Oil Changes: Do it Yourself or Pay Someone Else?

When it comes to maintenance on your car, you could have the pleasure of doing it yourself or giving the job to someone who will do it for you. When it comes to oil changes, there are benefits to both of these choices. You may or may not enjoy the task of actually crawling underneath your car or completely trusting the people behind the scenes to take the greatest of care. Hopefully this will swing you towards one of the choices after you done reading the article.

Let us start with the do it yourself approach. First, no can deny the feeling of actually doing your own oil change and knowing that the job was done right. It may cost you a little more, but being able to crawl underneath that metal moving box, can give you a clear observation of what else your car really needs. This is the "I really know what my car needs next approach," instead of receiving a laundry list of parts and services, that may or may not be what your baby really needs. With the oil change finished you can also have that nice clean interior, without the greasy stains from those technicians that have been working on other vehicles all day long.

When you take your car in for a typical oil change to an automotive shop, you would expect a certain amount of care given to your speed demon. The benefit of bringing you car in for an oil change is that it will most likely cost less than doing the job yourself. When you car is taken into the service bay, it will be lifted high into the air, where the technician can get a clear view of the undercarriage. This will allow the grease monkey to walk clear around the vehicle to see what you car needs. While your oil is draining, the technician will check and fill your tires with air, and if needed, grease a few joints. When the oil has drained, the car will be lowered and the oil replaced. This gives the technician a chance to perform a brief check of the engine and its condition. Once the oil has been replenished, they will top off your fluids. When I talk about fluids, I mean the coolant, wind shield washer, and the power steering fluid. Once the oil change is officially completed, the car will be driven to you and the keys placed right back into your hands.

Either way you decide to go there are benefits to either approach. If you are a hands on person with trust issues, I strongly recommend the do it yourself approach, or maybe you are the type that just doesn't want to dirty his hands with such a mundane task. If that is the case, I would take it in to the shop. Whichever way you choose, I hope this article might give you some insight to your question.