Buddythedog Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Well, I "got 'er did" and went to Jiffy Lube out of time necessity. Reasons to avoid them.... The Subaru's count there as SUV's. That equated to extra money to do a simple oil change, even though there's no 6-7 or more quart oil capacity as there is in my 4x4 Expedition. I told them according to Allstate Insurance, the car is a wagon. They said some bs about not according to them... Second, I think 3K oil changes are bogus. I always do 5k between them, and use Castrol GTX, with never a problem. When I use Castrol, the oil is dirty, but at 3K, my oil looks just used up. I'm towing a small U Haul next week to the deep South to move. I did the ATF, plugs, the 30K mile tune up/full fluid replacement. Looks like I'll need to do the oil again at 3K before I leave. It will be a hard trip on the car, loaded down with my stuff, and my parrot (She only weighs a pound or so) I may have to jettison her to climb the hills. Ha ha. I've had her 26 years, but I do threaten her if she is bad. What do ya'll really think about changing the diff. fluid (front and rear) at 30K. I checked it, and it looks and smells just fine. FOr 10 bucks for synthetic it is cheap piece of mind. What is the capacity of the diffs??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuBrat84 Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Well you didn't mention what kind of car you have .. but on my 98 legacy it's 1.2... liters? in front and 0.8 in the rear.. but I have an auto tranny... 2 bottles is enough for front and rear... I don't think you need to change your diff fluid for quite a while though... like 60 or 90k or something... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddythedog Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 SOrry, got to running off with my fingers (usually its with my mouth) I have an 03 Forester. I got to looking at the on going dino vs. synthetic debate. I'll probably go with dino in the engine. It's been used a 100 years, and the new dino oils like Quaker State, Castrol, etc., seem to hold up well. I have noticed less oil consumption in my wife's Expedition with the Castrol GTX. Everyone seems to have their opinions, and the sales seem to ebb and flow with whatever oil company sponsored NASCAR is winning (ha ha). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olnick Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Oh no, Buddythedog, don't jettison the parrot. That would be cruel. Just have it fly (inside the cabin of course) when you start up a heavy grade. That should improve your mpg. Good luck, have a great trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimscat Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I use Jiffy Lube on ocassion here were I live and have never had an issue. Probably because I know most of them. I have heard of a few others here in the area that got nailed for not actually changing the oil and or the filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vickaroo Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 A few years back Tim was out of town, and it was around 5:30pm (Im getting off work) The Fan belt broke. Its winter, and we lived 23 miles from home,no one around to help so I called Jiffy Lube to see if they could put a belt on for me. "Sure can" They close at 6pm so I babied it 2 miles to the JL and They didnt even have the belt it needed, well they called around and got "THE" belt. Too big so the guy rigged and cut the belt to work. Charged me $67.00. But I got home.... Tim went and looked at the belt and had a fit!!!!!! Called JL and they gave us our money back!!!!! Tim told me to NEVER us JL again!!!! To call a taxi next time till he gets home... (We had 6 running subbies in the drive) Yelp they over charge for what they do. And they mostly target the single woman, older woman, or the people who dont know any better..... (MY ex worked for JL) once. I should have known better cause he told me some major horror stories about the place!!!!!!! Vicky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I have a friend that had an oil warning light come on a few days after being serviced at JL. He opens the hood to find oil covering EVERYTHING! Looks down at the block and sees that the cap was not replaced. When making "ammends" (another long story) with JL, he was told that they fired the employee that worked on his auto because he was stealing oil filler caps. Uhhhh, riiiight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swi66 Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Jiffy Lube and their like are like mosdt "other" repair facilities. They do not make money unless they SELL additional services. Had a gift certificate for a free oil change at a Valvoline 0il change place. I took my wifes jeep in during the winter instead of doing the change myself. They wanted to upgrade the oil to synthetic, change the differential fluids, flush the motor, flush the pos=wer steering, flush the transmission, flush the radiator, told me I needed a new battery, and windshield wipers to boot! I imagine the less mechanically inclined fall for their sales pitch. They wanted me to fork over like more than $600 extra to get all their "recomendations" taken care of..............I'll do my own oil changes from now on......... swi66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwatt Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Jiffy Lube and their like are like mosdt "other" repair facilities. They do not make money unless they SELL additional services. Had a gift certificate for a free oil change at a Valvoline 0il change place. I took my wifes jeep in during the winter instead of doing the change myself. They wanted to upgrade the oil to synthetic, change the differential fluids, flush the motor, flush the pos=wer steering, flush the transmission, flush the radiator, told me I needed a new battery, and windshield wipers to boot! I imagine the less mechanically inclined fall for their sales pitch. They wanted me to fork over like more than $600 extra to get all their "recomendations" taken care of..............I'll do my own oil changes from now on......... swi66 And places like Midas and Mieneke do the same thing: upsell whenever possible. They prey on the "mechanically disadvantaged". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midwst Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I hope I don't ruffle any feathers here...but I am not sure about doing the oil changes less often than 3K...unless synthetic oil is used. I wasn't clear on the origional post if synthetic was being used or regular oil. I have taken apart many engines, and the sludge I see in cars with 5K regualar oil changes...is scary. It also causes the rings to wear prematurely. Just my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swi66 Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I hope I don't ruffle any feathers here...but I am not sure about doing the oil changes less often than 3K...unless synthetic oil is used. I wasn't clear on the origional post if synthetic was being used or regular oil. I have taken apart many engines, and the sludge I see in cars with 5K regualar oil changes...is scary. It also causes the rings to wear prematurely. Just my 2 cents. Changing the oil at 3000 mile intervals is something my father taught me in the 60's. Oil may not have been as good then as it is now. In any event, we routinely got well over 150,000 miles out of a motor with no major overhauls. I even got 280,000 out of a Ranchero I bought at 120,000 miles, which I can only attribute to frequent oil changes. Now I wouldn't lie awake at night worrying if I went to 4 04 5 thousand miles, but for the most part i change mine at 3000, except for my wifes jeep which I have syntrhetic in, that goes 6000 miles, but is used for mail delivery so that is still quite frequent time wise. We regularly had the body fall off the vehicles before the motor went bad.............I know a lot of it is in "selling" you on frequent oil changes, as there is money to be made by a lot of people there. But in the long run, cheap insurance. swi66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjwirth Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Is there any specific data out there that shows why we should change our oil at specific intervals? JL recomends 3000, subaru recomends 7500... who's right? I've heard reasoning like, "well if 7500 miles is good, then 3000 is better." does this mean changing oil at 1000 miles is even better? obviously changing oil every 300 miles is absurd, while changing oil every 30,000 miles is dangerous. but what criteria should we use? anyway back to JL- we went to JL all the time with our 96 impreza without any problems (except the annoying upselling which we politely declined). but with our 2000 forester, we cant seem to go anywhere without someone making a mistake. maybe just coincidence. Going to JL is like going to Mcdonalds- you probably won't get bad service, but there's no guarantee of that either and it should come to no surprise if it happens. people there work for peanuts so you never know if you have employees that just don't care or some that take pride in their work despite the low wage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wkoepp Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 It depends, our Jiffy Lube is owned by a family that work there and they do good work, even installed a heat shield on our Forester - no charge. As for oil changes, it does no good to try to convince someone that 3k oil changes pay off in the end, because few people keep a car as long as I do. I sold my pickup at 120K miles and a Toyota at over 200 k miles, they're both still on the road. I follow my own advice not my buddies or a dealer. An oil filter doesn't catch all of the tiny metal filings and crap, I know that when they're drained from my car they won't wear out my engine. It's your car, treat it any way you want to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friendly_jacek Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 One has to use a common sense in regards to oil change intervals. If one puts 7500 miles in 2 months, its it probably OK even with dino oil. If one only does 3000 miles in 2 years, its is way too much even with synthetics. IMHO, 5000 miles/6months is a good compromise for dino oil vs. 10000 miles/12months for HDEO or good synthetic (beware of pseudosynthetics). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewildcat Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I will never go to Jiffy Lube again. I went there about 3 years ago. While they were changing my oil they decided to check the air filter. Well, I guess the idiot checking it didn't remove the bolt on the side and forced it open and broke my air filter case. I was a few minutes down the road and noticed a loud noise coming from under the hood. Pulled over and the whole side of my air filter case was busted. I went back to Jiffy Lube and all they had to say was.... I had to prove they did it. I ended up paying $100 for a replacement.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dDigitalPimp Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 before i got into doing simple fixes and oil changes myself (before my subie as well) i had an explorer i used to take to jiffy lube for oil changes. aside from the fight i had to put up every 3k miles with them not to change my filters (air and fuel) and all the fluids a car has they were also charging nearly $40 an oil change. at the time i had no idea how much a oil change could be done for. well the day after i had my oil changed at jl, my last oil change by anyone besides myself, i was about an hour from home when i noticed the check oil light come on. i pulled over at a gas station and the oil level was not showing up on the dipstick. i figured maybe they forgot a quart or something so i got one and began to feed it to the engine. there was a noise like dripping water under the car so i looked under and bingo.... no oil pan plug and the oil was dumping right out onto the ground. their rocket scientist techs there prolly hand screwed the plug in and forgot to use a wrench to finish it. had to leave the car overnight and when i called jl the next day i had to almost beg them to give me 5qts of oil and a drain plug to go back and fix my car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 The discussion of oil change intervals seems to be penny wise and dollar foolish. 7500 miles is under ideal driving conditions. If anyone here gets in bumper to bumper traffic, your not in ideal conditions. 3000 miles is the standard for harsh conditions. As much as I hate to agree with JL, they are right. Also look at it this way, If you stick to 3000 miles, and lets say in reality, you do 4000 by the time you get around to it, its not a bad thing. On the other hand going 8500 miles vers 7500, thats a lot of mialage on the same 5 quarts of oil. 7500 sounds like a very long interval on non-synthetic oil. The aditives in oil start to break down around 3000 miles. I always do 3000 (usually between 3-4) on all my vehicals. I would rather spend a few 100 dollars more over the life of the vehical (I am usually the last owner of a car) and have a good running car, then have an engine throw something. With the excpetion of a 73' Beetle, I've never had a vehical die on me due to a lubrication issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friendly_jacek Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 The discussion of oil change intervals seems to be penny wise and dollar foolish.7500 miles is under ideal driving conditions. If anyone here gets in bumper to bumper traffic, your not in ideal conditions. 3000 miles is the standard for harsh conditions. As much as I hate to agree with JL, they are right. Also look at it this way, If you stick to 3000 miles, and lets say in reality, you do 4000 by the time you get around to it, its not a bad thing. On the other hand going 8500 miles vers 7500, thats a lot of mialage on the same 5 quarts of oil. 7500 sounds like a very long interval on non-synthetic oil. The aditives in oil start to break down around 3000 miles. I always do 3000 (usually between 3-4) on all my vehicals. I would rather spend a few 100 dollars more over the life of the vehical (I am usually the last owner of a car) and have a good running car, then have an engine throw something. With the excpetion of a 73' Beetle, I've never had a vehical die on me due to a lubrication issue. Nipper, go ahead and reread my post. You will find that we mostly agree. I said 7500 miles in 2 months, that is indeed a perfect world, pure Hwy, car manufacturer-type testing style driving. I said that 5000 miles/6 months (whichever comes first) on dino is the best compromise. Even Subaru determined that 3750 miles is sufficient in most severe duty service. Most people do mixed driving. Also if you research on oil a little bit, you will find that the new API SM oils are "semi-synthetic" and will not break down in 3000 miles like you (or JL) are saying. They are tested to resist breakdown as part of API SM certification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 since I moved the Subie to Mobil 1 15-50. I was going to clean it out at 3,000 miles but the oil still looks fine. I'm leaning toward changing it at 7,500. My BMW gets about a year on Mobil 1 and the interval is determined by a computer that measures fuel used. I use a local Speedi Lube that is owned by friends of mine. They do work for the Subie dealer so are pretty familiar with Subies. Next job is I'm going to have them change my front cat and the Oxy sensors since I got PO 420 again after seven months. I feel pretty good about a small shop with folks who work on Subies regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Nipper, go ahead and reread my post. You will find that we mostly agree. I said 7500 miles in 2 months, that is indeed a perfect world, pure Hwy, car manufacturer-type testing style driving. I said that 5000 miles/6 months (whichever comes first) on dino is the best compromise.Even Subaru determined that 3750 miles is sufficient in most severe duty service. Most people do mixed driving. Also if you research on oil a little bit, you will find that the new API SM oils are "semi-synthetic" and will not break down in 3000 miles like you (or JL) are saying. They are tested to resist breakdown as part of API SM certification. heheh sorry about that. The semi synthetics, what are the price differnentials to make it worth it. Thats the other thing is cost. Also i wonder about the high mialage oil JL sells. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friendly_jacek Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 I used the term "semi-synthetic" in a loose sense, strickly speaking the new SM oils are group2, group2+, or mixtures of group 1 and 3. And no, you do not pay extra. Most new regular oils are SM. The old stuff, SL, was more unpredictable and could have been anything between group 1 and 2. The cheapo group 1 had a potential to oxidate and sludge easily and required more viscosity improvers (VI), that had a reputation to break down. There were rumors that oil makers would make sure that the VI sheared down easily to pass the fuel efficiency test. That is history now, since SM is much better, except for the SL/CI-4 oils or the ACEA-A3 oils that really shine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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