Well witht he new house coming and such... I was looking into maybe getting a little more "involved" with my car.
It's funny how these sort of things you want to do on your own when you have your own garage. :lol:
How tough is it to do our own oil changes??? Is it even worth the trouble?
Oil Changes aren't what most would call "challenging" but... unless you are buying Oil in Bulk you don't end up saving all that much... coupled with the potential fookups you could do, it may not be worth the Moo-Lah. Even if it wasn't you that fookered it up (bad Oil Filter etc.. etc..) its hard to prove otherwise.
Plus you need to keep all your receipts and such just to prove you've done it should, heaven forbid, something happen to your lil Focus.
On top of all that you need to get rid of the old stuff, and down the storm-drain is a frowned upon method :)
BUT... its always a handy skill to have, makes you look more manly and such
20 minutes...its nothing man.
oil change are too complicated for a simple minded person... get an astro scientist... :lol:
yeah, it hardly seems worth it anymore unless it's just something you enjoy doing. I just send it to the dealer now for that stuff, I prefer doing mod installs anyway :P
Money wise maybe not worth it...but you can get a good look at your car at the same time. You would check things out a little more throughly than a lube guy. Either way if you enjoy doing it....do it.
i do my own... just because i use synthetic oil..... and paying the dealership to put in cynthetic oil hardly seems worth it.
Cool.
Thanks for the responses fellas. I'll do one myself and see how it goes.
my opinion has always been, if the car is under warranty, let the dealership do it. that way you're not giving them any excuses if something breaks...
^^ Exactly. That, and while I'm not sure about the ZETEC... getting at the oil filter on the SPI is a pain in the arse.
I used to always do my own oil changes. Because I use synthetic, felt like saving the extra cash, and its almost fun.
But when I purchased my extended warranty, I had to sign a sheet saying I would get a Ford dealer to do my oil changes every 5000 km.
I do it myself because the people at the places don't do it properly, and not to mention..they are stupid.
Always trying to upsell you into a tranny flush, a rad flush, a engine flush...bah
I take out the drain plug and let it drip for 20-30 minutes, not 1 minuted like they do at the quick places.
And it's bullshit that you need to keep receipts....Dealerships just want to scare you into paying them to do the work. :)
Oil change is a pcs of cake, just make sure you give some love to our earth and take care the oil. :)
Jays2000ZX3,Jul 5 2004, 06:14 PM Wrote:I do it myself because the people at the places don't do it properly, and not to mention..they are stupid.
Always trying to upsell you into a tranny flush, a rad flush, a engine flush...bah
I take out the drain plug and let it drip for 20-30 minutes, not 1 minuted like they do at the quick places.
And it's bullshit that you need to keep receipts....Dealerships just want to scare you into paying them to do the work. :)
its not the ford dealer you have to worry about for reciets. usually the dealer doesnt care, as long as its within the base warranty....but if its for an extended warranty other than a ford extended warranty...then look out, cause they will use any excuse not to pay out on a claim! They would not even cover oil leaks if you dont have reciepts for oil changes....and really, what the hell does doing oil changes have to do with an oil leak :rolleyes:
Yeah, that's true.
The other thing, you can bring your old oil into CAnadian Tire..as far as I know they didn't start charging for that yet. You just drop off the jug of old oil and your good to go.....much better then down the toilet :blink:
Cantire policy is 5L or less is free, if over 5L go to 2 diff store.
Focus Is Art,Jul 6 2004, 12:51 PM Wrote:Cantire policy is 5L or less is free, if over 5L go to 2 diff store.
Really? I just dropped off about 20 litres a couples days a go and they didn't care. I just walk to the back of there service bays a pour it down the oil drain myself.
Jays2000ZX3,Jul 6 2004, 12:06 PM Wrote:much better then down the toilet :blink:
Or in the drain at the end of my street. :lol: