Quick Change Oil Services

[crookedmember]

Load testing shunts the battery with a very low resistance that draws a lot of current. This simulates how the battery would perform cranking the engine in very cold temperatures. If your battery has problems after a load test, that means the test did what it was supposed to do and you should spring for a new battery.

[Dizzy1]

Generally, I have no problem with Quick Lube's, but one must be careful with some cars, even when doing it yourself. 2 of my cars have a pretty silly oil pan design, basically it has an outer an inner shell and if the drain plug is not torqued correctly, in other words if you over torque it (which is not difficult) you'll strip the thread and you can get yourself a new pan. I went to a couple of the Quickie Lubes and double checked before and they weren't aware of this so they usually make a quick call to the dealership to get the torque setting and all is wunderbar. However, for those 2 cars I usually go to the dealership anyways so they get a quick wash, doesn't cost anymore and I'll just take a new car out for a test drive while I'm waiting

My summer car is much simpler though, so I just do it myself

[Whyme2]

Impulse_rs

You must be so proud of yourself being a professional lube technician. Yes I like big signs and bright lights and thats why I have my vehicle serviced at a automotive certified dealership.

[gordon_as]

A couple of year back there was a young lady in a nice BMW parked infront of my house , some smoke coming from the vehicle. The Oil drain plug had fallen out , and to her credit , she stopped as soon as the red light came on. Her boyfriend soon showed up and we looked unsuccessfully for her drain plug. He was choked , as she had just had her oil changed the day before at....... guess where.
On another note , I would never , ever , take my vehicle to a Dealership unless it was for FREE warranty work. I know too many ladies and seniors who were robbed blind for years before someone clued them in.

[dodgerdodge]

OIL VISCOSITY PEOPLE!!!! The Okanagan see's -25 to +40 think about the condensation in your steel oil pan.

Really? I don't think you can say that. We may get a low of -25 if we are unlucky for 3 days or so mid Jan and we may get a high of +40 mid August for 3 days if we are lucky. The rest of the time our weather is very normal considering. You cannot justify oil changes based on possible extreme lows or highs that only occur for a few days at best if at all.

[Impulse_rs]

Generally, I have no problem with Quick Lube's, but one must be careful with some cars, even when doing it yourself. 2 of my cars have a pretty silly oil pan design, basically it has an outer an inner shell and if the drain plug is not torqued correctly, in other words if you over torque it (which is not difficult) you'll strip the thread and you can get yourself a new pan. I went to a couple of the Quickie Lubes and double checked before and they weren't aware of this so they usually make a quick call to the dealership to get the torque setting and all is wunderbar. However, for those 2 cars I usually go to the dealership anyways so they get a quick wash, doesn't cost anymore and I'll just take a new car out for a test drive while I'm waiting

My summer car is much simpler though, so I just do it myself

what kind of vehicle is this? I'm interested to know

[Dizzy1]

what kind of vehicle is this? I'm interested to know

VW Mk4 Jetta and Golf, not sure if its the pan or the plug that has the threading problem though. If you look at various VW forums, its quite a common occurance at Quick Lube places.

[Bubalouie]

So where should I go to get the oil changed in my car ????

[KingCreole]

So where should I go to get the oil changed in my car ????

I've had great experiences with Walmart, actually. You can buy your own oil separately too and have them do the changes for cheap.

[Phoenix Within]

I've had great experiences with Walmart, actually.

I think I'd rank Walmart about he same level as the Oil Change places IMHO.

I've used the quick change places in the past. Pretty good experience for the most part. Sometimes they put coupons out and I can't even buy the oil for the price they post. It's convenient when it works. I just hate how they try to upsell everything. I used to work in a dealership, so I know the lines.

[Bubalouie]

So PW you're saying that it's ok for me to go to one of the quick change places, just don't listen to any of the upsell stuff ??
I went to one last year and they told me I had about $500.00 + things that needed to be fixed.......

[Phoenix Within]

there's a lot of stuff your vehicle may need that you can do yourself, instead of getting hosed by them.

I'm not going to pay them $30 to change my air filter (should be changed yearly anyway) when it costs me $10 and I can do it myself.

They wanted to charge me $60 to change the cabin filter in my wife's car when I can buy the filter for $25

$30 to put a seal conditioner in my Power Steering when I can buy a little of the same stuff they were gong to sell me from Can Tire for $10

In a rush, I had them change a taillight bulb for me. a $1 bilb that I got charged $10 to install (never would have had them do it had I asked the price first).

I think you'd be further ahead to take your vehicle to a reputable mechanic and get them to do an oil change and inspection on it. That way you can have an idea of work that may be done in the future or work that needs to be done right now. I've heard good about Lyle at Rutland Auto, and I've had RPM Auto recommended to me by another forum member.

[Poindexter]

One thing alot of people should know about quick lube and dealership transmission fluid flushes is if the vehicle is over lets say 180,000 to 200,000km's or 10 years old, I would never in my life have a machine hooked up with high pressure to extract the oil.

Pro Driveline shops will tell you the crud and built up stuff in the check balls and valves can be the only thing holding it together and once you blow a piece of crud into a valve or passage you can ruin the trans by blocking the fluid movement.

Almost immediately after I had my cooling system flushed at one of these places my 10 year old Chevy's heater coil began leaking. I thought at the time that they may have spilled some of the fluid so the smell would go away after it had burned off but no such luck. So I'm due for an incredibly expensive repair bill.

I'm pretty green when it comes to this stuff but I do know most cooling systems have a consistent pressure which is low compared to the pressure they use to flush it out. So could my leak be due to their process? Does any other shop use a different process?

[Relentless]

I would never use a quick oil change service.

First of all, for me,a quick oil change is not a good one, dirty oil in the engine is not totally drained out.

I do my own oil changes, drain time is between 1-3 hrs with the engine at 2 or 3 different heights.

Also, for those vehicles that apply, filling the filter up totally before installing it allows for oil pressure at startup, many oil change places install a dry filter allowing the engine to be started with no oil pressure for the first few seconds, this is not good!

Quick lube places use bulk "house" oil which is usually the cheapest oil around!
Also, oil filter quality is not good, as they buy a line of the cheapest filters they can get.
Add this to the "complete proceedure" is performed by someone lacking good pay, and you might end up with trouble.

100% Full Synthetic oil is the way to go, a good quality filter, and do it yourself.
It takes about 5 minutes of actual work to do an oil change.
Crappy Tire takes used engine oil, they are a recycling facility.

Oil is the blood of your engine.
The filter is the kidney.

[underscore]

First of all, for me,a quick oil change is not a good one, dirty oil in the engine is not totally drained out.

It's perfectly fine for some of the oil to remain, the only benefit you get from draining a bit more of the oil is slightly more time between changes, nothing else.

Also, for those vehicles that apply, filling the filter up totally before installing it allows for oil pressure at startup, many oil change places install a dry filter allowing the engine to be started with no oil pressure for the first few seconds, this is not good!

Again, this is fine, unless you leave it draining for ages like you seem to do, there will still be a thin layer of oil over everything.

Quick lube places use bulk "house" oil which is usually the cheapest oil around!
Also, oil filter quality is not good, as they buy a line of the cheapest filters they can get.

Both of these are untrue, any decent place buys warranty approved (ie OEM or better) filters and uses the same oil you would buy yourself, but they order it in bulk for obvious reasons.

100% Full Synthetic oil is the way to go, a good quality filter, and do it yourself.

What you're buying isn't actually full synthetic, and even if it was, it's a complete waste on everything but a high end performance car that is actually using its performance. "Synthetic" oils tend to contain smaller particles as well, leading to increased leaking and burning in an engine that may be totally fine with normal oils.

Crappy Tire takes used engine oil, they are a recycling facility.

By law any place that sells oil must take it back.