Do your own oil changes!

[chedderknight]

pepboys/autozone/kragen should have a deposit for used oil, lucky for me I found a city program that takes used oil and refines it to other use, so they stop by once a month, gave me a free oil bucket, a few rags some brochures and a energy-saver bulb

 

[billspreston01]

ha...I've done the screwdriver trick before, but the last time I did it (on a nissan maxima, '90 I think w/ the filter on top) all I did was tear a really big hole in the filter, I ended up getting a filter wrench with these teeth on the end of it, looked like a giant pair of pliers, crushed the poor little bastard to death in the process, but I got it off

 

[supra90turbo]

I just bring my used oil to work with me. We've got waste oil heaters and they actually thank me for bringing it in.
Find a garage that has a waste oil heater. They'd be glad to take your oil.
Unless of course, you're in SoCal, then you'd be hard pressed to find a waste oil furnace...

 

[Jeff Lange]

If anybody can put on the filter as tight as Toyota says by hand, I would like to see it. If you wipe the mating surface, put NEW oil in the seal and install it according to specs, you will need a filter wrench to take it off.

edit: I remember those stupid billboards with a female saying "nobody touches my 4 x 4 but Grease Monkey". Which was great, they sent us(Toyota dealer) a bunch of business. I even saw a transfer case with a broke off bolt from over torque. A simple wrench cost them several thousand $$$. Sweet.

I'm pretty sure I can put it on as tight as Toyota says by hand. Toyota says to tighten it by hand until you feel a light resistance, then go 3/4 of a turn further. I guess I'll have to see next time I do it . I usually use my filter wrench to do it though.

To anyone complaining about it being on too tight, why don't you have a filter wrench? You're obviously a puny mortal. LOL.

Okay, I'm done .

 

[BosoMKII]

You're obviously a puny mortal. LOL.

Okay, I'm done .

Hahah

Like everyone else already said, oil filters should not be that tight. I won't let anyone work on my car unless it really is something I don't feel I can do myself. Damn grease monkeys I swear they set their air guns to 800lbs-ft and do the whole car that way. I only will take my wheels off the car my self and bring them into a shop for tire changes. One of the perks for having extra track wheels :icon_bigg

 

[Supracentral]

Damn grease monkeys I swear they set their air guns to 800lbs-ft and do the whole car that way. I only will take my wheels off the car my self and bring them into a shop for tire changes. One of the perks for having extra track wheels :icon_bigg

I have a shop that does my tire changes for me. They put masking tape around the sockets to not scratch the wheel and they use a torque wrench to put the lugs on. Not the cheapest in town, but they do take care of my car. There are good shops out there, you just have to find them.

I would never take a Supra to an IffyLube however. That's just asking for trouble.

 

[bigaaron]

I think the o ring expands after it gets hot or something. I've never had one not come off with a screwdriver stuck through both sides of the filter. I have not paid someone else to change my oil in probably 10 years though.

 

[mkiiSupraMan18]

I think it's related so I'll post it...

Some of the better oil change shops (the only one in my town just happens to be good) will also check your trans fluid, rear diff, grease any/everything with a fitting, top off everything that needs it, and if you bring your own stuff they will use it and not charge for whatever you bring *so with oil/filter all of that costs me about $10 or so*

To me, $10 isn't worth having to jack the car up (one side at a time, of course) put jack stands under it, empty out an oil drain pan, get oil on the floor, put down 5# of kitty litter stuff, find a wrench, get under the car and lay on the cold concrete, break the drain plug loose (and risk busting knuckles on something) waiting under the car for the oil to finish draining, putting the plug back in, getting out from under the car, cleaning my hands, popping the hood, trying to break the oil filter loose, *sometimes with a hot exhaust* Trying to keep as much oil as I can in the filter so I don't get oil everywhere, Lubing the new filter, "filling" it up, getting it tight, putting the new oil in making sure not to spill any down the side of the block, getting it full, checking it, close the hood, starting the car, checking for leaks, jacking the car back up (1 side at a time), removing the stands, backing the car out, cleaning the floor, and deciding whether or not to get rid of the used oil now..... or hope someone else does it. Oh, and worry about getting my hands dirty the whole time because the girls uin my class won't STFU when my hands are dirty, it's annoying as hell.

Not worth it, IMO, if you can get someone you know and trust to do it for $10 and check/grease anything that needs it...

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

If I could find a shop that would do all that for me for 10$ on their part. I agree 100%

 

[mkiiSupraMan18]

^ Thank God for small towns and knowing people, eh?

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

:werd: ^

 

[Jeff Lange]

Some of the oil shops will check your diff, tranny, and all that oil, then leave the fill plug out of the diff and then when it all drains out of it a few days later, your whole rear end locks up on the highway doing 70mph, and you have to get the whole thing towed back to town, and replace an entire rear end. Not wanting to have crap work done to it and so on, I replaced the rear end with a 3.73 LSD out of an Explorer with larger axles, but that meant replacing the front diff too.

Then a few weeks later after you get the iffy lube to pay to get the rear end fixed, you have the transfer case crack in half and leave you to try and find a replacement 1354 manual-shift transfer case to replace it with, which ends up costing even more, not to mention they're semi-rare, so finding one took me a few weeks too.

After the potential death and much work and so on...

Screw iffy lube.

 

[BosoMKII]

MKIIISupraMan18: An oil change has got to be the easiest and fastest basic mantainance you can do! Sounds to me like you are not too well equiped do be working on your car.
Personally, I love working on my car. Its very much a part of being a car/racing enthusiast for me.

 

[OneJoeZee]

I think it's related so I'll post it...

Some of the better oil change shops (the only one in my town just happens to be good) will also check your trans fluid, rear diff, grease any/everything with a fitting, top off everything that needs it, and if you bring your own stuff they will use it and not charge for whatever you bring *so with oil/filter all of that costs me about $10 or so*

To me, $10 isn't worth having to jack the car up (one side at a time, of course) put jack stands under it, empty out an oil drain pan, get oil on the floor, put down 5# of kitty litter stuff, find a wrench, get under the car and lay on the cold concrete, break the drain plug loose (and risk busting knuckles on something) waiting under the car for the oil to finish draining, putting the plug back in, getting out from under the car, cleaning my hands, popping the hood, trying to break the oil filter loose, *sometimes with a hot exhaust* Trying to keep as much oil as I can in the filter so I don't get oil everywhere, Lubing the new filter, "filling" it up, getting it tight, putting the new oil in making sure not to spill any down the side of the block, getting it full, checking it, close the hood, starting the car, checking for leaks, jacking the car back up (1 side at a time), removing the stands, backing the car out, cleaning the floor, and deciding whether or not to get rid of the used oil now..... or hope someone else does it. Oh, and worry about getting my hands dirty the whole time because the girls uin my class won't STFU when my hands are dirty, it's annoying as hell.

Not worth it, IMO, if you can get someone you know and trust to do it for $10 and check/grease anything that needs it...

you make it sound so bad... but the whole process is 30 minutes or less. most of it is just waiting on your oil to drain. I can do my plugs all at the same time while im waiting for the oil to drain, so it works out nice :dunno:

 

[chedderknight]

I usualy just check my air filter and vacuum my car while i wait for the oil to drain out

side note: do you guys ever use those "higher mileage" add ons with your oil? do they work? I"m hitting 180k

 

[drunk_medic]

Oh, and worry about getting my hands dirty the whole time because the girls uin my class won't STFU when my hands are dirty, it's annoying as hell.

Tell them that little girls worry about "dirty ickyness" and that a real woman would love a man who works hard, gets dirty, and is good with his hands.

 

[Insidious Surmiser]

hm... well, this is where my filter is... (pics) just hope it doesn't hit a speed bump some day :-/

and i guess i'm a little unconventional... but when a filter won't come off... i get out
1. 1 phillips head screw driver w/ wooden handle
2. 1 hammer

proceed to hammer the screw driver through the filter and push/pull/hammer on it till it gets loose (make sure you have a large container to catch the oil in )

 

[wizard_len]

I started doing my own oil changes after the last time I had to use 89jdm7m's screwdriver technique to get the oil filter off that the Time It Lube gorilla had tightened down with a breaker bar.

 

[K Spec]

Here's my question:

If we do oil changes ourselves...What do you do with the used oil that you drained out of the oil pan? We can't simply just throw it down the drain, right? I always wanted to do oil changes myself, its just that I don't know what to do with the used oil.

Burn it. I thought that's what everyone in socal did.ffwall:

 

[jdub]

Not worth it, IMO, if you can get someone you know and trust to do it for $10 and check/grease anything that needs it...

Actually, it's really easy...especially when you got a 2 post 9000# capacity lift in your garage :naughty: