Who does your oil changes?

Me, Myself and I.

 

The dealer did mine a few times. Had the free 25k mile maint plan when I bought the truck. Got sick of sitting at the dealership for over an hour each time I took it in (I think they do that shit on purpose) only to find out they never check the air filter, cabin filter, and half the time didn't rotate the tires even though they were supposed to and checked on the paperwork that they did. I would mark the tires before I went in just to make sure and half the time they didn't. I finally just said fuck it and did it myself. This way I know it is done correctly and I can put Mobil 1 Syn in it and know that it is in there. I trust my work more than anyone else's

Just bought a Scion FRS with the "free" maint program but I doubt I'll ever take it in unless it needs warranty work. I just keep a log of what I do and the dates along with my owners manual.

 

Unfortunately the dealerships try to save money by having the maintenance techs do the oil changes and such. Paying their high dollar techs to do oil changes leaves zero profit. This means that you have the same quality guys at jiffy lube doing that stuff a lot of the time.

 

No doubt about that^^^

When you pull up to the "express" oil change lane and the oldest person in there is maybe mid 20's you know what you are going to get. The "Free" just isn't worth it to me. I would rather pay my $30 for the oil and filter and do it myself. I know that it is done right then. Plus I enjoy wrenching on my own stuff. I started working on cars in my Grandfathers garage when I was 14 rebuilding engines.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the quick lube techs at the dealership suck. The last dealership I worked at had several top notch ones who were training for tech positions. But that being said, the young and dumb do tend to get careless at times and are pushed to get things out fast. Speed=something getting missed. My 4 stalls were right next to the quick lube racks, and I can't count the number of times I was between jobs and had to point out that they missed checking this or that.

 

For the first 25K or 2 years the dealership since it is free.

 

Just started doing my own. Had the dealer doing it for a while as I wasn't confident in doing it. After a few fuck ups, and them not doing shit they were suppose to, a little search on TW, and bam got all the fluids changed my self (difs, transfer case, engine oil).

Defiantly saved a shit ton of money, and I know that the work was done as well.

 

^^ That's the major part to me. Knowing the work was done and done right. Like BamaToy said, most are probably not bad at what they do but there is such a pressure to move vehicles through that they don't have time to check everything they are supposed to do. I would rather spend the money and do it correctly then rely on someone I don't know.

 

My 13' just hit 1k so I did the syn switch. I'll have the dealership do the labor on the next 5 though

 

Jiffy Lube.
The first 20 years of oil changes,I did most of my on.
Eventually finding a place to dispose of the old sheet got to be a bitch.
Now I let other people do it.

 

I do my own, Toyota made it so easy that's its foolish not to. takes me 30 mins of less, But use the Toyota oil filter only. I don't know why but the valves make less noise when you use a genuine Toyota oil filter, catch them on sale and they are as cheap as the aftermarket filters, I buy 4 at a time.

 

Autozone will take your old oil for free. I'm sure other auto parts places will do the same.

 

I intitially thought that the dealer was the place to go, but NOPE. They don't even follow their own maintence schedule. I was willing to pay, cuz I want my truck to last.....guess they cant sell more vehicles if they make yours last.

 

Exactly... I just bought a FRS with the "free" 25k maint program. They said to not bring it in until 7500 miles. Fuck that shit! At 5k I'm going to put syn Mobil 1 in it. I'll probably add the wheels and tires at this time so rotating the stock ones won't be an issue I've already put the Invidia Cat Back Exhaust on it.

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Even Jiffy Lube will take your old oil, as will ANY auto parts store.

Federal law, if you sell oil, you have to take old oil and filters.

 

I switched over to synthetic right around 1,000 miles on my 2012.

 

It's not going to hurt to wait for 5k for the first change.

I've seen conflicting information on the oil filter construction. Years ago on TS, some discussion revolved around the factory filter (the one with the "blocky" filter media and sought after but not generally available) lacking a bypass valve. This is perhaps not something that you want to use as a filter through the life of the vehicle... but it would have an advantage during initial running, as the lack of a bypass would prevent the filter from passing any remaining casting sand, industrial contamination, and metal particles from machining and initial break-in.

Changing the filter prior to all of these items being flushed from the engine COULD result in their recirculation should the new filter go into bypass on a cold morning.

These factory filters are "all the rage" on the Supra forums, and every now and then, someone posts up a box of them in the marketplace, charging $10 each... but I'm not convinced that it is a superior filter to the -YZZD1/3 that we can get from the dealer.
Nobody has ever posted filtration quality results comparing the two... they just cut them open, look at the "exotic" element, say "Japan vs Taiwan" and pronounce the factory filter to be superior.

 

Screw the stealership, I do it myself! And I work at O'Reilly so I get everything I need cheap.

 

I have always done my own oil changes, but now with a new truck... does it void your warranty if you do your own oil and your engine shitz the bed? Seems like they would take any out they have when it comes to claiming stuff on warranty.

That said, I'd probably do it myself anyway.

Second comment would be that I used synthetic 5w20 on my last truck at the recommendation of my toyota dealership's mechanic. I may just use synthetic 5w30 on my new one as per the specs. Thoughts??

 

Thanks! Definitely good to know.