On Sun, 21 Jun 2020 21:45:51 -0400, Clare Snyder wrote:

I wait for the $9.99 coupon to roll around. If I miss it, there's always a
$14.99 coupon available.
My oil changes on the Taurus cost me over $50 doing them myself and
buying the oil on special - synthetic oil with premium filter. The
ranger is a little less - takes 2 liters less oil - and the Sorento is
about the same as the ranger - the filter costs a wee bit more. Put
half an hour of labour on at a $90 per basis and that price doesn't
look too bad - if they are using synthetic it's actually a REALLY good
deal.

My oil changes on the bimmer are similar to Clare's oil changes, where the
equivalent shop rate in the Silicon Valley is never below a hundred and as
high as two hundred an hour by way of comparison to home DIY.

The time to DIY isn't an issue since you take your sweet time, and while
I've sucked out the oil from the top, long ago I gave up on that since
draining is so trivial:
a. Drive up on ramps (or chock the rear and jack the front)
b. Loosen the oil cap & remove the hollow oil pan bolt & drain
c. While draining, go topside & replace the filter cartridge & o-ring

In general, I take an hour or two, since I check other things while I'm
there, and I often put the care on four jack stands to rotate the tires and
check the brakes, fluids, serpentine belt, and the damn plastic cooling
system parts for telltale white deposits indicating leaks, etc.

The time doesn't matter, and the cost is negligible.

I used to buy the Costco synthethic case for around $28 (now around $35 or
so on sale) but I then figured dino juice, replaced at standard intervals,
is just as good as synthetic for such an old engine (couple hundred thou)
so now that's about, oh, around one to two dollars a quart (I forget) at
Costco for their Chevron-branded dino juice.

The filters are mail order, Mann (or Hengst or Mahle), at less than five
bucks per filter (depending on the sale), where the filter comes with the
o-ring but not the o-ring at the oil dipstick nor the hollow drain bolt
gasket.

Disposal is easy as O'Reilly's will take back the used oil & filter for
free, but I wonder, from a home-repair perspective, if the wooden
RR-tie-style steps (pre-treated as I see the dashes all about but they're
decades old and bone dry from the California sun) would benefit from an oil
soak?

If the oil soak stays within the decades-old railroad-tie style steps, do
you see any harm to the environment of simply dumping the used motor oil on
the railroad ties, and, if none, do you see any benefit (they're bone dry).
--
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