So I have this 1998 Chevy Tahoe which I only drive about 3000 miles per year. There’s a lot of short-trip driving, but I am careful to give it a half-hour drive at least once or twice a month. I have the oil & filter changed spring and fall, with a front end lube. The oil is usually a bit brown, like tea, but I can easily read things through the oil film. So, here’s the question. I’m thinking that the front end parts and oil filter can’t be that bad after 1500 miles. So, why don’t I just drain 4.5 quarts of oil, and refill it from my jug this fall? I could save a lot of money. I usually use Mobil 1 0W30 for winter. Any thoughts on this?
Then, in the spring, do the full Monty.
You’d be fine changing the filter every other oil change. Won’t save much money, but it won’t doo any harm either.
I used to change the oil in my '72 Volkswagen Beetle (which I bought new) every 3000 miles. I would only clean the filter every 6000 miles. Of course, the filter on a Beetle wasn’t anything like other vehicles.
Anyway, in 2007 I decided I wanted a new car to replace my Beetle. I needed a car with air conditioning.
“I could save a lot of money.”
I’m not sure what you mean by that. How does an oil change cost a lot of money?
Oh, like $30 to pay someone else to put in the oil, filter, and do a lube that isn’t needed.
Versus me crawling under the car for 10 minutes. That’s $150 an hour earned.
No mechanic on earth is going to actually pocket $30 to change the oil and filter on your Tahoe
The mechanic will pocket a mere fraction of that $30
The rest goes to overhead, operating expenses, etc.
“do a lube that isn’t needed”
Says who?! How is a lube job unnecessary? The zerks are there for a reason
No offense, but it sounds as if you may be happier doing ALL of your maintenance yourself
If you pay a shop to do anything, you might feel like you were ripped off
Whether you were or not
Not all of us professional mechanics are overcharging, shady scumbags, selling you unnecessary repairs, so that we’ll be able to make our next boat payment
Apparently I’m not even shady, because I don’t even have a boat!
“I could save a lot of money”
You should get a lower mortgage rate, instead of nickle and diming your car maintenance
You need to relax
4.5 qts of the Mobil1 you mentioned is gonna cost close to $30, you know.
Oil changes typically are “loss leaders” designed to get customers into shops. I do my own (for a variety of reasons), but I know I’d be hard-pressed to beat a discount oil special.
On top of which, you’d need to buy wrenches, oil filter wrenches, drain pan, shop towels, etc that would take a while to amortize.
- 5 quarts of Mobil 1 at Walmart cost me $24
- The shop would charge me $25 to $30 if I brot my own oil.
- I used to do nearly all my own maintainence, but am no longer able to.
- After 1500 miles, the front end does not need to be lubed. Duh.
That was my point. Sure $150 per hour is good money, but you’re not earning or making that in any kind of meaningful amount. You’re talking about saving $30 once per year.
$30 per year by doing half an oil change. I wish my household budget were efficient enough that $30 every 12 months was something worth thinking about. I just don’t see how what you’re proposing equates to saving a lot of money.
Have you realized any benefit by using synthetic oil instead of conventional?
I’m not trying to be flippant or disrepectful of your opinion, just curious.
If you’re only driving 3k a year, I’d just do a single oil change annually and leave it at that. You’re over complicating this.
How is the Pep Boys oil change guy, who doesn’t know you from Adam, supposed to know you hit the zerks 1500 miles ago?
Duh
Anyways, if the car’s up in the air anyways, it would be foolish NOT to hit the zerks
Duh
Grease is cheaper than a tie rod or ball joint
Duh
My point has been made
Duh
By the way, YOU AND YOUR ATTITUDE are the one that got this started
Duh
You can skip the oil filter change in 1,500 miles. In fact you could skip a couple of oil filter changes and go between 6000 to 10000 miles between filter changes.
For 1500 miles and a fall and spring oil change I think Mobil 1 is overkill. I’d use conventional and save even more money.
On my '03 Civic changing the filter isn’t that big a deal as far as cost, but it means putting the car on jack stands and crawling under the thing and reaching way up the back side of the motor to get to the filter, and that makes the job go from 10 min. for simple drain and refill to about 1 hour with all the jacking and such. So, I skip filter changes on that car for sake of convenience.
If a filter is easy to get to and spin off and spin on, then might as well change it, it’s only a few bucks for the filter.
Unncle T, I used to do my daughter’s Civics and hated changing that oil filter. There’s no way to do that on jack stands without a mess. But hey, it’s part of the oil change. I just wore old shirts that I could jettison after,
Agree; one oil and filter change per year is fine, especially since you do regular 1/2 hour highway drives. Keep using Mobil 1, and your car will last another 20 years if you do all the other maintenance the manual calls for, especially the transmission fluid and filter every 30,000 miles.
Oil changes are not, nor have they ever been, a money making deal for a mechanic. Note that over the last couple of years dealers are trying to compete with Jiffy Lubes and it won’t work.
One of the local Big Three dealers is advertising a 28.95 oil change; regular oil only and sales tax/enviro fee excluded.
The oil changes also includes tire rotation, multi-point inspection, check all fluids and top off, test battery.
Mechanics on average may get 25% of the door rate. Deduct the 5 quarts of oil and filter from the advertised amount and ballpark figure how much the mechanic will get for his part in this debacle which is going to consume X amount of time. Three dollars and change, maybe…
@db4690 : "How is the Pep Boys oil change guy, who doesn’t know you from Adam, supposed to know you hit the zerks 1500 miles ago?
- See more at: http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/2293753/the-terror-continues-yet-another-oil-question/p1#sthash.GGU3baJF.dpuf"
By reading my original post: "So I have this 1998 Chevy Tahoe which I only drive about 3000 miles per year. There’s a lot of short-trip driving, but I am careful to give it a half-hour drive at least once or twice a month. I have the oil & filter changed spring and fall, with a front end lube."
3000 divided by 2 is 1500.
Duh.
Everyone else, thanks for all the advice.
The zerks are there for a reason
Duh
If the car’s up in the air, you should hit them
Duh
This is the time to do it
Duh
If the mechanic’s boss sees that the guy DOESN’T hit the zerks, he’ll probably accuse him of incompetency
Duh
In our fleet, vehicles get serviced every 6 months. All the zerks get hit at that time, EVEN if the car only got driven 1500 miles since then
Duh
The pep boys guy doesn’t get paid enough to be able waste 10 minutes looking on the computer to see how many miles you’ve driven since last time. All he knows is that you’re here for an oil and filter change, plus a lube job. And he’s going to hit those zerks.
Duh
If I was a customer and brought my car to the shop for an oil change and lube job, and I found out the mechanic didn’t hit the zerks, I would be plenty upset
Duh
There’s no way I’m going to see things your way
Thank you
May I have another?
I’m not making any apologies