Quote:
Originally Posted by N1rve
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.
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Where do you get GTX full syn for 4.00 a quart?! Hook me up with that place! I never said you couldn't buy cheap oil...I just mentioned what I always ended up doing. On top of this, with a coupon, my Toyota dealer is like 35.00 out of the door, so 31.00 + my time, is more valuable than 35.00, so with cheaper oil, I'd just let them do it for me, yeah?
Also, I wouldn't follow recommended oil change intervals, I also drive hard, on the regular, not only racing, etc. I drive in 105 degree heat (F) that with the head index and humidity is more like 110. My personal experiences with previous vehicles is all I was going on. I never claimed anything I said to be fact...just what I do. I'm not looking to troll people on the net...I was just adding my input, vs. finding pictures on the net to explain things I already did. Yes, I could of worded the leak issue a little better, however, if the seals are already leaking, they might show up, or seem more prominent WITH the full syn. because of the way their molecules react to temperature...that's all.
You could find a better use of your time can't you? I mean...really, "varying speeds under 4,000 RPM?" I said all that jazz you had to look up with "babying." Under 4k...is babying an engine...I.E. NOT tacing out redline etc. Not going out and racing right off the lot, etc.
Onto the burning oil at an alarming rate. Most people, if not for the lack of know-how, or what they're looking at/for. I recommended it for the sake of maintaining the amount of proper oil in the vehicle, to protect it from catastrophic failure. This is actually common practice...my Toyota dealership has recommended changing oil at 3,000 miles for engines burning oil at higher rates. To those who cant either A. afford a new/used engine replacement. or B. cannot pay for the diagnostic, and inevitable fixing of their engines.
Again, not saying anything of what you've said is wrong...I agree with a lot of it...I just talk here because the community seems cool. I'm not on this forum to troll, or to come off cocky or seem like an asshole for no reason. Next time you want to seem like a smarty pants or spend some time looking a bunch of really informative stuff on the net...maybe don't start with "I may be wrong...but I doubt it."
Sorry everyone for wasting your time either reading or overlooking this post.