PM...Pay or Do it yourself?

I'm mechanically inclined also.....but, I get to spend little enough time @ home visiting my parents and girls....And, I too do not have the facility....So, I get mine done...either on the road or @ one of the Prime shops. I do like the guarantees that I get from T/A and Petro shops. Not to mention the tests that they perform on the oil and coolant.....lets me know how the guts of the engine are holding up & head off any problems early.

 

Anyone remember the old days when we simply drained our oil into a hole we dug in the dirt? (Gasp!) It seems so unthinkable to do nowadays but once upon a time the practice was widespread.
rx

 

I'm guessing that when you finish, you won't see much of a savings after you deduct your materials costs. Big shops are buying everything in bulk. Multiple barrels of oil at a time, hundreds of filters at a time, etc. You'll pay more for those items individually. On the oil analysis note, lots of shops will sell you the kit. I've bought them in the past. So... Doing it yourself doesn't have to mean no opportunity to oil scan. In the end, when you divide the money saved across the hours it took (don't forget to include time out driving around getting supplies) you won't be making very much per hour. Does that mean you definitely shouldn't do this?

Of course not! It just means that you shouldn't do this for money savings only. Do you love doing mechanical work? That's a good reason. You would inevitably become more familiar with your truck's more detailed workings. That never hurts! The more roadside and parking lot repairs I do myself, the better I get at them and consequently I tackle larger and larger ones. I probably don't save more than two or three thousand pre-tax dollars a year so it's no second job, but I enjopy it and that's enough.

It's no second job, but it's a few dollars in your pocket and you get the experience. Is that enough for you?

 

D-big, I hear that a guy in houston has developed a superfilter that allows you to go 300K miles before an oil change. (hence the name superfilter)

I am not very mechanical but sounds like an good option...

it works with "magnets" or something....


any info?

 

Google the term "bypass oil filtration" and you will find that there are 4 or 5 bypass systems on the market that will allow you to go several hundred up to one million miles without an oil change. No, they don't use any "magnets" or other secret, magical technology(Don't know where you heard that one). Yes, they do work, and work very well. I have them on all of my trucks right now. You change the filter element in the bypass filter every 10,000 miles and send an oil sample to the lab each time. It is a significant savings in not doing a full oil drain every 10-20,000 miles and with the extra filtration, it also extends the life of the motor.