Tips on changing your own oil

Do It Yourself Oil Change

The radio advertising of the national auto supply chain store told me to look in the mirror to see the best person to change my oil. Then came the pitch, special price for five quarts of conventional motor oil and filter. Well, on the face of it in these recessionary times this seems like a perfectly reasonable proposal. Although I am not sure how many people did the ad convince to become a do-it-yourselfer.
Then again, the ad was probably targeting those already changing their oil themselves and trying to get them in the store to get the deal on the oil and sell them whatever else they might need.

Is a deal -any deal- on conventional motor oil really a deal? I used to do my own oil changes years ago when a quart of oil was about 70 to 80 cents and the filter cost less then 3 bucks. At the time I did it because it was like hobby and I did it every 2000 miles just to make sure. Nowadays, with the oil about 3 bucks a quart and the filter about 6 dollars it would be more of a savings proposition. But lets see if the savings would be worth the trouble...

On average a mechanic charges about $29.95 to $34.95 plus tax for an oil change. Figure about a half an hour to 45 minutes including the trip to and fro to the shop. If we take the average car being driven 15 thousand miles per year that's 5 oil changes. Not figuring the tax as that's a variable, we are looking at a yearly expense of $150 to $175 and about 3 hours of time. We should count an additional expense of a few bucks, say $10 per year, for the engine flush every 30 thousand miles to get rid of the sludge build-up due to the use of conventional motor oil. So our yearly expense comes to about $160 to $185.

If I were to do this myself, I would have to incur the initial costs of two ramps and some tools but I am not going to put that into the equation. Assuming I would get the oil and the filter for about $20, I would be saving about $60 to $85 per year. I would still spend about the same amount of time doing the work myself. Over the life of the car the savings would add up to about $500 to $800.

About two and a half years ago I found a better way... I switched to AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil in all the cars in the family. With the multitude of synthetic oils available on the market, I had to do some research. In comparing the leading makes I found AMSOIL to be the only one that had a 25 thousand mile or one year guarantee printed right on the bottle. My cars all had anywhere between 35 thousand to 65 thousand miles on them so I had to have the engines flushed before I had the oil change done.

True, the oil currently costs $9.10 per quart and the filter is $17.30 retail, but I am only doing it once a year!
There are additional benefits as well. Since I switched over to AMSOIL, I get about 8 – 10% better gas mileage which made a big difference last year with gas being $4 a gallon. And the way gas prices are going up again, it does help! AMSOIL has no contaminants, is a lot thinner than conventional oils so my engine runs cooler in the summer. It also stays liquid down to below -50°F which I really appreciate on those cold winter mornings, my engine starts easier. So not counting the additional benefits of less wear and tear on the engine and the gas savings, I am looking at an expense of $62.80 plus $25 that my mechanic charges me to do the oil change. This comes to $87.80 once a year, about half the cost of conventional oil changes! A good deal!

An even better deal is AMSOIL's Preferred Customer program. AMSOIL Preferred Customers purchase AMSOIL products at wholesale cost, which is 20-25% less than regular retail prices. Preferred Customers receive an information kit on AMSOIL products and the monthly AMSOIL magazine. Preferred Customer memberships may be renewed indefinitely for only $20/year. There is also a six month membership which costs $10.00. There is no limit on purchases, buy as much or as little during the membership period.

So, adding it all up, which is the better deal? I think the choice is obvious! Oh, one more thing that is also an important factor, I am also environmentally friendly because I am only disposing of 5 quarts of used oil instead of 25 quarts...

To learn more about the AMSOIL Preferred Customer program and to find out how to save $3469 every year on car maintenance, visit: http://drivealotsavealot.com