They can be found in towns and cities across the country. They’re on random corners, tucked into strip mall parking lots, and attached to big box retail stores. They’re owned by mega-corporations or small companies with just a couple of locations. They’re Quick Lube shops. They offer oil changes with the promise of speed and convenience.
You might not even have to leave the comfort of the driver’s seat. But behind this speed and convenience lurks an uncomfortable reality: You might be mistreating your car.
I’ll admit I feel a little bit like I might be preaching to the choir of all you extraordinarily brilliant, beautiful Autopians, who know better than to take your cars to such a place (and obviously I’m biased given that I’m a service advisor). But I’m hoping this might come up in a few random Google searches and save people some heartbreak too.
Most of us who are enthusiasts enjoy riding our creepers (or just scraps of cardboard under our cars) on a nice afternoon to get some up-close-and-personal time. Changing oil on your own is usually a peaceful and smooth procedure with very few unknowns. On the scale of home-based wrenching, it’s low risk with the comfortable reward of feeling like you accomplished something. Unfortunately, the majority of car owners are either not interested in doing it or not equipped for it.
Saturday before last, checking the level after changing the oil on my MR2 pic.twitter.com/4Ffx4lE6qQ
— Andrea Petersen (@Neondancer) March 30, 2023
A few months ago while idly browsing social media in the black and red velvet-draped comfort of my Twin Peaks-themed bedroom, I came across a meme, as one does. The meme showed an aerial shot of a Quick Lube joint with a relatively clean entrance and deep black streaks lining the exit of each bay. One particularly fresh line leads to a parking spot to the side; an image telling a cautionary tale. The tale of “somebody made an expensive mistake.”
Out of curiosity, I fired up Google Maps and went to a couple of the speedy oil change places around my neighborhood. Now, to be fair, not all of them were bad. Ok, a couple had freshly paved parking lots to hide any shame, but a couple of them definitely weren’t too far off from the meme.
Around this same time, one of our technicians coined a lovely descriptive phrase: “Quick Lube Condition.” Annoyingly, he decided he held the trademark and started asking for five bucks every time someone used it. I hope like hell he never sees this article or I’m going to owe him a fortune.
“Quick Lube Condition” describes a car that has only ever seen a handful of fast oil changes in the last few years and consequently has fallen significantly behind on regular maintenance and any needed repairs.
Quick Lube Condition. Photo: Author
The oil in it may be fresh, but the filter in it is often an inexpensive and poor-quality part. The filter may have collapsed into an hourglass shape, a tell-tale sign of poor flow or poorly fitting into the housing. There will usually be a variety of leaks and squeaks, and there is often evidence that these problems are not new. The owners are often none the wiser.
Anybody who has been under a car built in roughly the last 25 years will know that they feature aero shields. They’re great for protecting the undercarriage and aiding in aerodynamics, but they’re also really good at keeping fluid drips off your garage floor. The “Quick Lube Condition” car’s squeaks are hidden by simply turning the radio up and pretending they don’t exist. I too would rather have my heart broken by the creaks and rattles of German synthpop or Icelandic post-capitalist bondage techno than the cranks and rattles of my suspension.
When you go to a Quick Lube shop, their job is to remove the oil, remove the filter, put in a new filter and replace the oil. They might check tire pressures too if you’re lucky. Their job does not involve looking at a single other thing on the car. They are not looking for fluid leaks and if on the off chance they do happen to notice one, it’s luck of the draw if they’ll bother to tell you. Again, you’re not paying for them to inspect anything, and in turn, anything they might find falls solidly within the “not my job” category. This is also why they often can’t or won’t reset the service indicator; they’re not completing all the elements of an entire service. When cars come to our shop even if it’s for an unrelated issue, the technicians will note anything they happen to see, ranging from “the tires are at the wear bars” to “this belt is days from becoming forbidden spaghetti.”
[Editor’s Note: Obviously, there are quick lube shops that do a great job. This is just Andrea’s opinion on quick lube shops in general, based on her experience as a service advisor. -DT].
The latest and greatest technique is vacuuming out the oil so they don’t even have to touch the oil drain plug. Any time you touch that plug you run the risk of stripping it or the threads of the oil pan itself. If you don’t have to touch that, you don’t have to pay to replace anything that may break. I myself have occasionally done a vacuum-style oil change on my cars when I’m looking to get it done quickly and the amount that comes out via a straw is usually pretty different from what comes out the traditional way.
Photo: Author
Engines are pretty complicated places with lots of nooks and crannies to hide, if you’re just quickly sucking out the oil pan, you’re likely leaving a fair bit of oil in there. This also eliminates the opportunity to look at anything that may have accumulated on the drain plug if it happens to be magnetic.
When you come to a proper mechanic’s shop or dealer service center, you are getting what is better described as an oil service rather than an oil change. Yes, the oil and filter are changed, but where the added time and much of the added expense comes in is having a technician with expertise inspecting the car. Would you rather have a guy who has been working on cars in general for a year or two working on your car or a guy who has been working on the specific brand of your car for a decade or more taking care of it? You’re paying for a person who has the knowledge not just to look over the car but who has the specific knowledge of where to look.
An added expense also comes with the parts used in the service. When you go to a dealer service center you know you are getting a dealer-brand part and the exact oil brand and weight that is supposed to go into your car. This is great when you’re still under warranty because if anything does happen, you have the maintenance records to prove everything was done correctly. A reputable independent shop will use a dealer-brand or OEM part and also use the correct oil. While “dealer” and “OEM” are terms often used interchangeably, the former has the logo of the car’s manufacturer on it and the latter will have the logo of the company that originally manufactured the equipment for the manufacturer. OEM will be the same thing but usually a little less expensive. Still a-ok from a warranty standpoint.
Oil is where independent shops will have a little more flexibility. Every now and then the car’s manufacturer will update the recommendation for what oil goes in the car. Sometimes this is because the manufacturer of the previous brand of oil is no longer meeting their specifications. Suddenly the good ol’ Mobil 1 or Castrol you’ve used for years isn’t the same thing. Or at the very least they’re no longer submitting data to the manufacturer to keep their oil approved for use. Obviously, the sticker on your car and the owner’s handbook doesn’t magically get updated, but we stay up to date on those things. Other times the recommended oil weight may be changed. This is when things get a little more iffy. Usually, we use a bit of oil knowledge, experience, and the recommendations of respected experts to decide whether to update what oil goes in or to stay with the weight that the engine was designed to use. You won’t see a 30-minute discussion over oil viscosity going on at a quick lube, but I’ve seen it a few times in our shop. 
One of the things quick lube shops can do that we can’t is offer a menu of services. They can say across the board an oil change is X amount regardless of if it’s a Fiat or an F-150, perhaps with variations for conventional, semi, and full synthetic oils and quantity over a standard amount. I can have wildly different prices for an oil service on the same make and general model based purely on the fact that we charge for oil by the liter or quart and a car with a four-cylinder turbo engine takes less oil than an eight-cylinder engine. The only fully simple service I can throw onto a repair order is a brake fluid flush; I have standard or advanced. Everything else takes significantly more time and thought to price out. Oh, and I’ll need your VIN because “Uh, I think it’s a 2004, maybe a 2005, and I think it’s an ML350” doesn’t let me nail down your exact part numbers and fluid quantities in order to give you a price. Well, maybe Mercedes isn’t a great example; I swear 70% of them use the 000 180 26 09 filter.
What all this adds up to is a little bit of a warning. If you’re really truly desperate, some oil is better than no oil so the occasional quick lube oil change probably won’t kill your car. Probably. No promises.
But realistically, in my view, your car should be meeting with the hands and eyeballs of a qualified mechanic at least once a year. And yes, that includes those of you who don’t put many miles on their cars. I understand “my commute is 12 minutes each way,” but those short trips are brutal in their own way. For most cars, we typically say six months or 6,000 miles and for the love of God, do not believe anyone who says 10,000 miles. Even if the manufacturer says that, I recommend you come in sooner.
Some cars need oil even more frequently than 6,000 miles and in those cases, we’ll adjust your reminder sticker accordingly. However you go about it, please regularly bring your car to a qualified shop that can help you stay on top of maintenance and repairs. It’s largely about avoiding the domino effect; you can pay $1,000 to fix that oil leak we spotted and keep driving happily for years or you can wait till the drive belt shreds from being soaked in oil and end up with repair estimates that exceed the value of the car. It’s not an upsell, it’s keeping you on the road.
I’ve never changed oil in a car. I buy 500$ cars once a year, drive it hard till it blows and do it all over again.
My brother in law works at one of these places. Every Friday night we have a family night and he comes over and usually talks about work. They seem to mess up constantly, for the simplest of tasks. Accidentally draining the trans fluid instead of the oil. Over torquing pan bolts. Breaking stuff while changing out air filters. He then mentions I should take my car there.
He’s also trying to branch out giving his numbers to customers. His first job was to replace the air intake tube on a TSX. He was so proud of himself despite telling me that he broke a sensor, couldn’t get it to fit right and couldn’t even find the right part. “But hey the check engine light hasn’t come on yet.” Was his response.
I prefer to take my vehicles to the dealer for service, but it is getting difficult. I tried to schedule an oil change for my F250 at my local dealer and the soonest appointment was 9 weeks away (this has happened a few times). I also had a mechanical issue with my Jeep a few years ago; the dealer service department said the soonest they could look at it was 5 weeks away – this was a particularly big problem since the thing wouldn’t start.
I’m not able to do my own maintenance/repairs, so that isn’t an option. I don’t want take my vehicle to an Iffy Lube type place, but if it is either that or nothing, I have to take my chances. It would be nice if dealers were more available for routine maintenance and service.
Yeah, thats the problem I’ve run into – my car is still under warranty and allegedly included “x” amount of free oil changes at the dealer, but they’re always booked up for months out
A good independent shop is an option, too, and better than “Iffy Lube” (love that!).
This has become a major issue at my local dealer too. Appointments are nearly a month out right now, which isn’t acceptable for an oil change. I can put a lot of miles on in a month (or almost none, depending on the season).
Yeah, I changed the brake pads and oil with my son on his car this weekend and I was telling him to avoid the Quick Oil Change places while we worked. I refuse to use these places. I almost always change the oil myself. It’s usually about $30-$40 in parts and about 30 minutes of time. I always write the mileage and date right on the receipt from the auto parts store and put it in the glove box. If I absolutely have to have my oil changed, it goes to the dealer, as around me they are no more expensive than the quick places. The few times I’ve used a quick change place there was always something wrong. Either a filter or plug that was torqued to crazy levels, or they tore crap apart to try to up sell me on an air filter or something and didn’t put it back right.
Ex dealer master tech here, also former independent shop owner and ex multiline dealer service manager (3X).
This is a good take. Newer cars require a dizzying variety of different types, weights and specs of motor oils and getting exactly the right one can be critical (I’m looking at you, GM V8 DOD lifters). With the insanely long manufacturer oil change intervals, having a high quality OEM spec oil filter is critical as well.
And your average quick lube joint is not going to spend all that money up front to stock the gazillion different oils and a huge inventory of OEM quality filters, let alone 18 different ATFs (OEM trans manufacturer Aisin by itself makes 13 different specific types of ATF as of this year) and ~9 different manufacturer specific coolants for their trans and coolant flush/fill offerings.
Over the years, I wrote up several cars that had engine failure directly caused by defective oil filters. The owners had to slug it out in court, trapped with a dead car between the quick lube place and the manufacturer, who denied their warranty claim, while making payments on said driveway paperweight.
As I have told my clients and my students – especially on a newer car under powertrain warranty – having a solid dealer maintenance history since new (preferably the same dealer each time) makes a much stronger case for a major powertrain repair being covered. Under warranty or goodwill. This removes plausible deniability – there is proof the required work was done on time, with the right parts, by someone who is qualified enough for the manufacturer. And if a mistake was made, the dealer can’t blame it on an outside quick lube.
This is why I don’t do my own oil changes on my new cars while they are under warranty. And that has saved me thousands of dollars over the last ten years, and has saved my customers tens of thousands of dollars in paid powertrain warranty claims, including new short block engine replacements, cylinder heads, etc etc.
Note that this does not mean the dealer mechanics will never make mistakes, just that you’ll more than likely get the right filter and the right oil, and you’ll be in a much stronger position to get your claim paid and your car fixed correctly if someone does make a mistake.
Do oil filters really do anything on a car that is running correctly and you’re changing the oil to spec? I cut them open occasionally and there’s never anything in the paper media. Ive had dirt bikes that didn’t even have filters.
A GM Powertrain guy told me that if the motor is running properly, filters go 30,000 miles easily without excessive bypass.
I’ve gone hundreds of thousands of miles on the orange can of death, just changing every 5k. I’ve heard that they make Honda OEM filters and some of the better filtering filters are worse as too much back pressure on the system is worse. Same thing with AC systems.
I’m wondering if you could provide a little more detail on engine failures due to a defective oil filter.
I know some filters are better than others, but I’ve always felt that even the cheaper filters were adequate.
I’m intrigued…
In their defence, some quick lube places are ok. The one around the corner from us (that just changed hands) has been there for 20+ years. I was on a first name basis with one of the techs I was in there so often ( 2 cars avg 30k miles /yr each, 5k intervals). I’d usually bring my own oil & filter (Mobil1) and stand and chat while they worked on the car. Much faster & cleaner to have them do the work, while I know that they are putting the right stuff in / on the cars. Hoping they don’t change too much under new ownership.
I usually change my own oil but I had a beater Jeep Patriot I didn’t feel like working on and was driving a massive amount for work. There’s a quick lube near me. Employee uses a torque wrench, wear PPE, shows and dates a new filter with an ink pen and used the right viscosity. They upsell you on synthetic but whatever.
My daughter’s car came out of a dealer oil change with an oil filter not even hand tight. I noticed the oil on the driveway and started feeling under the engine and found the oil filter barely hanging on by a few threads. Fortunately I caught it before any damage was done.
My only issue I’ve had with the quick lube places is a bad crush gasket on the drain plug that was slightly dripping. New crush gasket is an easy fix.
I change the oil in my plane, but cars are such a pain with where the filter is located wedged in between exhaust/etc that I let the shop do it.
Like the twin peaks reference, I grew up in the house where one eyed jacks was filmed
I started doing vacuum oil changes and I’m never going back. I don’t have to cut a hole in my aero to get to the drain plug, nor do I have to remove the aero. I do everything from the top and I’m done in no time. No oil dripping down my arm and no transferring the used oil to a container to get it to a parts store either. Someone on YT vacuumed it out then opened the drain plug on a GTI and less than like half a cup remained. My car holds 7 liters or 236oz.I’m not sweating 4oz (1.6%) of oil being left behind, especially when I’m doing at 2x the manufacturers (admittedly BS) interval.
Yep. Once the service writer confirmed all the oil changes are vacuum at the VW/Toyota dealership when I took mine in for its first one there was no reason not to. Bet I let it collect a lot longer to pump the gurgling dregs than they do too.
I still drain my truck the old fashioned way, but that’s a lot easier with no aero and no need for ramps or jacks.
The only place I’ve had mangle an oil plug was the Dodge dealership, which has its own version ofba quick lube built in.
A half cup of all the concentrated sludge from the old oil, mixed with the fresh oil you’re adding?
As a certified technician, that’s a hard pass for me. I’m sure that running a short change interval would reduce the sludge, but no draining also means that the wear metals on the plug don’t get removed and will also contaminate your fresh oil.
If I was a business man, this would be the way to go though, as it would be a profitable endeavor.
I’ve worked in dealerships for the past decade and I’m hesitant to trust my vehicles in a real shop, let alone a quick lube. I’m at the point where I only trust the techs that I actually know, and get skeeved out by the thought of anyone else touching our cars.
Even just the Oil CHange part is hard for those places to do it correctly. I fell into the “too busy to do it myself” trap once, Once. I stayed in the car to kind of keep an eye on them and watched them not replace the filter access panel in the underbody aero panel. they also used a significantly smaller filter, or at least tried to. Finally, they used the wrong weight of oil, or again tried to. they were very pushy about telling me the small filter is what is called for on my car, and then when I googled the correct part number for them, they admitted they used the same incorrectly sized filter for a multitude of cars. They tried to assure me the oil they were using was approved for the car, yet it was not and clearly wasn’t even the right formula according tot he 50 gallon barrel. I explained the viscosity requirements of The MSDS system and they just shrugged. suffice to say I limped it home and did the proper oil change with the proper parts and never returned. All of them do this I am told after I reamed them on the reviews about the place. so their you go. Never, and I mean Never let a quick lube shack do anything to your car, or your wife and kids either.
I was looking at taking the car in to a quick lube joint since all it needs is an oil change, but I was shocked to learn that the dealer was cheaper! Here’s what full synthetic oil changes cost in my area:
The dealer is $20 cheaper before factoring in the 20% off coupon they always have running! The only downside is that the dealer takes a lot more time than the alternatives, but they have a comfortable waiting room with good WiFi so I can just sit down and work on my laptop.
Dealers also tend to use the correct filter for the car.
Right there with ya. My dealer is commensurate with what the quicky charge.
With the price of synthetic oil and filters et al in Canada, it’s basically a wash to have the dealer do it. Saves me the cleanup, so why not have them do it?
I don’t use the qhick Lub places just because I saw their oil filters dismantled. No way, no how.
Dealers seem to be very aware that most customers have a clue of what an oil change should cost, so they price it accordingly.
I haven’t been to a Jiffy Lube in years, but I remember the last time I used one they priced synthetic oil like it was liquid gold. It was like $40 for a conventional oil change, $80 for a synthetic.
A DIY oil & filter change is more than 50% off the Wilkins dealer price. The difference can be spent on an air filter, cabin filter and wiper blades, and you get to choose the level of quality.
The nearest Lincoln dealership charges 250.00 for an oil and filter change on a Navigator.
Only an idiot (or the wife of one, usually) would spend that much on something so simple.
They seem to have a good supply of idiots there.
A friend recently took his Chrysler 300 to a well respected independent garage for an oil change. They drained the transmission fluid and over filled the oil.
When I’m elected Kar King every car will have oil and transmission fluid dipsticks. And a spare tire.
that whole lack of trans fluid dipstick was a Mercedes fail that should have never occured.
Is it because German engineers do not have dipsticks?
You’d be surprised how often I see this in the VW/Audi community.
“Would you rather have a guy who has been working on cars in general for a year or two working on your car or a guy who has been working on the specific brand of your car for a decade or more taking care of it?” I’d rather the former. In my experience, specialists are the fastest way to combine ignorance with arrogance, whereas generalists actually have problem solving skills.
ummm, that makes so little sense. An experienced person who knows the ins and outs of a specific make and model is always going to be better than a Green Youtube mechanic.
I’d rather (and go to) the guy who has been working on cars in general for a decade or more. My guy is the car whisperer.
Many years ago, I had a friend that bought a brand new 1984 Toyota Celica Supra
(his dream car) and with 3000 miles on the odo it was time for the FIRST oil change and unbeknownst to me he went to a Quick Lube chain and guess what they did?
THEY FORGOT TO FILL THE CRANKCASE WITH OIL. And so he made it about 3 miles before the engine seized up.
However, the quick oil change company did owe up to their mistake and they paid the Toyota dealer to install a new long block engine assembly.
After that he always went to the Toyota dealer for his oil changes!!!
Seems like it would have been smarter to go to the quick lube every few years. Once it’s already not numbers matching, keep your engine as young as possible, right?
Ha!
A buddy of mine in HS/college took his car to a Valvoline for an oil change. Driving back to school from home right after, his engine seized up due to lack of oil. I think the plug or filter fell off. They did pay for a engine replacement.
Some dealers are no better. The experienced techs aren’t the ones on the oil change line. It’s usually the newbie or sometimes even the porter.
And if an experienced tech does get stuck there they probably aren’t happy. Oil changes don’t pay crap.
This⬆️
I still use the dealer for my “free” services, but I double check and if an issue arises it is on them.
I worked for a mom & pop quick lube attached to a gas station for four years. Oh man do I have stories… Massacred drain plugs, incorrect filters (namely 4.0 Jeeps that changed from metric to SAE threads when Chrysler took over; the old metric filters would thread on but not tighten), transaxles drained and then oil double-filled because the bottom tech mixed up the drain plugs, cross-threaded transmission pan bolts…
It really depended on who worked on your car. Some of us cared, others didn’t, and one guy sounded like he swallowed the answer key to an ASE certification exam but didn’t actually know jack shit about cars.
I figure I did 30-40,000 oil changes while I was there. That was 25 years ago. I still will only do it myself.
Former service advisor here…BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Audi, and Volkswagen…I had an alarming number of hacks changing oil in my years at the dealerships. Good techs are hard to come by! It would be a year or longer before anyone new was even considered by management to be sent to a training class. There’s at least 60% chance the average prepaid maintenance is being done by someone with less than 18 months experience while more experienced techs are raking in the flat rate hours doing brakes and repairs with labor times that are easy to beat. The only time an experienced tech would feign interest in an oil change on a car is a customer pay job with 80k or so miles. They knew they’d have a laundry list for me to upsell and it would be worth their time.
I use my local garage as when doing this they look at the whole car for issues. Have saved long term money like valve gaskets leading, seals blown, etc. They also combine labor costs. “Since we are in there…”
I do the every 10k miles or 1 year running Mobile1. Even when not used, it is a good idea to change the oil when I get it inspected.
I’m a parts manager at a small dealership. Just ONE example. There’s a guy here in town that’s been putting regular 0/20 in the new GM 3.0 diesels. It calls for 0/20 but a special formula Dexos D. The 3.0 has been out YEARS and he just figured this out last month.
Half our techs don’t even know how to access SI, they tend to rely solely on my parts partner and I for proper fluids and specs. Scary stuff.
I had a roommate just after college who went to one of these and had his engine blow up. They’d gotten the coolant and oil hoses mixed up somehow.
I still don’t mind them for things like my pickup. But I am careful about which one. There’s a Valvoline I like here. They use very different containers for different fluids so there is little chance of a mixup. They check the function of your lights and such, as well as doing things like topping off your wiper fluid, before you are even in the bay.
The big thing that sold me on them is that I took my pickup in when I bought it and they looked at the oil and filter and told me that it looked like it had just been changed. They didn’t charge me a dime, and they even wrote up a voucher to give me money off my next change, since they had already scanned in my coupon.
I take my Niro to the dealer, but a 20+-year-old pickup is fine going to a reputable quick-lube, I think.
It’s always bugged me when the quick lube places check and adjust tire pressures. Those numbers on the door jamb are cold pressures, and the tires rarely are that when they see them. Go in with properly inflated tires, leave with them underinflated.
One more reason why I quit going to those places a long time ago.
The lube place I used to go to would put in a little air every time (even if they checked and it was fine they would still hit the lever to put a little air in). I guess just to make them feel like there were doing something. So, basicaly add 1-2 psi each time. I was driving alot and had new tires that sealed well so I was needing to let air out every now and then to make sure my tires werent’ 10 psi over.
My cars jamb sticker shows the pressures for it fully laden, so they get aired way up compared to what it says in the owners manual for normal driving with 2 or 3 people in the car.
My dad took his Prius to a quick lube place, they charged him for a transmission fluid change, I noticed they used non-oem fluid. I ended up swapping out the fluid 10k miles later since I dont like non-oem fluid for CVT. The transmission fluid the came out was black, something you’d expect from a car with 150k miles, which it had at the time. They charged him for a service they never performed, but at the same time at least there wasn’t any non-oem CVT fluid in there.
Well, the manufacturer and the oil companies both say 10,000 (or even more) is OK on modern synthetic oils and filters, and both have a financial incentive to get me to change more often than that. So I feel pretty comfortable with a 10,000 or annual change on my cars (although in the WFH era, that is generally annually for most of mine).
Automakers also have an interest in advertising a lower overall cost of ownership, which is helped by long oil change intervals and “filled for life” transmissions
By all means, do them more often if it gives you peace of mind.
I buy expensive oil and filters, so doing one change a year costs about the same as two changes with the cheap stuff shops use. The convenience is the point for me, not the savings.
expensive does not always mean better, K&N is absolute garbage, yet it costs more than Wix or even Factory brand filters. I think the biggest thing to consider is what kind of driving do you do, and do you think the Car company thinks about longevity? or more likely will it get past the warranty period.
Synthetic oils do tend to last longer, but the filters still get the impurities and the viscosity is still affected by thermal variances and can still accumulate moisture and acids from lots of start stops between changes.
Typically I follow the service schedule as well. Though I do try to aim for slightly less. I believe the Forester we have is 7500, so I try to make sure I have something scheduled by the time we’re approaching 7k. That car doesn’t get a ton of mileage put on it so sometimes it’s based on keeping visits under a year.
The van is supposed to tell us when it’s time to change the oil. I looked into it; it appears that rather than sensors actually monitoring the oil (which seems unrealistic to me) that it really just keeps track of engine rpms and overall run time to determine when the oil needs to be changed. I plan on trusting that based on forum posts claiming that it’s reliable.
Yes, I generally trust those oil life monitoring systems as well, simply because I assume they are programmed to be conservative to minimize warranty claims.
be careful. There was a bit of competition between manufacturers 10ish years ago and everyone started claiming 10,000 or 15,000 mile service intervals between oil changes and they were NOT conservative. Some motors could handle it. Certain engines had sludge issues that would clog lifter valves or lead to a blead down when sitting. Nothing like engine knocking as the hydraulic tappets struggled to get up to pressure.
Also lead to timing chains “stretching” – basically wearing out prematurely leading to timing issues and in some cases worse. Techs that knew about it were unofficially advising their customers to come in more often. Other techs were replacing motors. Fun times.
On the oil sensor – put synthetic oil into the Honda Fit and its oil sensor was still claiming 30% oil life remaining after 15 000 miles and well over a year. Changed the oil then and have done it at 8-10k since, ignoring the sensor.
Mechanical sympathy leads me to drive gently and this seems to confuse the sensor algorithms.
What was odd is the sensor used to pop at 8k or so using regular oil. I can’t think of any way a mechanically-based sensor could detect the change in oil type ?
The vacuum oil change is fine as long as you measure and compare. On most of our cars the vacuum gets within 0.3 litres of the amount I get from draining via the oil plug, it’s good enough for me.
Used to do the iffy lube places, because I figured any idiot can change oil. That only lasted until the idiots started breaking the parts..
That is for normal driving though. That is perfect for that. For anyone beating on it, always change before the recommended interval.
I’m with ya. Toyota recommends 10k for my 4Runner, so I do 10k. It’s been just fine and I’m getting close to 200k miles.
Ex dealer master tech and former dealer service manager and independent shop owner here.
The manufacturer wants to make sure the powertrain survives the powertrain warranty. Long term beyond that is not their concern. What *is* their concern is publishing a low maintenance cost for the first 3 to 5 years.
This is why VW spec’d “lifetime” ATF on their 5 speed automatics, for example, only to realize that those transmissions were failing within the powertrain warranty. So they changed the recommendation to something like 60k intervals but loads of those cars stayed out in the wild with owners manuals that said “no change intervals, lifetime fluid”, when their definition of “lifetime” is transmission failure and replacement by ~80,000 miles.
For those who lease their cars new every 3 years, this doesn’t matter nearly so much since the car is always under warranty. But if you buy one of those cars used, or you keep your cars for a long time this stuff can be very important. I would never run my oil interval to 10k on any car I owned. 7000 max.
Oil and ATF are far cheaper than a replacement engine or trans.
I send samples to Blackstone and they always come back saying between 9k and 13k intervals depending on the car.
Not only that, but used oil analysis says 10k is just fine on all of my newer vehicles. Changing it more often just because of outdated recommendations based on ancient oil and engine tolerances is a waste of money and oil.
A couple of my vehicles are now at a low enough annual mileage that they only get yearly changes, but even those don’t seem to be necessary. The oil analysis for my Corvette came back looking practically new after a year, and I don’t drive that car gently when I do put miles on it.
I don’t do fluids since it’s always a hassle and mess without a garage. Always gone to these shops without issue. The upselling on air filters is annoying but not that big a deal. If it’s a project car I’ll do it myself though.