Oil change... do you do your own or have it done?

Both.

you can save roughly 10 bucks in like 5 minutes of actual work. That's pretty damn nice.
(about 35 if i shop it $ about 25 if i do it myself)
but I've had it done many times by a shop out of convenience so i can't say i exclusively change it myself.
 
Take it in. Know a family owned business that does a great job - oil change, fluid top off, tire inflation, interior vacuuming and window washing in about 10 minutes for $30.
 
I don't pay any Pablo's or Bubba's to do a sub-par job on a task I can do myself in 20 minutes. The biggest reason is that I'm a college student who's got better shit to spend money on, but I also love working on the car myself anyway; an oil change is just an excuse to tinker in the bay.
 
Dealer does it with tire switch and other seasonal bs.

I don't have a garage or tools, plus my time is worth more than that.
 
Depends. I'm completely capable of changing oil and other minor tasks such as putting on new brakes. If the only thing my vehicle needs is one of those easier tasks to be done, I'll do it myself. Otherwise it's just easier to have the shop do it while they're working on something that's more involved.
 
I have it done. You don't save that much money by doing it yourself. When you get it done not only do they change your oil and replace your oil filter they also top off the rest of your fluids like windshield fluid and so on. Plus the only jack I own is the little one that comes with the car to change tires, no way in hell I'm trusting that to hold up the weight of the car while I drain the oil. And if I went to buy a good jack it would cost enough to definitely negate the point of trying to save any money. Plus it's easier to let someone else do all the work while you sit in a waiting room reading a magazine. Most of the time you get can coupons in the mail to get oil changes in the low $20 range.
 
I do my own and always have..I do a synthetic change every year in the summer to fall..if you catch synthetic on sale (which it always is up here) you can do an oil change with a synthetic filter for around 40$..basically the price of taking it in and getting regular bulk oil..
 
Have it done.

I'll happily pay a little extra to have some blue collar guy do his blue collar job instead of me.
Plus it's good for the economy, right.
 
Strychnyne said:
I take it in. An older man I knew was a do it yourself'er and his jack slipped and he was crushed. I'll take the hint.
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Why in the flying fuck would you change your oil with your vehicle on a jack? That's literally an accident waiting to happen. Two much better options :

1. Jack stands
image_21194.jpg


2. Rhino Ramps or equivalent
41c56K7hWJL._SX300_.jpg


I do my own oil and I've done brakes and rotors before as well. I'm shocked at the amount of people in this thread who don't change their own oil... kind of man knowledge 101. Also, I put full synthetic in both my vehicles, which with filter costs me about $30 per vehicle. If I take it in to get the oil changed with full synthetic I'm looking at closer to $80-$90 and it's going to take an hour or so for each vehicle. I actually changed the oil in both of my vehicles over the last weekend and from start to finish, including cleanup, was less than an hour.

As others have said it's disturbing taking your vehicle into a shop / dealership when you have scammers and imbeciles working on it. I had one place tell me my alignment was out and was so out of whack that it needed ~$350 rotor inserts to correct it. 100% pure bullshit; got it aligned for about $50 at another place down the road and it handles perfectly. Since then I've done as much maintenance as possible on my own.
 
I do it myself. That way when I'm under the car I can look for other issues that may be happening. i.e. leaking tranny cooler lines, oil pan gasket, tire wear, etc. The quick turn oil shops usually tighten the piss out of stuff. You have to either commit to them always doing it or your always doing it. It's almost impossible to get off the stuff they tighten.
 
lol @ the "I'm too busy" crowd with thousands of sherdog posts.

Sound like a bunch of wimps who either don't have tools or don't know how to do it. The 18 year olds at Jiffy Lube are manlier than you are.
 
I used to do it myself decades ago. Too easy to have it done.
 
If a little oil change is too much the shops love you guys for things like timing belt changes where its $200 in parts and $600 in labor.
 
My car uses 5w40 synthetic which is hard to find in shops and with oil and filter, comes out to around $75. The dealer charges around the same amount and I can usually find a coupon so I just let them get dirty and do it.
 
I negotiate oil changes for all of my vehicles. It's not that I'm cheap but its an inexpensive service the dealership can offer at the time of the sale. Especially since we have 3 vehicles for the two of us, none of the cars have large milage on them.
 
I don't get the complaining about effort. If anything, it's LESS effort to do it yourself. You gotta get up super early on the weekend to beat the line at the shop. They'll wait at least 20 minutes for the oil to cool down, 20 minutes to change the oil and another 10 minutes checking your brakes, tires, radiator hoses and whatever else they make money on. I've never had a shop oil change that lasted less than an hour.

In my driveway, it takes 30 minutes. I don't even jack the car up. (4runner, corolla and camry) Try reaching under your car, the oil plug is easily accessible, but you might need to fidget with the wheel to get to the oil filter. I have an 5 gallon oil carton that I store up to 4 changes before taking it to recycle at Pepboys. While there, I pick up 4 more jugs of oil and filters. Pepboys runs $13.99 5 qt oil + filter specials all the time. Walmart has 5qt jugs of Mobile 1 synth for $24.
 
chardog said:
a local shop use to do it for 10 bucks, my current local shop does it for 20 for 4 bangers or 30 for my minivan..... at those prices, why bother?
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Yea mine is about $20 which is close to what it cost to do it myself. So I might as well spend another $10-$15 to just get someone to do it.
 
while car is under warranty, get it done .. when its off warranty, do it myself while teaching my son how to do it .. i am not a grease monkey by any means, but i think guys need to be able to do a few things in life ... changing a tire and knowing your way under the hood (of a car among other things) is important .. not essential, but important
 
quatin said:
I don't get the complaining about effort. If anything, it's LESS effort to do it yourself. You gotta get up super early on the weekend to beat the line at the shop. They'll wait at least 20 minutes for the oil to cool down, 20 minutes to change the oil and another 10 minutes checking your brakes, tires, radiator hoses and whatever else they make money on. I've never had a shop oil change that lasted less than an hour.

In my driveway, it takes 30 minutes. I don't even jack the car up. (4runner, corolla and camry) Try reaching under your car, the oil plug is easily accessible, but you might need to fidget with the wheel to get to the oil filter. I have an 5 gallon oil carton that I store up to 4 changes before taking it to recycle at Pepboys. While there, I pick up 4 more jugs of oil and filters. Pepboys runs $13.99 5 qt oil + filter specials all the time. Walmart has 5qt jugs of Mobile 1 synth for $24.
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I have every other friday off which is when I get it done at whatever time I feel like. My shop has never taken an hour even on the rare times I went on the weekends.

Another issue is in the summer in Texas it's a pain in the ass to go outside and work on your car. It gets so humid here.
 
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