I work on all my vehicles so occasionally I end up doing oil changes for my mother in law. I can always tell when the last guy that touched it was when she took it to an oil change place. They torque oil filters and drain plugs like lug nuts and I literally have to destroy them getting them off. It mangles the o-ring or seal in the plug so after a while I just bought spares and replace them. The drain plug on my pickup is the original after almost 30 years, but I bet I've gone through 3 or 4 on MIL's car. Sometimes even a strap wrench won't get the filter off, I have to use a honkin' size channel lock and smash it into an oval before I can get enough bite on it to spin it off. I guess that's the mark of a professional.
I bit on a promotion to get my oil changed at a chain a while back, and the end result is by the time I drove over, waited my turn in line, waited for the service to complete, pay and drive back home it took longer than it did to do it myself and cost twice as much. People usually rationalize the cost by claiming it's too much hassle or getting rid of old oil is a PITA but if you have a process you follow it's not difficult or time consuming at all. Yes, there's the added step of buying oil but I usually buy it by the case and that's once a year. Here in ABQ any store that sells oil takes waste oil back, so it amounts to walking into a store with a few jugs, setting them down and walking out which is just part of a given Saturday's rat killin' or stop on the way home from work. I have a note stuck to the toolbox in the garage which tools and filter are needed for each given car, so just grab exactly what I need and it's one trip underneath to dump and swap filters. Over the course of a year and four vehicles there's some savings there, it's done at my convenience and I have the knowledge it was done right.
Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
