Tried something for the first time today

I actually paid someone to change my oil. Has anyone ever tried this? They vacuum your truck and everything. Im 35 now. Changing my own since I was 16 was a good run but I think that is no more.
DT

I have tried it a few times, just easier for me to drive back to the pole barn rather than run to town, but it is nice to have someone else do the oil change and vacuuming.

I switched over to letting someone else do mine about 2 years ago. It sure is HARD to pay someone to do that job, but I was having to pay someone to take my oil anyway and after I priced out the whole deal, I really wasn’t saving much by doing my own, so why not. $22 for the whole process includes 5 gts, and filter.

All I want to know is… “what happened to the $7.00 oil changes!?”

Make sure you see the quality of filter they are using and the quality of oil. Some places use cheaper than cheap items to bring more to their bottom line.

Rick Janssen wrote:

I switched over to letting someone else do mine about 2 years ago. It sure is HARD to pay someone to do that job, but I was having to pay someone to take my oil anyway and after I priced out the whole deal, I really wasn’t saving much by doing my own, so why not. $22 for the whole process includes 5 gts, and filter.

Same here. I do mine at the Ford dealership and get a free one every 6 changes or so. Plus they keep your servic records on file.

From my cold dead hands! You’ll have to pry my filter wrench away!

Never! Never, never, never will some pimply-faced, teenaged “technician” be allowed to change oil on any of my vehicles.

I haven’t just heard the horror stories as urban legends, I personally know two people who have had their vehicles ruined in the Quickie Change stall.

Person #1 was a co-worker and a good friend, this is about 10 years ago. The oil change kid at the local rapid oil change apparently used an impact wrench to loosen his oil plug. Sadly, he had the wrench in tighten instead of loosen direction and he had it jacked up to a lug-nut-busting 23,000 foot pound level. He ripped the threads clean out of the oil pan.

But wait, there was more. He didn’t own up to it. Guess who discovered the damage? Oil plug came out about 5 miles from the shop. It was a little hard on the engine to say the least. The manager was finally able to extract a confession out of the old change boy/twonk. It took almost 6 months of wrangling with the shop’s insurance company to get a settlement.

Person #2 is a friend of my wife’s. She dropper her SUV off at the local quickie change one morning and they shuttled her to work. Strangely, they did NOT call her to tell her the vehicle was done by 4:00, so she called the shop.

There had been an “unfortunate incident”. Her SUV had been “improperly placed on the hoist”. And it freaking fell off from a height of about 5 feet. Unfortunately, it fell in such a way that it knocked the vehicle next to it off the adjacent hoist as well, resulting in a 2 car pileup IN THE SHOP.

The second vehicle had smashed the controls for the overhead doors and was jammed in such a way that the vehicles could not be separated and removed without getting heavy equipment in. I saw pictures of this cluster-f##K. It took the shop several days to reopen and the vehicles sustained huge damage because they had to be dragged out using a giant forklift. What a mess.

The shop tried to duck liability claiming that the owners should simply treat this like any other collision and turn it in to their own insurance. Then their insurance company fought against writing off both cars as totaled and lowballed the value of the cars. It took almost a year to settle and get a replacement vehicle.

Sorry,but my luck is so bad, that I can assure you that I would be “that guy” sooner or later–the guy whose engine get’s torched by the QuickieChange kid and ends up spending half a year fighting an insurance company.

Grouse

I change mine myself after having had 2 striped out oil pans….

SCARY!!! I’m worried about the free one my wife is getting on her new car tomorrow!!

Truck is scheduled to be done tomorrow also at the dealer. Diesel with extended pan = 13 quarts of oil! $99. I made the mistake of asking for synthetic once and will not do that again, that really raped the pocket book.

suzuki wrote:

SCARY!!! I’m worried about the free one my wife is getting on her new car tomorrow!!

You can comfort yourself knowing that the “technician” is being paid a full $7.23 per hour and has completed QuickieChange Incorporated’s own exhaustive 15 minute training/certification program. He did it yesterday, though, so he has 9 vehicles worth of experience under his belt.

Hey, look at it this way. What could go wrong? Ok, maybe look at it another way. You get what you pay for. No wait, don’t look at it that way either…

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>suzuki wrote:</div>
SCARY!!! I’m worried about the free one my wife is getting on her new car tomorrow!!

You can comfort yourself knowing that the “technician” is being paid a full $7.23 per hour and has completed QuickieChange Incorporated’s own exhaustive 15 minute training/certification program. He did it yesterday, though, so he has 9 vehicles worth of experience under his belt.

Hey, look at it this way. What could go wrong? Ok, maybe look at it another way. You get what you pay for. No wait, don’t look at it that way either…

Grouse

It is at the dealership so maybe the technician is getting $7.40 per hour? I’ll be taking over after the first free one.

I haven’t changed my own oil in over 35 years, never had any problems. I only average 50K+ miles a year and change every 5K.

Seems hard to justify changing your own at a cost of $25 for oil and a filter, when the local garage will do it for the same or less. It’s a mechanic with 25 plus years of experience, no vacuuming out the vehicle but who cares.

What I do not understand is why hasn’t the cost of a quart of oil come down?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Never! Never, never, never will some pimply-faced, teenaged “technician” be allowed to change oil on any of my vehicles.

Grouse

So who changed the oil for you when you were that pimply-faced, teenaged “technician”?

Pretty rare that you’ll find one of my vehicles in a quickie stop. After watching one of these guys try to get at an air filter, yanking and shoving as though finding and removing clips is optional, I cringe at the though of their nose pickers touching anything under the hood of my vehicles.

Life does catch up with me once in a while though. An oil change at the quickie stop is better than driving on old oil. I just tell them not to touch anything other than… and in this order: fill cap, oil plug, oil filter, oil plug again, new filter, fill cap, and dip stick.

By the way, I’m new to this site. First post. The one I’ve been on for a few years seems to have gone off the rails. Not much being posted other than classifieds.

Rick Janssen wrote:

I switched over to letting someone else do mine about 2 years ago. It sure is HARD to pay someone to do that job, but I was having to pay someone to take my oil anyway and after I priced out the whole deal, I really wasn’t saving much by doing my own, so why not. $22 for the whole process includes 5 gts, and filter.

You’re going to the wrong locations if they charge you to get rid of oil. Most places will take it for free. A lot of places use it to heat their shop.

Welcome to your first post Aaron.

Personally I’ve only had trouble at on St Cloud Oil Change shop. Started when I wouldn’t give them my phone number or address because I wouldn’t be coming back. Long story short, they didn’t tighten up my drain plug when I left without having my oil changed.

Other then that one instance, never had a problem that I’m aware of.

#pimplyfacekidslivesmatter

Huntindave wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
Never! Never, never, never will some pimply-faced, teenaged “technician” be allowed to change oil on any of my vehicles.

Grouse

So who changed the oil for you when you were that pimply-faced, teenaged “technician”?

I served my apprenticeship before my teen years, my father insisted that changing oil was one of many skills that that I WOULD master BEFORE I was allowed to drive. At that time, oil still came in cans. For as long as I’ve been in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, the only one changing the oil was me. I had personally done dozens of oil changes by myself before I was a teenager.

I was also responsible for the oil changes and other maintenance on the lawn mower that I used to make my spending money starting at the age of 10. This is probably illegal under child labor laws now, but it was the only way I could think of to make money, so dad said the “rent” I had to pay for use of the family mower was that I had to keep the blade sharp and the oil changed every month. Great way to learn the creative skills involved in changing oil on a Briggs & Stratton without making a huge mess.

This is the problem now, everyone wants to impart all the skills and knowledge that it takes to do something within the span of a 4 minute YouTube video. It’s not a learning curve, it’s a learning cliff. Part of learning how to do something involves knowing not just what to do in the simplest terms, but the much more nuanced what NOT to do. And why!

Dad chewed me out once for not following his process and for opening a new can of oil once before I put the drain plug back in. What’s the big deal? If you start messing with the new oil, he insisted it’s WAY too easy to dump 5 quarts in and forget that one little step of putting the plug back in. Good lesson.

Grouse

Years ago I always changed my own oil. But then working for a car dealer made it so much easier for me to raise it on the hoist. Many years have passed since then and I haven’t crawled underneath any of my vehicles for a long time. Just not worth it. I know there are those “horror” stories but those could be about just anything. I do always take mine to the dealer though as I have a little more faith than the “Quickie Lubes”.

Welcome Aaron…(Woodshed?)

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One time (long ago) I changed the oil in my garage after partying for a bit. I figure I couldnt drive but I could at least work on it. After adding 5 quarts of oil I all of a sudden notice a large “shadow” creeping towards me from under the vehicle. It was a 5 quart oil puddle! Pesky plug.
Another time (recently) after finishing the first oil change on a new vehicle I started the engine and oil was BLOWING from underneath. The old filter gasket had remained on the vehicle so the new filter did not seal. Good thing I always check/test after changes!

This is the problem now, everyone wants to impart all the skills and knowledge that it takes to do something within the span of a 4 minute YouTube video. It’s not a learning curve, it’s a learning cliff. Part of learning how to do something involves knowing not just what to do in the simplest terms, but the much more nuanced what NOT to do. And why!

This is not for the oil change rant. I will pass on my experience with a YOUTUBE watcher. I have run a small shop for many years. About a year ago a guy comes and leaves his car for what He thought was a belt noise for me to check out. Well the belt noise is actually the starter grinding the teeth off the ring gear. Since we don’t pull tranny’s when He came to get it I explained what the problem was and that he should take it to a transmission shop. He said ok and I gave him a couple of shop recommendations. Well low and behold 2 days later he is back asking why we won’t do the job. He informs me that he watched it on youtube and it’s not much of a job.??????? it was all I could do to not laugh at him and just went through the explanation again.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Rick Janssen wrote:</div>
I switched over to letting someone else do mine about 2 years ago. It sure is HARD to pay someone to do that job, but I was having to pay someone to take my oil anyway and after I priced out the whole deal, I really wasn’t saving much by doing my own, so why not. $22 for the whole process includes 5 gts, and filter.

Same here. I do mine at the Ford dealership and get a free one every 6 changes or so. Plus they keep your servic records on file.

…I go to a good old fashion type gas station where I get free vacuuming etc etc and a free car wash.! ….. rrr

None of the quick change shops around here have Castrol, so problem solved.

mossydan wrote:

None of the quick change shops around here have Castrol, so problem solved.

Do you think John Force is going to pop out and drive you to the airport??? All the standard dinosaur oil comes from the same bulk tank anyway.

Whos John Force.

I haven’t changed my oil since I bought my Chevy truck new in 2003. It came with free life time oil changes at the Chevrolet dealer.

suzuki wrote:

One time (long ago) I changed the oil in my garage after partying for a bit. I figure I couldnt drive but I could at least work on it. After adding 5 quarts of oil I all of a sudden notice a large “shadow” creeping towards me from under the vehicle. It was a 5 quart oil puddle! Pesky plug.
Another time (recently) after finishing the first oil change on a new vehicle I started the engine and oil was BLOWING from underneath. The old filter gasket had remained on the vehicle so the new filter did not seal. Good thing I always check/test after changes!

Put my used oil in a gallon milk jug to take to recycle. A month or so later I went to pick the jug up and the bottom falls out of the jug. 1 gallon of black oil self leveling on my garage floor. Worst part was that I had just thrown out all the saw dust from the table saw so I had nothing t soak it up.

I need some of these $7.40 hour guys… $10.00 for entry level. And half of my oil changers have 2 year Auto degrees… hand wrenches only on plugs. Kiss the filters to be sure that the old o-ring is on the old filter and a new one on the new filter. Sounds like quite the set-up to drop a vehicle off a hoist.. and then hit the one next to it ? I used to change my own oil too… my dad also insisted we learn that as teenagers. For $16.00, now I let the pro’s do it. (using MOPAR filter and Pennzoil)

I got this:
John Force is a top fuel drag racing legend. He’s sponsored by castrol.
I also take my pickup to the dealership. I got two years free oil changes. Only costed about 40 grand. LOL.

First post for me also. I have come over from the dark side as well. Howdy ‘y’all