Oil changes

RetiredUSNChief

RetiredUSNChief

Get over it, snowflake.
Charter Life Member
Multi-Factor Enabled
Joined
Dec 17, 2016
Messages
29,345
Location
SC to VA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Holy cow...I figured oil changes would be staggered a bit more on five cars!

We've added 3 vehicles to the family because of college age kids. The last one we got a couple months ago.

I run Mobil 1 in them all, except for my wife's car (because synthetic oil is evil or something, don't get me started). The Mobil 1 cars get oil changes every 10,000 miles.

Anyway, the first oil change on the "new" vehicles comes right after purchase, the next one on the next 10,000 mile mark on the odometer (makes scheduling oil changes easy that way).

My youngest daughter said she needs her oil change. My wife popped up saying hers needs changed, too. No problem. Of to Walmart I go, noticing my car is a couple hundred miles from its 290,000 mile oil change point.

As if THAT weren't bad enough, after I got home I checked our oldest daughter's car for her brake light problem and SHE is a couple hundred miles from her 330,000 mile oil change, too.

That's a lot of oil... and bucks!
 
Ferrisfan said:
No oil changes on EVs. 😉
Click to expand...

592cb1d73d8f7167728d8bfe48986938.gif
 
Speaking of oil........... One of my way too dang smart buds says I need to switch to synthetic on my 2003 silverado and2016 Nissan Sentra. He says since they don't get driven much since I retired synthetic would be much better. I scratch my head when he talks like that.........
 
I like changing oil, but It's actually cheaper to let Toyota do them on those vehicles. The lost time factor of taking them to the dealer is annoying. I can do the oil change at home in less than 30 minutes rather than a 2 hr turn(drive time, wait time, up sell BS talk) when I take it.
 
Last edited:
ES44AC said:
I like changing oil, but It's actually cheaper to let Toyota do them on those vehicles. The lost time factor of taking them to the dealer is annoying. I can do the oil change at home in less than 30 minutes rather than a 2 hr turn(drive time, wait time, up sell BS talk) when I take it.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much where I am. I normally get a kid or my wife to run the vehicles over to Toyota since it costs about the same. The only vehicle we are consistently changing at home is my son's 4runner. The main reason for that is we are constantly doing something to it so it's on jack stands often already. I did just have to take 3 5 gallon buckets of oil over to the dump to recycle recently which is a pain.
 
The high school kid changing your oil at Toyota is the same high school kid that does it at jiffy lube. He might know what he's doing and he might not. They will hire just about anybody for the "easy jobs"

It might be cheaper when they don't mess it up but it can cost you a vehicle when they do.

Letting other people work on my car gives me the hebyjebies.
 
REELDOC said:
Speaking of oil........... One of my way too dang smart buds says I need to switch to synthetic on my 2003 silverado and2016 Nissan Sentra. He says since they don't get driven much since I retired synthetic would be much better. I scratch my head when he talks like that.........
Click to expand...

Keep running what you’ve been running in them.😉
 
@RetiredUSNChief - Mobil1 is always running rebates - right now it's get some level of $ back as a pre-paid visa depending on what oil you buy - unfortunately it's limited to 2 per household, but if the kids at college have an address you can use or family address is ok might be worth it.

I just did 2 of mine - 2x 5 quart jugs from WM @$24.50, with $15 back from Mobil1 for a grand total of less than $10 per jug. I keep an eye on the Mobil1 site and when they have a rebate going I get some even if I don't need it yet. Luckily for me the 2 I did both need 5-20, so it's a simple one.

www.mobil.com

Get up to $30 back on Mobil 1â„¢ motor oil

Get up to $30 back when you purchase Mobil 1™ motor oil from April 1 – September 30, 2021.
www.mobil.com www.mobil.com
 
Last edited:
C-doodle said:
The high school kid changing your oil at Toyota is the same high school kid that does it at jiffy lube. He might know what he's doing and he might not. They will hire just about anybody for the "easy jobs"

It might be cheaper when they don't mess it up but it can cost you a vehicle when they do.

Letting other people work on my car gives me the hebyjebies.
Click to expand...


And that high school kid may be using an air gun on your drain plug ( like my local Walmart did in the past ) which will eventually round off the plug.

.
 
Gator said:
And that high school kid may be using an air gun on your drain plug ( like my local Walmart did in the past ) which will eventually round off the plug.

.
Click to expand...
Yeah they did that to my Ranger and claimed they didn't.
 
NCLivingBrit said:
Yeah they did that to my Ranger and claimed they didn't.
Click to expand...
They'll also cross thread or strip your oil plug & any bolts they remove. They just hold the air tool against the hole & pull the trigger. They don't even start them by hand b/c that takes too long & they've got to check their latest texts.
 
1858 Remington said:
They'll also cross thread or strip your oil plug & any bolts they remove. They just hold the air tool against the hole & pull the trigger. They don't even start them by hand b/c that takes too long & they've got to check their latest texts.
Click to expand...
They did that while replacing my ex-wife's plug, fortunately it was after it was my problem.
 
OutLore said:
@RetiredUSNChief - Mobil1 is always running rebates - right now it's get some level of $ back as a pre-paid visa depending on what oil you buy - unfortunately it's limited to 2 per household, but if the kids at college have an address you can use or family address is ok might be worth it.

I just did 2 of mine - 2x 5 quart jugs from WM @$24.50, with $15 back from Mobil1 for a grand total of less than $10 per jug. I keep an eye on the Mobil1 site and when they have a rebate going I get some even if I don't need it yet. Luckily for me the 2 I did both need 5-20, so it's a simple one.

www.mobil.com

Get up to $30 back on Mobil 1â„¢ motor oil

Get up to $30 back when you purchase Mobil 1™ motor oil from April 1 – September 30, 2021.
www.mobil.com www.mobil.com
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll look into this from now on, because that's an AWESOME deal!

I usually keep an eye out on Mobil 1 at Walmart and pick some up when the 5 quart jugs go on sale.
 
My son does most of the oil changes any more anyway.

As for the vehicles the kids drive...the cars the kids drive are "mine", not theirs, since they're all in my name. This was made clear as I bought them, since I didn't buy all of them at the same time and this necessitated a foreign concept called "sharing", especially with one of our kids. (Daddy's Little Troublemaker, in particular.)

The understanding was that once they got out of college and on their own, if they wanted to keep the vehicle they had been driving they could then buy it from me at fair market value, not to exceed what I paid for it. This would give them a car they were familiar with at a cost easily affordable for someone starting out on their own while helping them build credit through a used car loan. They could then do whatever they wished with their car...sell it, trade it, drive it until it finally gives up the ghost. In the meantime, they could put money away towards a future replacement at their own leisure as they established themselves as independent adults.

While they're still mine, I'll take care of the maintenance...their part of the deal is to keep their grades up and do whatever they can to qualify for grants and the like in order to keep the cost of college down. This makes the cost of routine maintenance more affordable for me, because kids on the Dean's List and President's list helps save me more money in the long run.

So I really don't mind doing the oil changes myself. (Or my son.) It doesn't really save me any money to do it myself when Jiffy Lube or whatnot will do it very affordably and quickly. But I know the oil/filter I use is what's actually going into the vehicles and I get a chance to crawl under the hoods periodically to check out other things myself to be sure there aren't any other problems that need to be dealt with.
 
Our two daughters drive my cars, they both have jobs now and pay for the tags, tax, inspections, tires, oil, filters, etc parts and insurance. I do all the labor myself. They are very good drivers, no tickets in five years of driving. The 'youthful driver' was killing me on the insurance rates.
 
Well...just bought a 2006 Acura MDX to replace my LeSabre, which I ended up totaling in an accident a while back.

I picked up some Mobil 1 5W20 and a filter, intending to do an oil change on it right after I bought it...but then discovered the owners had just recently had an oil change done and full synthetic was used about a thousand miles earlier. So I tossed them in the back and figured I'd go a few thousand then do it.

I've had it for about 1,500 miles, now, and the oil level had noticeably dropped. Not much, but I don't like oil leaks at all. So I went to the Auto Skills shop at the Naval installation here, put it up on a lift to do a good look-see, and discovered a thin film of clean oil on the bottom of the oil pan.

I didn't find anything obvious with a light, so I gave it a good wipe down with a rag so I could maybe track any leaks to their source over time. When I ran the rag over the drain plug....it loosened. By hand.

The nitwits at the shop the previous owners took it to (one of those quick oil change places) didn't use a wrench at all to tighten the drain plug.

I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to do my first oil change.

As a side note, their next scheduled oil change on the windshield sticker was at 3,000 miles. After putting synthetic oil in. On a car designed for 7,500 mile oil changes.

I'm so glad I don't take any of our vehicles to such places for routine maintenance like oil changes.

Also learned another thing: When the owner's manual says "4.5 quarts" for oil capacity, they mean "4.5 quarts". I need to find an empty Mobil 1 2W20 quart container, because I don't intend to carry that 5 quart container around in the back of my car all the time.
 
RetiredUSNChief said:
Also learned another thing: When the owner's manual says "4.5 quarts" for oil capacity, they mean "4.5 quarts". I need to find an empty Mobil 1 2W20 quart container, because I don't intend to carry that 5 quart container around in the back of my car all the time.
Click to expand...

Not worth it. Just throw it away or pour it in the gas tank.
 
RetiredUSNChief said:
Well...just bought a 2006 Acura MDX to replace my LeSabre, which I ended up totaling in an accident a while back.

I picked up some Mobil 1 5W20 and a filter, intending to do an oil change on it right after I bought it...but then discovered the owners had just recently had an oil change done and full synthetic was used about a thousand miles earlier. So I tossed them in the back and figured I'd go a few thousand then do it.

I've had it for about 1,500 miles, now, and the oil level had noticeably dropped. Not much, but I don't like oil leaks at all. So I went to the Auto Skills shop at the Naval installation here, put it up on a lift to do a good look-see, and discovered a thin film of clean oil on the bottom of the oil pan.

I didn't find anything obvious with a light, so I gave it a good wipe down with a rag so I could maybe track any leaks to their source over time. When I ran the rag over the drain plug....it loosened. By hand.

The nitwits at the shop the previous owners took it to (one of those quick oil change places) didn't use a wrench at all to tighten the drain plug.

I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to do my first oil change.

As a side note, their next scheduled oil change on the windshield sticker was at 3,000 miles. After putting synthetic oil in. On a car designed for 7,500 mile oil changes.

I'm so glad I don't take any of our vehicles to such places for routine maintenance like oil changes.

Also learned another thing: When the owner's manual says "4.5 quarts" for oil capacity, they mean "4.5 quarts". I need to find an empty Mobil 1 2W20 quart container, because I don't intend to carry that 5 quart container around in the back of my car all the time.
Click to expand...

Better than tightening to 3 ugga duggas
 
Diablos said:
Better than tightening to 3 ugga duggas
Click to expand...

Well...maybe.

At least over torquing can be resolved by a relatively inexpensive replacement of the entire oil pan, if necessary.

Turning a finely machined and built engine into a single lump of solid metal because the plug fell out and the engine seized, however...that's not so cheap!
 
GoWolfpack said:
Not worth it. Just throw it away or pour it in the gas tank.
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? Do you know how many times I can refill my gun oil bottle with that?

🤣

Besides, 4 out of our 5 vehicles use this same oil. I'm sure at least one of them could use half a quart.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom