DIY Oil Changes...easy or hard? Worth the hassle?

I do business with a big Toyota dealer. They have an express oil change lane. No appointment necessary. No waiting. In and out in 45 minutes for about $50.00.

 

About $7 a qt IIRC. I have not been too motivated since the Walmart route costs me about $1 a quart.

 

How out of the way is it for you, and what about tyre rotations ? I do those while my oil is dripping out.

 

^ That's a little strange, practically 50% more (than $5.63 CAN per liter). And contrary to typical USvsCAN pricing...., I better not complain too loud.

That's just... argh!

I incorporate tire rotations with swapping the OEM with snow tires. That's typically a stand-alone thing, I'll put the car on my smaller jackstands, with just an inch or two clearance under the tires The two services I'll combine are engine oil change and transaxle fluid change.

It's just a lot more convenient doing stuff yourself too: you can pull the oil pan drain bolt, and go in and have dinner.

 

I had never done *any* work on a car before my first Prius. Oil changes gave me a chance to look around underneath. Nowadays I perform all the routine maintenance on our cars, and I might even think about a simple repair if needed.

If this 55 year old blind Monkey can do it, anybody can.

 

Yeah ... the $10 USD I spend a year on engine oil maintenance per car hurts me too.

 

I've done the oil changes on all the cars I've ever owned. I prefer to do my own, so I can check things.

 

Yep, a stellar deal to be sure.

$1 per quart of oil if you were capable of buying 20 gallons of gas at one time - which was required to get the maximum savings. I was able to do this almost 4 times (three gallons shy on one of the fill ups on my recent 1300 miles road trip). I bought 12 of the 5 qt containers of the Pennzoil Platinum (7 of 5w30 and 5 of 0W20) between April and June. I won't need to buy any oil for the next couple of years - LOL!

The promotion was supposed to end on 6/30.

 

I coordinate with my wife to go the fuel station at the same time so that we can fill two cars. A bit over the edge to be sure, but I love the oil companies just that much.

 

Whatever trips your trigger!!!

 

Are you serious about the blindness?

I'm just wondering because I hung out with a blind man when I was a kid, and there wasn't much he couldn't do. He was pretty deadly at 5 pin bowling, for example. The alley had one lane set up with a rail beside the return ball rack, and he'd just have one hand on that to get aligned. I went fishing with him a lot, he basically handled everything but steering.

He pretty much saved my life one time. I'd talked my way into coming along when he went with some guys to pick up a wood stove with a truck. It was a really tight squeeze in the cab, and I was against the door when the latch popped and the door swung out. He grabbed me real quick and here I am, LOL.

 

Great story.

In my case only the monkey part is true.

 

Our local WalMart has the 0-20 in full syn Mobil 1.

Another example of being fleeced by a shop. I have a 3/4 ton Yukon XL (think suburban) that had an AC leak. Problem was in the rear AC with the evaporator assembly. The shop wanted $933 to fix it. Cost me less than $200 in parts and about 1.5 hours labor yesterday to fix it. I know there are good shops out there and certainly don't look down on folks for using them. But I'd just rather do it myself. The reason I took it in was to find the leak.

I do have a dilemma to face in about 9k miles, though. We bought our Prius at a non-Toyota dealership. They have a $100 deductible lifetime powertrain warranty on it (does not include the electrical parts of the hybrid system), but only if you get your oil changes and tire rotations done there on the manf's schedule. So every 10k I'd have to bring it in and pay them about $110 for the work. And I have no way of being sure they'll use the correct oil. So I'd be tempted to bring it home, drain the oil out and put 0-20 syn in it anyway. Very tempted just to let the warranty go. We still have a lot of Toyota warranty left since we only have 34K on it, and a big part of the reason we got a Toyota is how dependable they've been for us over the years. Just not sure what I'll do yet.

 

Some people change their own oil on their Prius. It is too much of a hassle for me when I can get it done at the express oil change lane at my Toyota dealer with no appointment in about 45 minutes for about $50.00.

 

The offer, restated:

1 cent a mile to cover low failure rate parts that already have a Toyota warranty for quite a while.

 

Ditto - I do two oil changes a year, each at about 7500 miles. I also use Toyota 0W-20 oil and Toyota filters. Total cost, about $90 USD and two hours of my time, per annum.

 

So last time I had my oil changed at the dealership, because of the history (and my own experience at a different dealership) of so many stories of dealerships over filling the oil, I made a point of very strongly telling the "service adviser" to NOT over fill the oil and telling them I would check.

This was a Toyota dealership. The service adviser told me that when they went to do the oil change they enter the VIN number into a computer, and the computer determines the amount of oil put in.

So basically she was saying that there was no way they could over fill.

I don't know if this was BS or not, but they did not over fill my oil.

My very first time I had the oil changed, at a different Toyota dealership they DID over fill the oil.

To the OP?

In years past, on older utilitarian vehicles that I cared less about, I have used "Jiffy" Express oil change places. But ultimately my experiences with them have been negative.

Caught one place filling with regular oil when I paid for synthetic.

Got tired of the constant up sale for services I really did not need, and/or even if I needed- did not want them doing at any price.
So anyway, I wouldn't say I would NEVER use a "express" lube place, but I wouldn't with my Prius.

If it was an old enough used car, and I was specifically having them do just the oil change....maybe.

 

^ I've never darkened our nearby dealership's doorstep for an oil change, have been DIY from the outset, but:

We went to a "new owners open night", basically a talk about the dealership, a walk-through the service area. They have these oversized, graduated pitchers for measuring out the oil, which they pump from a reservoir. They measure out the spec'd amount, so no temptation to dump in (and charge you for) the remainder of an opened quart (or liter).

 

I am invited to a New Owners Celebration at the dealer I recently bought my new car from. It seems like you went to the same thing. Was it worth going to?

 

It was really a toss-up. I couldn't say I learned anything, as much as anything it was just to get a feel for their mindset. There were some dinner snacks, I guess that was the highlight. Going through the service bay was most interesting. They had a draw, everyone wins something: tote bags, water bottles, (cheap) pressure gages and so on. You come away with a few disks and brochures.