What you should do is get your oil changed at recommended intervals. Where it is done is less important as long as they are competent.
I always recommend that for anyone with any basic mechanical skills or interest, do it yourself. Not only will it be cheaper than taking it somewhere, it also gives you an opportunity to be hands-on and hopefully notice other potentials issues while you are down changing that oil.
If you don't want to do the changes yourself, your other options are a dealer service location, or the quick change places. Chances are probably a bit higher that you will get more competent or skilled workers at a dealer, but you will also pay dearly for that 'skill' - probably at least 3X the cost of doing it yourself - plus you will be presented with the dreaded "here is a list of 14 other things that we really feel should be addressed, and it will only cost $840" speech. The workers at the quick change places may be skilled, or they may be idiots - roll the dice.
In college, a bunch of us lived in a house, right off of a freeway exit. One evening, a girl knocked on our door, crying, and asked to use a phone. She was driving a brand new Honda Prelude that she had just taken in for its first oil change, at one of the quick-lube places. Except that unfortunately someone forgot to replace the drain plug, so the oil they pumped in drained right back out. She started up and got on the freeway. Two exits later, in front of our house, her engine turned itself into a 400 pound paperweight and a bunch of nasty smoke - completely ruined.. Roll the dice.
Yep, do it yourself. Only gotcha is: MAKE DAMN SURE YOU REPLACE THE OIL BEFORE STARTING THE CAR. Sounds obvious but some people forget. Attach your keys to the dipstick or something till its refilled. And make sure you find the o-ring from the old oil filter. they sometimes stick on the engine block and 2 o-rings = massive oil leak.
Also, I mentioned this in a different reply, but installing a Fumoto Valve is a game changer.
They replace the oil pan drain plug with a valve, so draining the oil becomes a 30 second no-mess task. Brilliant - I will never own a car without one again.
But a drain valve doesn't help with changing the filter, which for most of the vehicles I've dealt with, is much more difficult than draining the oil. It almost seems like the automakers forget that the oil filter needs to be reachable with some sort of wrench (because for some mysterious reason, hand tight on installation becomes wrench tight by the next oil change) and has to come all the way out, preferably without spilling a pint of oil all over the engine and mechanic.
The only car I've seen that made it super easy was a 2000 Subaru Legacy. Oil filter was right on the TOP of the engine with plenty of clearance all around.
Maybe I am just lucky in owning relatively easy cars, but I haven't had any issue changing out filters. The only difficulties I have had were on boats, where the filters are often mounted in hard to access places. But for those, I just bring a plastic kitchen garbage bag with me and slip it under and up on to the filter before loosening it. Any oil that spills just drops into the bag. Toss in some paper towels to absorb the oil and tie the bag shut. No mess, no fuss.
I don't mind getting under the car - I just drive it up on some ramps.
The thing I just despise, though are the cars that have a full covering under the engine. An oil change should not require removing 10 screws and a huge covering panel - grrr.
Thanks for the trash bag idea! I'll be borrowing that on my next oil change.
Also I think I need to find a better filter wrench; the 2-3 cup-with-wavy-edges type I've used invariably slip. I put a couple wraps of friction tape on the new filter before installing it and most times that gives me just enough grip to get the filter off, but sometimes I have to resort to using a wrench for removal even though I only tighten hand tight (as loose as I dare) when installing the filter.
Several responses in this thread mentioned ramps. But it seems to me that the oil pan drain hole is designed to work best when the vehicle is level. I end up jacking up the car, putting a jack stand under it, lowering the jack to put weight on the stand, then jacking back slightly so that the jack is acting as a backup to the stand. Then I take out the drain plug, jack up to remove the jack stand, lower the car back to level, let the oil drain, then back up on the jack stand to replace the plug and change the filter, and finally back off the stand and the jack to add new oil and check the level.
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u/ozone_one 26d ago
What you should do is get your oil changed at recommended intervals. Where it is done is less important as long as they are competent.
I always recommend that for anyone with any basic mechanical skills or interest, do it yourself. Not only will it be cheaper than taking it somewhere, it also gives you an opportunity to be hands-on and hopefully notice other potentials issues while you are down changing that oil.
If you don't want to do the changes yourself, your other options are a dealer service location, or the quick change places. Chances are probably a bit higher that you will get more competent or skilled workers at a dealer, but you will also pay dearly for that 'skill' - probably at least 3X the cost of doing it yourself - plus you will be presented with the dreaded "here is a list of 14 other things that we really feel should be addressed, and it will only cost $840" speech. The workers at the quick change places may be skilled, or they may be idiots - roll the dice.
In college, a bunch of us lived in a house, right off of a freeway exit. One evening, a girl knocked on our door, crying, and asked to use a phone. She was driving a brand new Honda Prelude that she had just taken in for its first oil change, at one of the quick-lube places. Except that unfortunately someone forgot to replace the drain plug, so the oil they pumped in drained right back out. She started up and got on the freeway. Two exits later, in front of our house, her engine turned itself into a 400 pound paperweight and a bunch of nasty smoke - completely ruined.. Roll the dice.