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Redline oil change.....OMG

12K views 68 replies 40 participants last post by  Robotech 
#1 ·
Let me preface this by saying that I haven't paid for an oil change in a long time. There's an auto repair place right next to my work that gives me free ones 'cause I do them a lot of favors. Every new car I've had for a long time I've changed the oil the 1st time at about 500 miles, then every 3000. Didn't feel like trusting my Sky to a franchise muffler shop, so I took her to the dealer for her 1st one. HOLY SMOKES........$110 plus tax. I know it's Mobil 1 and there's a lot more to it than just spinning off a filter, but Holy Mary MOG. At least they ran it thru the car wash for me. The sales manager gave me a card for buy 3/get 1 free. With tax that brings it to an average of only $90 apiece. Have I just missed something or does this seem excessive to you?
 
#2 ·
The Mobile 1 itself is going to cost about $35-40. Ad in the filter, check other fluid levels, labor,etc. and you should end up with about 75-80 bucks, however dealers are ususally a bit high , but that still seems to be a bit high to me.
 
#3 ·
In a base SKY -- $33 at my dealer ($28 for a Saturn 97 SC2).
Regular oil

If the comparison helps..
 
#4 · (Edited)
It shouldn't cost to much more than 45 bucks for the oil and about 5-7 bucks for the oil filter.... I think your getting ripped off, sorry but I would just do it myself or take it to any place running a sale on oil changes and bring in you own mobile1 oil(saves money) and I bet you could get oil changes for about $50-65 total cost including oil.
 
#5 ·
I just had my oil changed a few weeks back on my base Sky...brought in my own Mobil 1 synthetic (bought at Pepboys for 4.99/qt)...they supplied the filter....total cost was $19.95 with labor and tax. Supply your own Mobil 1 the next time.
 
#53 ·
well you will get me going on this one. Being a mechanic for 30 plus years i know prices go up and everybody thinks they allways get riped off, well take into consideration the cost of building, suppling,maning, and the ever present goverment add handeling cost to every kind of fluid you can think of and you can see that , yes its high but isnt everything else these days.
as for bring in your own oil, if they wont supply you with mobil one then yes i agree but if they have it not a chance, would you bring your own eggs to a resturant and ask them to cook them and expect to pay less because so?? last time i asked Mc Donalds to use my hamburger i allmost got arrested
madmax
 
#8 ·
Just got back from the dealer. They put Mobile 1 in and supplied filter for a total of 63.00, this is a base Sky.
 
#9 ·
After my first $80+ oil change (7 qts Mobil 1 in my GTO, not a SKY) at the dealer I decided that was the LAST time somebody was going to change my oil without kissing me first. I'll do it myself thanks.
 
#11 ·
You can buy 5 qt containers of Mobil 1 at Walmart for $20-24. Then a filter (stick to OEM!!) for $5. There really is nothing special about changing the oil between synthetic and dino. Going rate around here to have synthetic at a quickie lube (which you should avoid unless you like some kid screwing up your car) is about $88.

Do it yourself.
 
#12 ·
What I get for not asking first. Said they put in 7 qts of Mobil 1. Interesting since owner's manual says it only holds 5. Something else about having to pull off the intercooler to get to the oil filter. Well, the wife's not home and I've been into the Jameson for a little while. Didn't see the filter from the top and was afraid to get down on the garage floor 'cause I might not make it back up. Then she'd run over my legs when she comes in and I just hate it when that happens. This whole incident pretty much tells me all I need to know about my dealer's service dept. But don't forget the free car wash.
 
#14 ·
car washes arent cheap mister.....

Just tell yourself the oil change cost you 25.00 and the car wash cost 85.00. Of course if the car wash costs 85.00 then I would demand to watch the girl in the string bikini do the washing. Or in my case the really cute 22 year old mechanic with the steroid induced arms and six pack abs that my dealership recently hired...........(I had the great fortune of meeting him at the gym yesterday - but that another story) humm, think I will call my dealership tomorrow and see if I can get a standing car wash appointment.:D
 
#15 ·
Please note that an oil change should be done either at 2K miles or when the Oil-Life meter comes on.

I know some non-savvy people change their synth oil at 5K miles but that defeats the purpose, like adding chocolate wedding cakes on your salad. Reason being the viscosity of oil degrades after 1000 miles, so your 5W-40 oil is going to be more like a 5W-20 oil in short time, synth or otherwise, and your hot-weather protection will suffer. Synth oil also picks up pollutants of engine parts grinding together like any oil so it'll be chock full of metal filings, just slower slightly than non-synth because it has far less pollutants and carbon particles at the onset. By the time you're at 5K miles, you might as well have purchased the far cheaper dino-blood oil and changed it at 1K miles, 5 times, which would have produced the -same results.-

Save your engine, change your synth oil regularly.
 
#17 ·
What??? That makes no sense at all. Besides the fact that with the Synth oil, the Oil Life Monitor typically will not kick in until about 7,000-8,000 miles. There is absolutely NO reason to change your oil at anything less than 3k miles. In my ION Redline, I have Synth oil, and 61,000 miles now. Have changed the oil regularly at 3,000 mile intervals. No problems at all. I had a '94 SL1 before that. It used 'dino' oil, and I changed that every 5,000 miles. I had the car from 25,000 to just over 100,000 miles and everything in the engine was running just as good as new still. Even at 100,000 miles on the engine, changing the oil at 5,000 mile intervals, the oil still came out looking very good.

90% of people who KNOW cars (I'm talking the guys who tear down and build up engines every single day, the ones who custom build monster engines for just about any make/model you can think of, i.e. Mallett) will even tell you that the 3,000 mile interval for 'dino' oil is definitely the short end of the spectrum and mostly a tactic to make the oil companies more money.

If you NEED to replace Synth oil every 2,000 miles, then why does Mobil 1 specifically say on the bottle to change it at 5,000 mile intervals?? Mobil is not going to suggest you over-use their product. So you know that Mobil has to be good for AT LEAST 5,000 miles.

/endrant

A lot of dealerships started having trouble with the amount they were charging for the Synthetic Oil changes when the ION Redline came out. First thing I would do is ask if they'll let you bring in your own oil. If you do that, they shouldn't be charging you more than $25 for the filter and labor. With ION RL, dealerships originally argued that you actually had to MOVE the Supercharger out of the way in order to reach the oil filter, hence why they tried to charge so much. This was not the case, and it pretty much just came down to the techs not really knowing the best way to do the service. There's got to be a better way to change the oil in the SKY than by removing the Intercooler first. Like I said, ask them what they're charging for the filter and labor. If it's more than $25, then they aren't doing something the easiest way.
 
#16 ·
I have a BMW Z4 which has a four year inclusive warrantee...(their is no charge for anything servicewise, except for tires. Before that, I had a Z3 and the oil change charge was $150.00 (seven quarts of synthetic).
 
#23 ·
Mine is out of service warranty by miles, but ya gotta love the 12-15,000 mile service intervals. I'm not going to wait THAT long, however. I drive the car pretty hard.
 
#18 ·
My S15 Jimmy got its dino oil changed at 6-8000 mile intervals, and had never burned or leaked any oil, and had good compression when I sold it at 250k miles. My Bravada has 198k miles on it. Ditto for change interval and condition.
 
#20 ·
Dino oil just refers to traditional style oil (it comes from decomposed animals burried deep in the earth, i.e. Dinosaurs). Synthetic oil is the newer stuff that is...synthesized, made in a lab.
 
#34 ·
Dino Oil


The most used theory of formation of petroleum is the Biogenic theory:

Most geologists view crude oil, like coal and natural gas, as the product of compression and heating of ancient organic materials over geological time. According to this theory, oil is formed from the preserved remains of prehistoric zooplankton and algae which have been settled to the sea bottom in large quantities under anoxic conditions. (Terrestrial plants tend to form coal, and very very few dinosaurs have been converted into oil.)

See wikipedia >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
 
#21 ·
I do my own oil changes, costs $25 a wally-mart for 5 quart jug of Mobile 1 and $7 for a oil filter.

dino oil refers to oil made from dead dinosaurs in essence. Where as synth is a synthetic creation.
 
#22 ·
Is Saturn not offering their CarCare plans on the SKYs? IMO, that was a HUGE money saver for my ION Redline, even though it was a somewhat large cost up front. Just interesting, because I've not heard anyone mention anything about CarCare plans for these.
 
#24 ·
CarCare used to be a better deal, all oil/filter/tire rotation/air-filter if needed every 3K miles, now it's every 5K for more $$ but they are introducing a newer Car Care plan called Oil Care or something like that which just takes care of oil/filter and can be purchased for 2-10 changes at no specified interval.
 
#26 ·
I just had the rubber pad replaced on my top hold-down pyramid.

The sign on the wall in the service bay says $24.95 for oil and filter. Dino oil. Includes chassis lube & inspection.

I assume that you guys that change your own oil are greasing and/or oiling all of the pivots, bushings, etc under the car. And looking for anything that might be loose, frayed, broken, or leaking.
 
#28 ·
Well thats how much the charge my brother (Ion Redline)....but for him its a pain in the @ss.....in order to remove the oil filter you have to remove the supercharger because the filter is right under it. So I can see why the charge him $110.

Marco
 
#33 ·
Well thats how much the charge my brother (Ion Redline)....but for him its a pain in the @ss.....in order to remove the oil filter you have to remove the supercharger because the filter is right under it. So I can see why the charge him $110.
Your brother either needs to find a new dealer to go to, or tell his dealer to get their Techs some training for the Ion Redline. You DO NOT have to remove the supercharger to change the oil on the IRL. My dealer does my oil changes in about 35 minutes. The whole 'remove supercharger' thing has been disproven and disproven again and again. I've never personally changed my own oil on my Ion Redline, so I can't speak from experience as to how easy it is to get to the Filter, but I do know that you do NOT have to remove the supercharger first. It really shouldn't cost more than about $70-$80 for the oil change at the dealer.

I recommend change the synth when the car suggests to on the DIC or at 2k miles.
See, this is why your arguments make no sense. The Oil Life Monitor in the DIC on the base, n/a, dino oil, SKY is not going to go off until somewhere above 5k miles. The SKY Redline DIC will probably not tell you to change the oil until upwards of an 8k mile interval. So how is changing it when the DIC says to, or at 2k miles even remotely the same? The DIC is more likely to suggest a change interval similar to the manufacturers suggestion, or the oil companies suggestion. 2k mile intervals is a complete waste of time and money. Especially with Synthetic oils.
 
#29 ·
I think you got ripped, I have owned newer model Mercedes roadsters, and now a Jaguar S type 4.0 V8 and I get the best oil change they have and its only 60.00 - 75.00 for them. 110.00 this is way to much I mean if it had 100k+ miles on it and they had to flush the system and change all the air filters and all that stuff then maybe 80$ but 110.00 this sounds like what they should charge for a Viper! Just my opinion :)
 
#30 ·
If you're not letting your turbo cool-off for 3 minutes or so every time you stop the car (ie. let it idle) then there's definitely a reason to change your oil every 2k-3k miles.

Depending on the pleats in your oil filter, more frequent changes of synthetic are a good idea. It depends on your driving style and number of pollutants caused by piston wear. You could probably do an analysis of how much metal and carbon is in your oil instead of looking at the dipstick but after the engine is broken-in and the rings are seated nicely the more frequent your oil changes, the longer your engine will last.

I know of one lady that couldn't find a decent parking space in New Jersey so she took her car to Jiffy Lube every day because an oil change there was $20 at the time but parking was $30 per day so Jiffy Lube would have her car parked in their lot until she picked it up at the end of the day. [grins].

Changing your synth oil every 5k miles is defeating the purpose of using synth in the first place. Since synth has almost no pollutants but collects them over time, by waiting until 5k you might as well have just used dino-blood at 2k miles, depending on your filter of course.

Synth oil also degrades its viscosity over time. The rating of 5W-40 becomes more of a 5W-20 after about 1500 miles. By waiting until 5k miles, you're probably down to a 5W-15, which is not ideal in hotter weather.

By way of experiment, I added Castrol Syntec 5W-50 in my Honda Superhawk and watched the standard operating temperature go from 165 degrees to 195 degrees over the course of 3000 miles with minimal tempeature varriation (actually got cooler outside over the months slightly).

Also, as the oil collects more pollutants, the carbon will become more and more friction against the piston walls, slowly scraping them until you finally get "blow-by" where the oil actually passes past the pistons due to too much friction wearing down the sides (sort of like fine sandpaper).

I recommend change the synth when the car suggests to on the DIC or at 2k miles.
 
#31 ·
mikecronis : ............. I recommend change the synth when the car suggests to on the DIC or at 2k miles.
I'll be interested in hearing how different the RL's are, but the DIC (ie: Oil Life System) for the normally aspirated cars could be as high as 9-10k miles. It looks like mine is going to go to around 8k miles. That is a pretty big variance to 2k miles.

Is anyone with a RL going to follow the computer-recommended oil change interval ?
 
#32 ·
Will either stick with the 3k or 5k, still listening to the arguements for both. The computer? Nah. "To err is human, to really screw things up requires a computer."
 
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