Cheapest Oil & Filter Change

[theloft]

Some time ago I started a thread about low cost oil & filter changes. At the time National Tyres & Autocare were the cheapest and personally gave me good service. Things have changed a bit. A. their prices have shot up, mainly due to oil price but also they have changed from Duckhams to Castrol. I was quoted £41 for a 2 litre Mazda 6 (cheapest garage price £59.99). But apparently they are not allowed to carry large amounts of oil on the premises and instead of doing it while you wait, it was a 6 day wait before they would have the oil. However I have discovered that ATS Euromaster also do oil & filter changes (Shell oil) and they were cheaper at £39.99 and could do it the same day. Am going in later so will advise what the service was like.

[tomstickland]

The cheapest way is to go and buy a box of oil and a set of filters from a motor factors and then do it yourself.

[Pew Pew Pew Lasers!]

Exactly. And if you don't want the bother of going underneath the car, a boat sump oil extractor will save you the trouble.

[theloft]

Thanks guys, we all know that it is usually cheaper to do it yourself, but there are a few things to take into consideration, some of us are oldies and not up to it any more, some are not mechanically minded (I am not specifically mentioning the fairer sex), some of us don't have the time and as regards the boat sump oil extractor, who would know where to buy one, are they expensive and do they change the oil filter for you ? Then you have the old oil to dispose of, plus shopping for the oil & filter. For those who do prefer to get it done at a reasonable price, my visit to ATS Euromaster was very satisfactory, apart from the fact that when I got there they had had an oil spillage due to a malfunction on their machine. But eventually I got my oil changed new filter and sump plug washer - and they knocked off a fiver as I had to wait longer than expected. About 1 hour and a quarter instead of 35 minutes. Total cost £34.25. Very polite, clean premises etc.
I will definitely use them again.

[Inactive]

Thanks for that, sounds good to me.

[Pew Pew Pew Lasers!]

Originally Posted by theloft

Thanks guys, we all know that it is usually cheaper to do it yourself, but there are a few things to take into consideration, some of us are oldies and not up to it any more, some are not mechanically minded (I am not specifically mentioning the fairer sex), some of us don't have the time and as regards the boat sump oil extractor, who would know where to buy one, are they expensive and do they change the oil filter for you ? Then you have the old oil to dispose of, plus shopping for the oil & filter. For those who do prefer to get it done at a reasonable price, my visit to ATS Euromaster was very satisfactory, apart from the fact that when I got there they had had an oil spillage due to a malfunction on their machine. But eventually I got my oil changed new filter and sump plug washer - and they knocked off a fiver as I had to wait longer than expected. About 1 hour and a quarter instead of 35 minutes. Total cost £34.25. Very polite, clean premises etc.
I will definitely use them again.

Sump oil extractor - any boat shop up and down the land. £20 or thereabouts. Insert the end down the dipstick, pump away, old oil comes out. Disposing of old oil? The tip. Oil and filter? Nearest motor factors.

And a garage that charges £34.25 will be using the cheapest mineral oil you can possibly buy - in other words, rubbish.

[Inactive]

Originally Posted by Pew Pew Pew Lasers!

Sump oil extractor - any boat shop up and down the land. £20 or thereabouts. Insert the end down the dipstick, pump away, old oil comes out. Disposing of old oil? The tip. Oil and filter? Nearest motor factors.

And a garage that charges £34.25 will be using the cheapest mineral oil you can possibly buy - in other words, rubbish.

So you have a drive to the tip ..then another one to the Motor factors, then you have to buy an oil drainer on top of that.

The price of £34.25 was for Shell Oil, hardly " rubbish ".

[theloft]

Originally Posted by Pew Pew Pew Lasers!

Sump oil extractor - any boat shop up and down the land. £20 or thereabouts. Insert the end down the dipstick, pump away, old oil comes out. Disposing of old oil? The tip. Oil and filter? Nearest motor factors. And a garage that charges £34.25 will be using the cheapest mineral oil you can possibly buy - in other words, rubbish.

Car manufacturers stopped using the dipstick extraction method some years ago because it was inefficient. Garages also. The oil used was Shell Helix Diesel Plus Oil and the filter was a Unipart. I still think it is great value, but you pays your money and makes your choice!!

[loofer]

Originally Posted by theloft

Car manufacturers stopped using the dipstick extraction method some years ago because it was inefficient. Garages also. The oil used was Shell Helix Diesel Plus Oil and the filter was a Unipart. I still think it is great value, but you pays your money and makes your choice!!

Yup I second that about the extractor. You can't be sure the end of the thin pipe is at the lowest point of the sump, so there could still be oil in the engine. Additionally, it may not suck up any thick sludge that might have built up.

National Tyres will change oil & filter in may car for about £38. The oil is Castrol Edge Turbo which costs about that much itself from Halfrauds

[goldspanners]

i use an oil extractor,whats wrong with it?
you know how much oil is in the engine,you know how much you drain off with the fliud extractor,so if the engine should take 5 litres and the dipstick says there is enough oil in there you can expect to take out 5 litres, you can feel the hose hitting the bottom of the sump when you put it in so you know its at the bottom.

if you have a sludge problem then an oil and filter change wont really do much good anyway regardless of how you drain the sump.

a little outlay for a fluid extractor and you can service your engine whenever you want,get an oil filter for about £3 and a gallon of oil for £25,this means your next oil change is half the price.
and most importantly you know its done with the right oil for your car and done properly.

[theloft]

Originally Posted by goldspanners

a little outlay for a fluid extractor and you can service your engine whenever you want,get an oil filter for about £3 and a gallon of oil for £25,this means your next oil change is half the price.
and most importantly you know its done with the right oil for your car and done properly.

Trip to buy parts (don't forget sump washer),
time spent to see who has the best price for oil. £30 outlay - hardly half price !!

[loofer]

Originally Posted by goldspanners

i use an oil extractor,whats wrong with it?
you know how much oil is in the engine,you know how much you drain off with the fliud extractor,so if the engine should take 5 litres and the dipstick says there is enough oil in there you can expect to take out 5 litres, you can feel the hose hitting the bottom of the sump when you put it in so you know its at the bottom.

if you have a sludge problem then an oil and filter change wont really do much good anyway regardless of how you drain the sump.

I'm probaly being a bit pedantic here...
The pipe might reach the bottom of the sump but that may not be the lowest point of the sump if you get what I mean.

The sump is shaped a bit like |______|-------| with one half (front) of it raised from the bottom. That is where the dipstick goes and so the oil will be drained upto that level. The remaining oil is not alot (as the sump isn't extremely corrugated/raised) but it may still sit in the engine.

By draining oil from the plug underneath you are allowing gravity to do the work for you at actually getting the oil out (and any sludge that will follow).

[anewman]

If you choose to do it yourself you can stock up on sump washers, couple of sump bolts and oil filters. I use ramps myself to ease access to the sump bolt which you can get for about £30 a pair.

National tyres is probably among the cheapest of the oil change places around though.

I guess when the oil you need is expensive it's probably better value to go somewhere to get it done. My car doesn't need special oil so I'll happily do it myself.

[Ginger Nuts]

Make sure that the oil that they are using is to the correct spec that your car requires, just because it's castrol or duckhams wont mean it's the correct spec for your car. If you try walking into a motor factors, or local car parts shop, ask them how much is 5 litres of oil for your car, they should look up the correct spec and tell you, i'd be surprised if it were less than £30 to buy the oil alone prob plus the vat, so i'd be surprised if the oil used in your fast fit centres would be correct. Just as a comment, recently I went to kwik fit, they priced me £40 for oil and filter on my Mondeo, I questioned their oil and they admitted they used 10/40 semi synth for all the cars, ford oil is recommended as 5/30 otherwise there will most likely be damage to the hydraulic lifters. If I wanted the correct oil, it was £60 Just a word of warning thats all

[loofer]

Originally Posted by anewman

If you choose to do it yourself you can stock up on sump washers, couple of sump bolts and oil filters. I use ramps myself to ease access to the sump bolt which you can get for about £30 a pair.

National tyres is probably among the cheapest of the oil change places around though.

I guess when the oil you need is expensive it's probably better value to go somewhere to get it done. My car doesn't need special oil so I'll happily do it myself.

I'm just about to book my engine oil/filter change online now with National Tyres.

I normally change oil every 5-6000 miles. I never got one of these ATS/National Tyres/Kwik Fit companies to do do an oi change for me.

Normally buy the oil & filter myself and pay some local mechanic £10 to change it for me whilst I watch. He's a small pit dug into a lockup/garage so access under the car is easy.

But as you said, the oil, the filter and the labour is the same price as the oil itself so it's a no brainer really. Just need to have faith in the technicians carrying out the oil change.

[Pew Pew Pew Lasers!]

Originally Posted by loofer

I'm probaly being a bit pedantic here...
The pipe might reach the bottom of the sump but that may not be the lowest point of the sump if you get what I mean.

The sump is shaped a bit like |______|-------| with one half (front) of it raised from the bottom. That is where the dipstick goes and so the oil will be drained upto that level. The remaining oil is not alot (as the sump isn't extremely corrugated/raised) but it may still sit in the engine.

By draining oil from the plug underneath you are allowing gravity to do the work for you at actually getting the oil out (and any sludge that will follow).

Irrelevant really. The engine will hold back plenty of mucky oil, not everything drains through the sump. Anything left just gets diluted with the new oil. Any sludge problems will not be cured by draining from the sump plug.

If its good enough for marine engines, its good enough for cars.

[TESCO R+R RAIDER]

Originally Posted by theloft

Trip to buy parts (don't forget sump washer),
time spent to see who has the best price for oil. £30 outlay - hardly half price !!

try and get a halford trade card. oil filters £1.50 OIL IS NORMALLY after trade price £5 less than the shelf halfords normally £14. find a freind who can do the oil change, plus a air filter as well £2.20. total price dirt cheap.

[anewman]

Originally Posted by Pew Pew Pew Lasers!

Anything left just gets diluted with the new oil.

Which is why I sometimes leave the sump plug off and pour cheap oil down the filler to see if I can get any more icky oil out. I think I've concluded on the whole doing that's a waste of time and oil though on a car with oil regularly changed

[Stephen Leak]

Originally Posted by anewman

National tyres is probably among the cheapest of the oil change places around though.

I agree.

"Mandy", my Mondy has just cost me £30 (£35, less a £5 voucher) for top quality fully synthetic Castrol Magnatec 5W/30. Get on their voucher mailing list or check their national paper ad's. Their website gives 10% for booking online, so the voucher is worth more, and their system won't allow both.

The "old girl" is 11 years old and has just hit the big 100,000 but - touch wood - is still running like a sewing machine, thanks to nice new oil every 5,000 miles/approx. 6 to 7 months. I think of it as an internal service.

I've done DIY oil changes and they aren't rocket science, but they are messy and you've got to handle and dispose of the old oil properly.

[roddydogs]

National Tyres cost me £22 last year-has it really gone up that much.? As fo DIY-have you never had a filter you cant budge and it collapses under the strain?