I did that and coolant flushes and plugs and filters and carb tune ups.....

Now I cant be bothered.

No, I just go to the local quicky lube. I used to do it when I was a teenager with no money, but now it's worth paying an extra few bucks and save myself the time and hassle.

beerftw said:

I always change my own oil, I have heard too many horror stories on oil change places, plus I are a mechanic. Quick lbe places like jiffy lube tend to tighten drain plugs with impact wrenches, and use the wrong oil. They are on commission and get paid crap per job, which means they need to knock out as many jobs as possible to make a decent paycheck, which leads to cutting corners.

If I did not change my own oil, or rebuild my own engines and transmissions, I would choose either the dealership, or an independant shop. Independant shops usually loose money per oil change, but do it to keep customers happy and returning, so they tend to take more care. Dealerships are hit or miss, they may have god guys working there or complete idiots, but at a dealership unlike a quicklube place, if they strip your drainplug threads and the plug falls out on the highway and your engine siezes up, they have the money to fix it, and the manufacturor to force them to do so.

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Had a tercel the timing belt broke, was winter so I had the garage near where it died replace it. Ran like crap, they obviously had it of fy a few cogs, I took it to the dealership told them exactly what happened and that they just needed to unhook the belt at the cam, reset and put it back on. They called the next day and said they couldn't fix my car because the compression was low on 1 cylinder. Argued with the guy for a bit then realized the guy on the phone isn't a mechanic so I told him NOT to touch my car I was coming in. Got there argued with the same guy a bit then finally he got the mechanic. Mechanic started spewing BS til I lost it and in front of all the people in the waiting area I explained to him how the engine was built and why compression was irrelevant to fixing the timing belt and to either do as I asked or give me my car back so I could take it somewhere that had mechanics who knew how an engine worked. He mumbled something went back fixed my timing belt then came back and said he had to turn up the idle to make it work. I too the car and said and said ill put back the idle myself. (That I can do in winter)
Yes the compression was low (I already knew that) but I rebuilt the engine in the spring, it really wasn't that pressing an issue. Tercels are such easy cars to work on, kinda like the old civics, newer civics are a pain in the ass.
I hate dealerships, Small garages are the way to go, If you find a good one that is.

Interesting how many of us did our own oil changes in the past but no longer.

I think part of it is that the location of the oil filter in some vehicles almost made it impossible to remove it without dribbling oil all over your driveway and also the evolution of engine computers and vacuum hoses.


In my 20-30's without ever taken an automotive class I was able to do all kinds of repairs.
The craziest thing I ever did was before cruise control were the norm on cars I installed a cruise control on my car. Was slightly worried that it would get stuck on 100 mph. An after market cruise control in those days just looked like an accident waiting to happen.