How much do you guys pay for your oil changes?

duke808 said:
agreed. however, given I'm in a time crunch, I'll have to have them do it. I'll look up a DIY thread here for next time, which will be in probably 1.5 mo with how much I drive.

funny story. my dad's civic about 8 years ago he took to the honda dealer for service (which he never did). they changed oil, didn't tighten drain plug. on a road trip and see huge plumes of smoke behind us.... yup. emptied right out and left us stranded.
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No way, the 4Runner is easily the easiest and fastest oil change possible. Turn wheel all the way left, slide under, remove drain plug, pull off part of rubber shielding behind driver wheel to get to filter. Put new filter on, fill with oil, DONE. It literally takes me under 15 mins. Faster AND cheaper AND I know it's done properly.
 
A.Wilson013 said:
1. I am lazy

2. I don't care who you are, oil is messy

3. Disposing of oil is annoying
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Pretty much why I don't change my fluids myself anymore. I'm not going to recommend a chain jiffy lube type place to anyone, but a good mechanic shop is capable of changing oil without a problem. No more crawling underneath and getting dirty for me.
 
I do synthetic blend (Castrol or Valvoline $22 for 6 qt's) and toyota filter $3.50. I do every 2500-2800 miles interval. Grand total is $25.50! I never take any of my toyota's to a shop for an oil change. I do it and I know everything is done right.
 
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You guys paying $25 for Dino 5qt are killing me. Seriously, Amazon prime. No shipping no taxes.

$22 for 5qt of Pennzoil Synthetic Platinum. Very good oil. Very good price.
Also, there's a $10 rebate right now which makes it a grand total of $12 for 5 quarts.
 
duke808 said:
agreed. however, given I'm in a time crunch, I'll have to have them do it. I'll look up a DIY thread here for next time, which will be in probably 1.5 mo with how much I drive.

funny story. my dad's civic about 8 years ago he took to the honda dealer for service (which he never did). they changed oil, didn't tighten drain plug. on a road trip and see huge plumes of smoke behind us.... yup. emptied right out and left us stranded.
Click to expand...

A guy in the past on my Mitsubishi forum has built a $6k drag motor. They forgot to add oil on first fire up. Motor was toast.
 
I use a fluid extractor so I just have to go in the wheel well to change the filter. Some day I will figure out how to get the filter to drain completely so I don't make any mess, or get annoyed enough to relocate the filter.
 
i have fumoto valves on my 4runner as well as Xterra, which makes oil change a breeze. I don't enjoy changing engine oil myself but don't trust dealerships to do a good job. I dislike cleaning drain pans and taking used oil for recycling. Can't justify it time wise but can sleep well knowing the job was done correctly.
 
Think I pay around $40 for synthetic with brake check and tech will look around under it. If I didn't trust them, I'd just take to dealer. Don't drive a ton of miles, so I'm spending extra tens of dollars in one year to take to a shop and don't have to mess with it.
 
Guys I know DYI oil changes are nice and all, but if the dealer actually goes through the multipoint inspection, I think that in itself is worth paying someone else to do it.

At least for me its not easy for me to jack up the car safely without spending a little bit of time since i am on a gravel road. due to the age our cars its a good idea for every 6 months or year someone to do a quick check under the car on the lift for leaks or play in suspension (especially ball joints) . call me crazy but letting someone figure out ways to charge you could be a good thing providing you are there for service already...

I ended up doing the oil change myself, but a few months ago asked the dealer across the street how much they would charge if I brought in my own oil and filter, they said 25. not really the end of the world i guess.

I say this in the ideal world. I had a dealer do my oil change a while ago, (since it was nearly the same cost if I did it myself) they ended up overfilling it a bit. So I guess for us anal people keep doing it yourself, but jack up your car and check for play with a crow bar if you do decide to do your own oil.

one last thing. I called up another local toyota, their synthetic oil change service special was not toyota fluid (nor mobil1), so if the oil change price is low, verify you are getting oem filter and fluid or just go to walmart buy your own fluid and call it a day. I don't think there is a wrong answer here.


edit: to answer OP. I bought 2 gal of mobil 1 EP for 12 dollars each after rebate, and box of 5 oem filters for 25.
so about 30 bucks.
 
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When the filter blows off or the plug falls out and your motor blows up you'll be wishing you'd have done your own work, I trust nobody but myself to work on my runner and ill have nobody but myself to blame if shtf.
 
shahsmerdis said:
Guys I know DYI oil changes are nice and all, but if the dealer actually goes through the multipoint inspection, I think that in itself is worth paying someone else to do it.

At least for me its not easy for me to jack up the car safely without spending a little bit of time since i am on a gravel road. due to the age our cars its a good idea for every 6 months or year someone to do a quick check under the car on the lift for leaks or play in suspension (especially ball joints) . call me crazy but letting someone figure out ways to charge you could be a good thing providing you are there for service already...
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Of course they're going to do a multipoint inspection while they have your rig. While it might seem they have your best interests in mind, they're looking for anything they can say needs attention so they can make some big money off you. I really feel bad for people who are not savvy about auto mechanics. People get taken advantage of all the time. I'll give you an example. My girlfriend brought her car into a local shop for a simple oil change without me knowing. One of the front struts was leaking a little. They made her think replacing the struts right away was imperative. They gave her a quote of $750 to replace both front struts. Luckily she was smart enough to let me take a look at it first. Sure, her passenger side front strut was leaking a bit. I bought the struts online for $150 and installed them for her. I told my girlfriend that she would most likely not even detect any ride or handling difference after I did the repair and I was right. She couldn't tell the difference. A decent percentage of uninformed people would have let that shop bend them over for that repair.

If you like to save money and like a challenge, learn how to work on your own rig. If you don't mind spending lots of money and have no interest in auto mechanics, your at least stimulating the economy and keeping shops open and mechanics employed.
 
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I do it myself because I don't trust oil change shops for anything. I run stock suspension and 265-75-16 tires and I don't jack up the front ever. If the skid plates are off I can slide under with a my trusty orange Home Depot bucket with an old cardboard box underneath and drain right into that. One bucket is good for an easy 3 oil changes before taking for recycle.

However, I prefer to just roll my truck up onto some Rhino Ramps and then I have way more room than I need to drain the oil into my bucket and change the filter.

I'm going back to Valvoline Maxlife synthetic blend so 6 qts and a OEM filter is about $30

Oil change with high quality oil: $30 & 30~ minutes of my time.

Knowledge of a job done correctly and the peace of mind it brings: Priceless
 
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theres so many people that dont do there own work
i thought the majority of the 3rd gen owners would be diyers. crazy!
 
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