If so what kind do you use.
I do and I use Valvoline MaxLife synthetic blend.
Whatever mid-grade synthetic is available from a brand I recognize for a reasonable price. I’ve used Valvoline, STP, Mobil 1, Castrol.
I do need to either source a torque wrench or locate one of those thread-on spigots so I can stop playing the how close do I have to come to stripping the oil pan threads game with the WRX’s fkn despicable crush washer on the plug.
I use the lowest price major brand oil that I can find that has the proper API and weight for my cars. Of late that’s been Supertech from Walmart but Costco and Amazon occasionally have sales. I don’t buy into all the hype about differences in oils or filters, and I haven’t had any engine problems related to oil/filters in all the years that I’ve been changing them (and I started back in the late 60’s).
I just bought a 2023 Subara Forester and I decided to use 0w-20 synthetic in it but only because the price difference between that and regular oil isn’t that much anymore.
To be honest I don’t think the oil really matters as long as it’s done on a regular basis and is the proper weight, etc. Oil is much better these days than back in the 60’s. I change the oil and filter once a year and I haven’t seen any ill effects on the engines.
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Change my own. Use synthetic Pennzoil with the recommended weight. Don’t drive many miles so just change it yearly.
Mobil 1 – WalMart 5 qt jug – great price delivered to my door – Gotta have a WIX filter though (Pricey)
Twice per year, Napa has their Napa Gold Filter sale with oil and air filters 50% off. Those Napa Gold filters are Wix filters. The sale period runs for a couple weeks (spring and fall) and actually starts here in a few days.
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I was gifted such a thing by a friend with after they traded in their WRX before they could install it, however turns out Subaru in their vast wisdom uses a different sized plug for the 2.5L vs 2.0L engines.
I know about that . Same on my STI. That and 5 bolts and 8 push pins to drop the pan to get to the filter and drain plug. I bought one of those valves a couple of years ago. Don’t entirely trust it to seal and it won’t fully drain the pan. , so I have never installed it. So yeah, I change the oil myself. For years I used Amsoil. Still think it is close to the top of the brands for synthetic oil. Buddy stopped being a dealer so lost my discount. Last couple of years I have used Mobil 1.
I change oil by myself.
I use Mobil 1 Esp formula Sae 5w-30 in my Audi allroad 2.7 tdi, Total Ineo Ecs 5w-30 in my Toyota Hilux 2.5 D4D and Optima long life Sae 20w-60 in my old but good Audi 80 1.8S with 600.000 km on odometer.
2.0L engine mercifully has that readily accessible - oil pan is exposed on the underside and the filter is practically front and center when you pop the hood.
Tempted to deal with the mere ~98% drainage in exchange for never needing to putz with crush washers again.
I did my own oil change for the first time this year.
I used Kirkland oil (Costco) 0W-20. Apparently it is certified to a newer, stricter standard and tests as well as some bigger brands that were certified to an older and looser standard. Also, it was on sale!
Luckily for me, my brother has equipment I can borrow. I only had to come up with oil, a filter, and a filter wrench adapter for the cartridge-style filter.
Every 15k km. No idea which oil, my serviceman does that.
I changed the oil in every vehicle I have owned since the first in 1964, until maybe 6 years ago. Now I use a local shop that has earned my trust. It is simply not something I feel I must do myself anymore. Plus I can afford to pay them.
I do have an exception though. I still do most oil changes on my '68 Volvo 123GT. It is my baby, I built the engine and I just like to continue to look after it. It has a flat tappet cam so the full synthetic oil gets a shot of ZDDP every change. The shop has changed the oil on it once and performed an axle bearing change last year.
Sometime back in the late 70’s I began using a Mobil 1 full synthetic. They had developed an oil that was diesel-approved and allowed my Land Cruiser diesel to crank and start even if not plugged in at -30F. I continued using nothing but Mobil 1 in all engines untill maybe 20 years ago when there were more brands of full synthetic to choose from. If they meet the engine specs, that is all I worry about. I also use synthetic oils in gearboxes and axles as well.
I had those drain valves on three of my 4x4’s and never had any issues with them. Using one with a hose attached to catch the oil kept the underside from being soaked in used oil without having to unbolt the skid plates.
I don’t change oil myself, usually my mechanic does it during periodic maintenance or at mileage.
I’m partial to Liqui Moly fully-synthetic oils, the Germans do know their stuff and the price difference is not so big.
For the most part. A few new vehicles went to the dealer for free servicing but otherwise i do it myself.
My pontiac G8 got penzoil platinum if i couldnt find ultra although if im honest i think it was a little bit more quiet on Mobile 1. The toyotas get costco kirkland or really anything that meets spec.
My new to me, but high mileage turbocharged BMW may have me being picky again. This thing is coated in oil film and the pcv system has oil everywhere in the intake. I may try and find something with especially low noack for that thing but im not sure. Penzoil Platinum or Ultra will be my first look but i will be on BITOG researching others
I stopped doing it myself for a couple years when I found a good oil change place. Got lazy and just brought it there everytime and just did my bikes myself. But when I got my GTI suddenly an oil change at that place was $120 and took an hour. So I went somewhere else that was cheaper, but they didn’t install the oil filter into it’s little housing the exact way the Germans intended and in 100 miles it was crushed like a ball of paper.
So i went back to doing everything myself again. Oil changes I go back and forth between Mobil 1 and Castrol edge synthetic. When one goes on sale I just grab a couple. And made in Germany Mann filters because theyre the only filter I’ve tried that has never been crushed. Idk why this car crushes filters it doesn’t like. High pressure or the dumb housing, but either way, these hold up the best by far and it’s the OEM anyways. The nice thing about that dumb housing is you can do an oil change entirely from the top without going under the car at all if you’re in a hurry, so that’s nice. I can do an oil change that way in under 5 minutes easy. So easy. And for half the cost of the cheapest place. Just gotta wait for oil to be on sale. That’s the trick.
When I had a bike I used Shell Rotella T6, which is a synthetic heavy duty diesel truck oil, and I had a high revving Japanese superbike, but Rotella was actually JASO MA-2 approved for Japanese bikes when other oils weren’t, because 18 wheelers and motorcycles both used a similar kind of wet clutch. It was a fraction of the cost of a motorcycle oil. Worked great. I think nowadays there’s better selection though.
What do you mean crushes.
Like an empty beer can. Except not metal. A visual:
This is what the filter looks like
That goes inside this little plastic housing, with that plastic rod in the middle.
And then you take that thing and it screws down on top of the engine right here
So if you were holding the filter in that first picture in your hand like a can of beer and squeezed a bunch of times, that’s what it looked like when I’d pop it out of that housing.
Was at Walmart getting my oil changed last year. The shop manager felt the need to tell me how important she was, how smart she was how no one seem to understand how on the ball she was……on and on she went about how the place couldn’t survive without her. I don’t know if I left screaming, or if it was all just in my head Begging please, dear God just get me the hell out of here.
The shop down on the corner is about four dollars more but they’re very smart ,very kind ,very helpful and always seem to catch a couple dumb things under the car and fix them in a matter of seconds, without charging anything at all. At some point, it’s probably worth spending a couple bucks more at least once a year to have some smarter people take a peek under your car and in the process an oil change.
Forgot to mention the guy at Midas who pulled the fill tube out of the block and ran 5 quarts of oil all over the suspension , lift and onto the floor before noticing he’d screwed up .
Or
The guy at pep boys in New Orleans who …………’……’….
Pulled my car into the shop . Walked over to the office grab the paperwork, came out and check the Vin on my car, check the door numbers, took the key made a key tag took the paperwork back to the office. Put the key on the table in front of him . Set the lift, and raise the car, went back to the office grab the paperwork brought it back out , lowered the car, open the door, Looked at the mileage, wrote it down , took the paperwork back into the office, came out raise the car walked over and looked at the key, went back into the office grab the paperwork, brought it back out again, put it on the table in front of him, one in the storage room and brought out 5 quarts of oil… Looked at the paperwork lower the car looked at the door and looked at the paperwork raise the car walked in the storage room picked up an oil filter brought it back put it on the desk in front of him brought over the pan and drain the oil . Put the plug back in. Remove the pan, lowered the car……
Opened a quart of oil walked 25 feet grab the shop rag, came back wiped the top of the quart of oil, wiped his hands walked 25 feet towards the trashcan and dropped the cap to the quart of motor oil into it . Walked back over, took the quart of oil or towards the car then realized he didn’t open the hood walk the quart back to the table, dropped it off, pop the hood, and proceeded to put 1 quart of oil into my car…… walked back over to the table, grab the rag, walk back over to the car like his hands. Wipe the car walked 20 feet over to the trashcan and dropped the empty container of motor oil into the trash walk back over to the table, took the cap off of another quart of oil walked the Back to the trashcan, 20 feet back to the table back to the car and proceeded on an endless track of painful waste of time. Walking back and forth , to throw away each piece of trash , the old filter , the box it came in , each cap . And in between a separate trip to the counter to grab the rag to wipe the cap the bottle the filter the Waste of energy wasted space wasted mind. Each time wiping his hands, but forgetting the rag and having to go back and grab it again and of course check the paperwork .
Sitting in the waiting room, I was very excited to see my car get pulled in and after about 10 minutes I glanced up again to watch him put the first quart of oil in 10 minutes later I watched him put the fourth quartof oil in 10 more minutes later, I watched him tie one of his shoes tighter than the other shoe And after he realized he was fully satisfied that his left shoe is not tighter than his right shoe. He proceeded to tighten his right shoelaces well why not learn ever having adjusted his belt for the current tension and tightness of both of his shoes he proceeded to realize that since it was later on in the day then , it had been previously when he first started to tighten his shoes it maybe you should have a much more relaxed approach to work and should loosen things up just a bit so he retightened and re-loosened his shoelaces and may have even considered adding another notch to his belt, meanwhile, checking the paperwork to make sure that the planets had aligned correctly …. at about the 27 minute mark I noticed my nose was firmly afixed to the piece of glass between the waiting room and the operating room. Wondering if my child would indeed survive this operation… At the 38 minute mark I started really questioning whether I should’ve had a second opinion , and if I needed to maybe call in a specialist realizing again my face is now feeling numb because of the pressure between the glass in my face… Either time started to stand still or move faster I couldn’t know maybe I had wound my watch to tightly, maybe I internally was wound too tightly as well as I heard a wailing? A sound emanating from deep deep within ? a Primal Scream perhaps it was the sound of my fingernails itching into the glass please your God tell me it’s not so …it can’t be so …did he just take his break ? is it is it … is he using the pop machine in the waiting room should I ask him how things are going out there ??? I found my hands reaching for his throat as he fumbled with the coins in the machine the thought of tripping him or clubbing him with an ashtray in the shape of a ford F150 … and yet it shouldn’t take more than another 15 or 20 minutes… Paralysis had set in . I felt the numbness in my hands clutching to the door sobbing quietly in the corner when I heard a 17 year old girl gently trying to revive me from my coma . Sir !! , your car is ready that’ll be $29.95 not knowing whether was day or night or what day it was I crawled towards the cash register to pay my bill.
This was years ago so he was probably making 10$ an hour … pep boys charges 30$ for an oil change so it must be a 3 hour job .
Makes sense to me ,