Nowadays there an many reasons to change your own motor oil. The most important reasons have to do with protecting your engine from mechanic errors and saving money. Here are 5 good reasons you should change your own motor oil.
#1 Your oil plug. Your oil plug has a specific torque it should be tensioned to. If the quickie lube under torques or over torques your oil plug you could end up with all your oil draining from your engine while your driving. This obviously spells devastation and huge expense. If the oil plug is loose it could back out and if the oil plug is overtightened the threads can be stripped out. I have one friend who drove home with no oil and another friend that has multiple instances of his oil plug being cross threaded and replaced by the wrong oil plug by a popular quickie lube.
#2 Save Money
Again we are in a deep recession that appears to be deepening. Official unemployment is up over 10% now (unofficial is more like 20%). Those are scary numbers! If you are pinching pennies and saving up an emergency fund then the best way to save 20 bucks is to change your own oil. It takes less then a half an hour which means it would be equivalent to you making $$80 an hour when you consider taxes.
#3 Correct Fill Level
When you change your own oil you are absolutely sure the correct quantity of oil was added. Overfilling or under filling your oil can have bad effects on your engine. If you have your oil changed at the quick lube then just as soon as possible pull over and check your oil level and make sure they got it right.
#4 Proper Filter Tightness
This is a little more difficult to check on some vehicles but the problem comes in when they forget to tighten your oil filter of it gets over tightened. Too loose it can back off or the o ring can blow out and create a major oil leak which hopefully you notice in time. Too tight can cause the o ring to rupture and leak and creates a nightmare for the next guy (hopefully you) to get the filter off for the next oil change.
#5 Oil Viscosity Errors
You get to use your favorite motor oil that provides the best protection and value and you make sure the correct viscosity oil is going into the engine. Once they put the oil in using their pump and hose you have know way of knowing or proving that the oil is the correct viscosity. To thin and too thick of oil both have bad consequences to your engine.
With modern engines and computer controls diagnosing and working on your engine has become more difficult to do at home… but changing oil is still changing oil and you can save a bunch of money and have peace of mind doing it yourself.
Do you want to learn more about car motor oil? If so,
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