Quote:
Originally Posted by Canibalistik
I'd do it yourself for the sake of knowing it is done properly with the correct amount of oil! I've been a professional tech for the last 12 years, and I can tell you horror stories of what I'd like to call, "High Velocity Engine Flushes," lol.
On the other hand, if you're just wondering if it will save you money if you do it yourself. No, in most cases, the oil you'd buy at a store will be more expensive than just having it all done at once...plus most every shop in business will take competitors' coupons. Why not you know? If they don't let you, you'll use it elsewhere! Anyways, I used to change my own at the house, but ended up constantly buying Royal Purple or Castrol GTX Full Syn, and it was actually more expensive.
I'd also recommend to anyone reading this thread, to avoid factory set oil change schedules. Those were set based on daily driving under normal easy conditions, NOT extreme conditions. Most of us enthusiasts are known to drive a little hard from time to time; or even racing. If you're driving hard, you risk the oil breaking down faster, so I'd suggest changing it every 3-5...even with full synthetic.
Baby the engine for the first 500 miles, then change the oil to get the break-in oil out. At this point decide whether you're going to go full synthetic, blend, or conventional oil, and stick to the same type of oil for the rest of the life of the car. It's not a real good idea to swap to synthetic two years down the road, as seals have come accustomed to the oil they've been using. Convention oil is thicker when its cold, where full synthetic doesn't change consistency, and on colder mornings, you could develop a leak or saturation on a seal, where the conventional oil wouldn't of leaked - thins as it heats, while seals expand with heat. Anyways after the initial change at 500, I'd change every 3,000-5,000 depending on how you drive your car. Also, the best bet to save money...is to check your oil regularly, if it's low-ish...change it, if it's dark/burnt...change it, if its clear and smooth, you're probably okay to keep going on it.
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I'm not a "professional tech" anymore...former Toyota Technican years that's been out of the garage for about 5 years. I'm an IT Engineer and this is what I know.... I could be wrong, but I highly doubt it.
My Subaru dealer charges 54.95 for an oil change currently (promotion), and my Toyota Dealership charges 99.99 for a Scion FRS oil change. Both with 0W-20 oil.
You can get a 6 quarts of oil for about 4 dollars per quart, you're at 24 dollars. The filter is like 6 bucks and the washer is like 50 cents.
The total is around 31 dollars to do it yourself. The math explains if it's worth doing it yourself.
Now onto "not following the factory recommended interval"... People have performed an oil analysis and there are reports of the oil being in good shape at 7,500 miles. People who change it at 5k miles get recommendations of extending their oil change interval. In this case, it would only harm your wallet to change it earlier than necessary.
You don't baby the engine for the first 500 miles, you keep the engine at varying speeds and under 4000 RPM for the first 1000 miles. Why? Because the engineers built the engine and put this in the manual. It can be debated if the lawyers put it in there, but if they felt 500 miles is enough, they would had put 500 and not 1000.
No where in the manual does it state to change the oil early at 500 miles. Factory fills have more moly which helps in the break in.
Switching from synthetic to conventional doesn't cause any oil problems or leaks. If the car is leaking oil, it's because the seals are bad. The way conventional oil flows is different from synthetic. Conventional motor molecules vary in size as synthetic motor oil molecules are uniform.
Due to a different flow, the crevices that the previous oil didn't flow through now has oil flowing through it, hence "leaks" but as I already explained it's because the car already has a oil leak.
If it's low change the oil? Why would you do that? Some cars naturally burn oil. Some more than others. If the car is burning oil at an alarming rate, I would check the piston rings and not change the oil because the car is low on oil.
Color does not indicate the life of the oil. You can run the oil for 1000 miles and it could turn pitch black. It just means the oil is working and it is cleaning your engine.