Oil Changes on High Value Cars - Dealer/Shop/Yourself?

I was a grease monkey at a small shop for a few years and changed oil on hundreds of cars. Luckily, aside from mixing up the trans drain and oil drain on a Forester, I made no severe mistakes. That being said, we did occasionally get the customer who blamed an engine failure on us, but luckily I was not the one involved with that one. 

I have always done oil changes on my personal vehicles in the parking lot, garage, or wherever because 1) I was confident in my ability and 2) if I messed something up, I could afford to fix an older vehicle. 

On our 2012 Honda Fit (now with nearly 80k miles) I have left that duty to those whom will hopefully accept responsibility in the event of a failure, ie; dealer or shop. Plus, it's nice having someone else dispose of the oil and filter and clean up any spilt oil. 

Now that she's got more miles, engines are cheap, and my wife is driving more mileage with it for work, I figure I might as well start doing them myself, but it still feels awkward.

Anyone doing their own oil changes on high dollar vehicles?

What do you define as "high value"?

Yes I do all my own (2003 4runner, 2016 CX5, 2008 F450, 2000 MR2), except T case, and axles, because Berk gear oil. And this reminds me, I have wayyyy too much used oil to get rid of these days.

I do mine on my Disco. gives me a chance to look around down there for any potential problems

I do all my own (350Z, 996 turbo, 88 911, 914, tdi, cummins, 1st gen viper, 458, and all the other vehicles we own) 

I do everything on them, nothing I cant or wont do. 

I've done my own since 1995... the summer I worked for McQuiks. No way I trust anyone else anymore. 

When I bought my first German car and went from the usual 4 quarts of dino oil up to 8 quarts of full synthetic only I started doing all my own oil changes.  The concept of paying a shop $150 to do something as straightforward as an oil change just seems crazy to me.

All my own.  Not really to save money, though like KyAllroad said our Merc is 8 quarts of syn, but mostly it give me a chance to look over things.

Depends on the cost and the time/effort required, which is really just another cost. 

The Miata (with relocated filter) takes about 15 minutes--it is cheaper to do it on my own with full synthetic than it is to do it at a shop.

Mom's 4Runner, I can't buy the oil as cheap as I can get it done at the dealer, and it is a lot of oil to dispose of--not to mention, I think that the filter was a PITA to get to (could be wrong, I only looked once).

The TSX I've had free oil changes on for the past two; next time I'll probably do it myself if the filter isn't too difficult to get to. 

Some of this though is how willing I am to go into WalMart. I hate that place.

Do all of my own. I choose the type/grade of oil that goes in. I know exactly what was done and get a look around to see what else is on the horizon (ps reservoir is in my future looking at the last oil change). - for mtn - 4runner oil filter is a pita with the skid plate on. Since the most offroad Mrs. Oldtin has done is a gravel drive I took the skidplate off. It is now the easiest access oil filter I think I've had. Otherwise - I think I'd just cut a hole in the skidplate for access instead of dropping 8 bolts.

I do my own, except on my wife's Lexus GX470.  The local Toyota Indy shop does it cheaper than I can buy the oil for.

Except the last time they did it, they poured oil all over the motor and left the motor with a leak.  When we brought it back a few days later they wanted us to leave them the truck for an entire day so they could disassemble it and find the leak.

Nope.  Looks like I'm doing the oil changes on it now too...

I will do any repair work except oil changes I hate them. 

Local lube chain takes care of everything I have from the Viper down to the work truck. The guys who work there I have met through the local car clubs and frankly they do a better job for me then the dealership at 1/3rd the cost and 2x as fast. 

wearymicrobe said:

frankly they do a better job for me  

 

This is huge--I know you said they're better than the dealership, but for me, they're better than me. I suck at being a mechanic. I fully trust myself to berkeley it up. 

I got two free oil changes on my new Silverado.  The guy said it will cost me $55 in the future.  

Buying 0W/20 synthetic at Wally World and a bunch of ebay PF61 AC filters is going to run me $45.  Wally World accepts the used oil back.  

$10 savings?   I'll change it myself so I can check things out.

The dealer also rotated the tires "if" they needed it and both times the service guy couldn't tell me if they did or didn't.   I'm mad I didn't chalk one of the tires.    

pheller said:

but it still feels awkward.

It is like a new girlfriend you will get over it.  

I do my own mainly because I hate sitting in the waiting room for an hour but also because, at the risk of taking on a sacred cow, I run a specific kind of oil which also isn't the factory recommended weight in the MS3.

The Vibe and X-Terra get what they get since I feed them 15 dollar oil change specials from the local autoparts store.

I do mine regardless of vehicle cost.  Of course the highest value car I've ever owned is an 06 S2000.

I mainly do it because its easier than the hassle of dropping the car off/taking it somewhere and waiting.  I did pay for one a few months ago for the first time in like 15 years (or ever?) because the wife's car was already in the shop for a minor repair and we were about to take it on a road trip.

I do my own. Whatever their other foibles, BMWs are really, really easy to change the oil on. That, plus paying the shop rates of the people I trust to do the work properly is ridiculous for something this easy. To make things even easier, I just got a Stahlbus oil drain valve for the 128i (largely because the 128i's oil pan is protected by the plastic belly pan; not planning to get one for the 2002, since it would be exposed).

I've been going to Walmart for the oil, but I recently had the minor epiphany that I can order it from Amazon and have it on my doorstep in two days.

I change my own, partly because I have a lift and I'd feel stupid to own a lift and pay someone to change oil and rotate tires.  Plus, by the time I drive to an oil change place, wait in line, wait to get it done, and drive home, paying a shop doesn't save much time.

I remove the belly pans on the cars that have them. It takes less than a minute with a screw gun (the VW has like 10 screws) and allows underside inspection.  I don't get why people complain about them so much.

02Pilot said:

 

I've been going to Walmart for the oil, but I recently had the minor epiphany that I can order it from Amazon and have it on my doorstep in two days.

I can't believe I never thought of that. I'm definitely buying my oil on Amazon now. 

I always do my own, from beater $500 Miatas to BMW M cars.  It is cheaper, faster, I get the best quality oil and filters, and it is a good excuse to give the car a quick once over to check for upcoming issues.  I'm shopping for semi exotic cars now and I'll do my own on those too. 

I go to walmart FOR their oil. Seriously, it meets all my needs, is cheaper than the "name brands" and holds up as well as the "name brands".  Still use OE filters though. 

I always do my own. I bet if I pulled up with the LS3 miata, I'd probably have the oil change guy searching for 20 minutes to find the filter. It's not exactly out in the open. All 3 of the vehicles take the same oil and filter so I just stock up on the $25 5 quart jugs of mobil one at wally world. 

More than anything though, it does give me good time to look over everything under the car and give it a good visual inspection. I've caught a few things starting to go bad before they got really bad. 

EvanB said:

02Pilot said:

 

I've been going to Walmart for the oil, but I recently had the minor epiphany that I can order it from Amazon and have it on my doorstep in two days.

I can't believe I never thought of that. I'm definitely buying my oil on Amazon now. 

I've thought of this... but I hate how many boxes ordering from Amazon generates.

You can jet some furnaces to run waste oil. Just tossing that out there....


I have yet to pay over 3 grand for any of my vehicles so I do all my oil changes. I do other peoples too because most of the time it's not hard to do. 

Most annoying one to do was my cousins colorado with the skidplate designed to funnel the oil everywhere but the little drain dealy they put on it.

Im seriously debating paying the man for the dailys. The wifes mazda5 is a pain in the ass, and i cant reach the filter on the miata without dropping the bellypan, which makes it a pain in the ass.

But it also makes me check everything over every 5k. Which im sure a quicklube wouldn't do to my satisfaction.