Engine Oil Change : Paid Service vs Buying Oil yourself vs Full DIY

[neosmart]

For the “oldest car” we have/drive at home, how do you get it serviced for regular oil changes ?
1) Fully paid service at a A.S.S.
2) Fully paid service at Garage:
3) PIY: Purchase it (oil+filter) Yourself but Trusted Garage for labor
4) Full DIY i.e. Purchasing & changing oil yourself

I didn’t find a thread/poll on it; closest one was: (Authorised Service Centre Or Independent Garage, What do you prefer?)http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/13297-authorised-service-centre-independent-garage-what-do-you-prefer.html

My preferences:
Most of the time when I talk and meet my friend circle, I find most people sticking to A.S.S. to repairs and they are pretty OK with that too. I know few bhpians in Noida who stick to A.S.S for all repairs (even for a Fiat).

I find myself at other extreme. That is, I prefer to avoid A.S.S to avoid see a bill with 20% vat on top of oil MRP. Usually, I buy oil, filters and spark plugs myself and get it installed from a mechanic nearby my house. In fact recently, I have also got suspensions struts from Kava and got them installed from mechanic. I clean & wash my Palio myself to keep wax intact. For few instances like clutch, timing belt or insurance paid repairs/denting; I have taken my car to Tata-Fiat A.S.S. For clutch, I brought my clutch & master cylinder from outside and A.S.S. fitted that happily as they didn't have Palio GTX clutch in stock, as usual

PS: PIY = (Purchase it yourself )

-Pankaj
Palio 1.6 GTX 2002, 69K Kms
Palio 1.2 ELPS 2002, 61K Kms

[Got BHP?]

When I was in India, I used get the oil and oil filter replaced myself. For work like brake pad skimming our trusted old mechanic comes home to get it done. Normally cars under warranty are sent to A.S.S. Once out of warranty for major works cars are sent to independent trusted garage. This quality of work is assured and bills are lower. I will source the parts. Hence they are genuine spare parts .

[S@ndy]

Same here as well, neosmart. Even I prefer to avoid bills of A.S.S. which include tax, labour charges and what not. The best solution to this is the third one. One should purchase things onself from a trusted manufacturer and get them used/installed from a mechanic, quite simple and prevents those bills!

S@ndy

[jinojohnt]

I have had enough experience of A.S.S cheating on engine oil (billing without actually changing oil / filling low quality pre-mixed oil), so I buy oil from outside and depend on a trusted garage for oil-change.

[libranof1987]

This thread is for the "oldest car" but here's a question : how many of you would do a DIY or get it done at a local garage while the car is still under warranty?

Clearly, there are no official records of oil change or any such job when done DIY so if the car is under warranty, the A.S.S. can claim that warranty has been void due to non-conformation to service schedule.

2 of my cars have crossed the 5 years mark and although I haven't, I wish I'd been changing engine oil and air/oil filters by myself since they crossed warranty.

[racer_ash]

I voted for the third option of PIY+Trusted garage for labour, provided the car is out of warranty. But within warranty I would prefer going to the A.S.S, not because I really trust these guys but purely for the sake of record keeping of the car's service history in the company's database. In case of any warranty claims, this would be quite useful.

My dad's car is out of warranty and we follow the third option only. We know of a trusted guy who has been maintaing all the 3 cars that we had/sold off. We know he is trustworthy and he even recommends suitable spares for replacement. So far he has been the family doctor for our cars.

[dhanushs]

Originally Posted by neosmart

For the “oldest car” we have/drive at home, how do you get it serviced for regular oil changes ?
1) Fully paid service at a A.S.S.
2) Fully paid service at Garage:
3) PIY: Purchase it (oil+filter) Yourself but Trusted Garage for labor
4) Full DIY i.e. Purchasing & changing oil yourself

For regular service, or routine periodic maintenance, like brake pad change, liner change, fuel filter change, the best option is to buy the best available and genuine parts, and do it yourself. If you dont like to get your hands dirty, pay 50 bucks to mech, oversee the job so that he doesn't mess up.

Paying 750+ for an regular service at the A.S.S is not exactly a good decision, when everything that is done in a normal oil change service, can be done by you/local mech. Just make sure, you have the list of checkpoints to check on each service.

Also, for jobs like clutch, Gearbox, engine overhaul, the best place to go is the A.S.S. Reason is that, they have years of work experience on the same car, doing the same things. Even if they aren't that skilled, experience should have made them better.

[carbookie]

For cars in warranty - A.S.S.

For cars out of warrant I divide up the work in the following order.

1. Basic maintenance is DIY - For example, oil change, air filter, visual inspection, pressure wash, belts health check, fluid level checks.

2. Other maintenance at Local garage - For example, brake pads, rotor skimming, suspension changes, Regular maintenance, tinkering denting painting etc.

3. Critical maintenance at A.S.S - Clutch change, opening engine, diagnosing difficult issues.

[AvinashV]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

I have had enough experience of A.S.S cheating on engine oil (billing without actually changing oil / filling low quality pre-mixed oil), so I buy oil from outside and depend on a trusted garage for oil-change.

How did you realize that they hadn't changed the oil & did they accept this when you brought it to their notice?

[Zealot_Roadster]

I opt for the 1st Option

-> Fully paid service at the A.S.S. since they record the service schedules and can never tell me in future that the car is out warranty due to non conformance to service schedule.

-> Also somehow I do not trust the local garages after a couple of non professional experiences.

[CARDEEP]

My car is well outside its warranty, so there is nothing to stop me from getting few service/ oil changes from outside. It helps maintaining regular use of good quality oil for the car, & it is also cheaper than the A.S.S. for this mundane task.

[thewhiteknight]

I have a 10 year old car. While I would prefer to do minor jobs like this myself, I have been doing at the friendly neighborhood for one basic reason.

How does one dispose of the old oil and filter? Pouring it down the drain or in the bushes is not quite something I would do.

[infotech58]

i purchase oil (synthetic @ 700 per litre), and oil filter by myself and then pay 300-400 bucks to my FNG to change the oil, top up fluids, and do basic inspection. i tried to source the same oil through a garage and he quoted 1100 per litre which was the MRP.

[Aroy]

While in Warranty - A.S.S.

Rest, friendly neighbourhood garage. For minor jobs I buy the parts and change them myself. There was a time when I would do every thing, but now a days I prefer to oversee the job at the garage.

[rosh_aveo1.4]

It's so weird that this topic came up. I was just discussing this with my friends on the same subject yesterday. What about the cars that are over 5 years old but have run pretty less?

I have one Optra, Aveo and the OHC for my father. The OHC is an automatic transmission, 2003 model which has run 98K. We give it to our local mechanic very close by, for any normal service/part replacement. The max he quoted so far is Rs. 5,000 for a complete patchwork under the car which was heavily rusted (welding/replacement and painting) and normal service of course. Otherwise it’s just Rs.1,000 or so.

The question I have is for my Optra/Aveo which I mainly use. The Optra 1.6 has run 35K, a 2007 model and the Aveo ran 22K and is a 2007 model as well. Both cars are obviously out of warranty. The Optra only requires normal service and I was not sure if I should hand over the service responsibility to the same local garage instead of the A.S.S who will charge me huge bills.

The Aveo on the other hand requires some major suspension fix due to an accident I had some years back (it’s now having a very hard/bouncy ride, clunky sound from the rear and creaking from the front and almost complete wear out of the rear tyres) and it's way due its service as well.
I had not planned for the Aveo's suspension fix at the A.S.S anyway since they asked me to pay 30 to 35K for a full replacement. It's a petrol car, not worth the effort I felt.

But it's the service that confused me. If I do it at the local garage, it would be cheaper but the service book doesn’t get filled by the authorized dealers and will this impact the resale? The sale of the Aveo is a joke anyway with our petrol prices. I don't intend to sell the Optra anyway so I am not so concerned.

So is it worth the effort to do this in A.S.S. just to prove to the next guy that the car is fully serviced at an authorized center, to maybe have a better chances of sale and slightly better price??

Sorry for the long post!