Re: Oil Changes

[Eric Bosco <ebosco@aol.net>]

> 
> My experience has been that the quickie places don't have the filter - even
> those that say they stock them all.  Check B/4 you drive in and they drain!!
>  Dealer cost was pretty high however, with no quick turnarround - "leave it
> for the day" type of thing.  I have opted to do it myself.  -Steve.
> 

Exactly. The damn wierd filter puts you in oil change hell if you have to work
and need your car. Quick lube place stare at the car in amazement and dealers
can't change the oil while you wait (not even if you want to wait for more than
an hour). I finally decided that the only wayto deal with this was to do it 
myself. It is very easy and there are plenty of descriptions on the web of
how to do it. In doing it myself, I discovered the dealers totally f*cked up
my oil filter housing by stripping the the aluminum drain plug. So I had 
to remove the whole filter casing with out draining. Can we say swimming in
oil? :-) I'll buy a new filter casing and drain plug for next time.


One word of advice, I went out and spent $80 for a pair of sears jack stands
and a cheap hydraulic jack from trak auto. Makes a big difference in terms of
ease of use and I for one would not trust to have my head underneath a car
supported by a jack alone (especially the stock VW one).

- -Eric

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Eric Bosco                                                     Unix Programmer 
EricBosco@aol.com                                Systems & Advanced Technology
http://members.aol.com/ericbosco/                           America Online Inc.