good oil change chain, anyone?

[ryu_haneda]

My time's up - i need to get the oil changed on my '98 LGT. I'm going to ask for full synthetic.

Does anyone know of any good oil change stores or chains in eastern Pennsylvania? I'm looking for places like meineke or jiffy lube or other long-standing dedicated oil lube places that are around cities like:

Collegeville
Schwenksville
Perkasie
Sellersville
Quakertown
Pennsburg
Emmaus
Allentown

Recommendations? Any places I should avoid like the plague?

Thank you for your time. Later!
-slippers2k

[ivwarrior]

Do you know what you're doing to do it yourself? If so, find one that'll let you watch, to make sure they don't screw it up. If not, between Becker, Faulkner and A&T Subaru one of them should be reasonably close to you. I'd go there over a quickie lube (screw-up) place.

[d1giPhux]

Man, its hella easy.. you should just do it yourself. Only thing not to forget is the 'crush washer' that goes on the oil filter! Heres what you will need:

5 Liters (i think) of motor oil of your choice.
Subaru Oil Filter
Subaru crush washer
17mm socket + socket wrench
A few rags

1. take your oil pan that you are draining into and put it under the oil pan bolt on your car. Crack the oilpan bolt so that its loose and then take it out. Oil will pour out pretty quick at first, and then just let it sit for a few minutes and drain.

2. Unscrew oil filter from the bottom of the car, and let the oil drip from there. Place oil filter upside down on oil drain pan, so that you can get the oil out of it.

3. Place oil pan bolt back onto the car moderately tight.. but not too tight. Make sure you put the crush washer with the flat side facing down on the bolt (i think).

4. Take new oil filter and Fill the oil filter with some fresh oil, and lube up the rubber gasket thats on the oil filter.

5. Screw oil filter onto car.. it does not need to be on there too tight, but i usually get mine on so that its decently tight. It helps if you take a rag and clean your hands off first so you can get a good grip.

6. Put oil in car, and keep checking till its at the proper level. Its always a good idea to let it settle for a minute and then check back to make sure the level is correct.


Also, ive uploaded a pdf for you.. this is for the 05 legacy gt. but yours should be the same, except you wont need to remove any plastic pieces on the underside of the car to get to the filter.. it will just be there.

www.designlabx.com/subaru/oilchange/200 ... GT_Oil.pdf (http://www.designlabx.com/subaru/oilchange/2005_Legacy_GT_Oil.pdf)

Good luck man.. its really easy, usually i can do mine in under 10 minutes.. while taking time! :cool:

[Khanhfucious]

Umm..Crush Washer on the Filter? WTF

You need to buy 5 quarts of oil, a filter, and if you can, get a crush washer fromt eh dealer. Its not required, but its nice to be safe.

Have car at running temp.

drive car onto ramps or 2x6s to make life easier.

take off 710 cap

go underneath and unscrew the drain plug. Make sure the oil pan is out more in the direction the plug is facing, because it will shoot out.

Drain all oil.

Undo Oil Filter. You should be able to do it by hand. If notm wrap a leather belt on it, through the buckle and pull. Dump th eoil from the filter into the Oil Pan.

Fill up the filter slowly. Stop. Fill it up some more (Its going to go down since it has to go thorugh the filter). You want to have th oil level in the filter abotu 3/4" from the top. Take some oil and rub it on the gasket of the filter. Spin it on. Hand tight only. Dont monkey it on there.

If you have a crush gasket, replace it on the plug now. Put the plug back on. MAKE SURE ITS TIGHT.

Now you can fill the oil. You had 5 quarts. Once youre all said and done, you want to have half a quart left. Run the engine for a minute, then kill it. Check the dipstick. If its in the middle, just leave it. It its low add some. If its high..it shouldnt be high with 4.5 quarts of oil..

[d1giPhux]

Hahah doh! :oops: :roll:


LOL.. yea, not on the filter. HAHAHA. :lol:

See.. this is what happens when you type too fast / too much. Plus, i just woke up. LOL what do you expect! Time for the magical edit button!

Definitely get the crush washer though, and make sure your filter is on pretty tight, as much as you can tighten it with your hands if not a little more. You dont want it leaking! Check out that PDF i uploaded too!

[gil_ong81]

like peole have said, it's best to do it yourself. this way, you can avoid all the "bad" things that spawn horror stoies. my personal favourite, the shop at walmart forgot to replace the cap on my brother-in-laws cars and that on his fiancee.

but i understand that there are times when you cannot do ti yourself. an example would be like around here in the last week; rain, ice and snow with hight winds and low temperatures. so unless you ahve a garage.... you're kinda SOL.

anyway, to get back to your question...... i've had good luck with Valvoline.

[d1giPhux]

like peole have said, it's best to do it yourself. this way, you can avoid all the "bad" things that spawn horror stoies. my personal favourite, the shop at walmart forgot to replace the cap on my brother-in-laws cars and that on his fiancee.

but i understand that there are times when you cannot do ti yourself. an example would be like around here in the last week; rain, ice and snow with hight winds and low temperatures. so unless you ahve a garage.... you're kinda SOL.

anyway, to get back to your question...... i've had good luck with Valvoline.

Eh.. id still do it. It only takes a few minutes, and you really dont need to be in the cold the whole time. If you have some ramps.. just pull the car up onto some ramps. If you have to rely on a jack.. id just get it done. But maybe you know someone you can borrow ramps from?

[gil_ong81]

maybe i'm reading you wrong, but aren't you supposed to have the car level when you drain your oil??

but yeah, i agree that it can be done in the cold. but for me, i just don't like lying down in water or slush.

[d1giPhux]

maybe i'm reading you wrong, but aren't you supposed to have the car level when you drain your oil??

but yeah, i agree that it can be done in the cold. but for me, i just don't like lying down in water or slush.

You probably get a little more of the oil out..maybe.. but i've never had and problems with it placed up on ramps.. because its not tilted up or anything.. it sits flat on the ramps. Yea.. laying down in water/ slush can suck, haha thats why i just wear 2 winter coats when i needa do that type of business.. a gortex one on the outside! lol.

[Huffer]

The drain plug is in the rearward section of the drain pan - so having it tilted theoretically gets more old oil out.

Regardless, I always add 4.5qts.

4.5qt w/ filter - 5qts is overfilling.

DIY or a local mechanic - but you supply the filter and oil. Don't cheap out.

[d1giPhux]

The drain plug is in the rearward section of the drain pan - so having it tilted theoretically gets more old oil out.

Regardless, I always add 4.5qts.

4.5qt w/ filter - 5qts is overfilling.

DIY or a local mechanic - but you supply the filter and oil. Don't cheap out.

Yea, i just put 5L for safe measures.. haha, i think i meant qts.. but, oh well.. you get the point. Basically better to buy more then to have too little and have run to the store again. I suppose the car might be tilted on ramps.. because the back end would not be on anything but the ground.. always seems to work great for me! :cool:

[Brockley]

A 98 Gt takes 4.7 quarts of oil (I work at a lube place)

MOST Impressa take 4.5 some foresters take 4.2, and some take 4.7

[Wiscon_Mark]

Put it this way - the pimply teenager at the jiffy lube being paid 5.15 an hour is probably only going to know a marginal amount more than you about changing oil on a subaru and he's going to care a HELL of a lot less about making mistakes and doing what he's supposed to do than you will.

It's definitely worth it for you to do it yourself. You'll save a butt ton of money this way, and it's a satisfying job, IMO :smile:

[Huffer]

It's definitely worth it for you to do it yourself. You'll save a butt ton of money this way, and it's a satisfying job, IMO :smile:

Actually, you may not save that much money if you use an OEM filter and synthetic oil.

But you will have the satisfaction of doing the job and taking the time to make sure it's done right.

[d1giPhux]

It's definitely worth it for you to do it yourself. You'll save a butt ton of money this way, and it's a satisfying job, IMO :smile:

Actually, you may not save that much money if you use an OEM filter and synthetic oil.

But you will have the satisfaction of doing the job and taking the time to make sure it's done right.

I always save like $20 when i use dino oil.. but synthetic im not sure about.

[Brockley]

at walmart... 5 qts mobil 1 is less than $24.... and a stock filter is like 5


where I work (snappy Lube) a Mobil oil change is like 59.99

What a rip....


a normal oil change is 29 for reference....

it would cost you less than 20 to do it yourself....

and on a subaru, its so STUPID easy...

just make sure to get one of the little copper gaskets for the drain plug...

[Wiscon_Mark]

Actually, you may not save that much money if you use an OEM filter and synthetic oil.

But you will have the satisfaction of doing the job and taking the time to make sure it's done right.

Okay, but if you campare oranges to oranges, and you buy synthetic to give to them, you're still saving money. If you get synthetic from them, be prepared to buy some lube to lessen the pain.

When getting synthetic oil, always go for the SALE SALE SALE and you'll save a butt ton of money. Stock up when there's sales at Walmart/Kmart/whatever.

[Huffer]

Quick lube place near me does it for $14.99

It costs me $16.99 for Castrol GTX 5w30 + Bosch 3310 filter.
I reuse the crush washer 4 times.

[Wiscon_Mark]

so 32 bucks.

I can do it myself cheaper ;)

[Huffer]

Where are you getting $32 from?
I pay $16 for my DIY oil changes.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Roger, I'm trying to make a fair comparison. Quick lube will do an oil change for 15 bucks...but with dino oil (and some crap filter, probably). I'm saying if you bring in your synthetic oil and filter, and add on their labor cost, it'll be 32 bucks, maybe a little lower if they count parts & labor separately in that 14.99 figure you said.

Unless they're offering 14.99 for a synthetic oil change? That would be unheard of.

[Huffer]

But you're not doing a fair comparison.

A far comparison would be:
1. quick lube shop doing synthetic oil change.
2. DIY doing synthetic oil change.

You're right, DIY is cheaper, that's not the argument though.

[Wiscon_Mark]

But you're not doing a fair comparison.

A far comparison would be:
1. quick lube shop doing synthetic oil change.
2. DIY doing synthetic oil change.

You're right, DIY is cheaper, that's not the argument though.

That is the comparison I was making. DIY is cheaper, and due to all the Jiffy Lube "accidents" due to careless underpaid workers not doing their job properly, it would just be a better all around idea to do it yourself.

AKA

There is no "good" quickie lube chain, they all come with a risk and the price is never worth your engine.