Given my current situation, I won't be able to do my first oil change. Can I trust the car with a quick lube or should I get it done at the dealer?

 

Check with our dealer.... If you car is still under warranty, they might have you take it to the dealer.... if they notice that you skiped the service shedules, they might give you a hard time if something happens to the car, and they might not cover it under warranty.....

By the way, I did my oil change at the dealer, and they went over the full line on the dipstick.... bunch of morons....

 

I've gone to a couple of the quicklube type places when it doesn't make sense for me to do it myself. The best one I've found is Valvoline. When it comes to what kind of oil a car needs, filling it properly, not spilling, and making sure it's topped off properly they were great. They also offer free topoffs for the first 3k miles and will even check your tire pressure and various fluids for free any time you want to stop in during those 3k miles.

 

dealer can't make you take your car into them ( or anywhere ) to have your warranty. you are responsible to do the maintenance still. Just keep receipts of your oil or a maintanence logbook etc.. that's all you need. If you take it to a jiffy lube or whatever..stand outside the garage and watch them like a hawk and make sure they do it if you doubt their abilities...

 

I take mine to the dealership. I trust them more than I do the other oil change places around my area.

 

I heard that the resale price of any car is sligthly higher (and probably a lot higher in the long run) if you get these kind of things done at the dealership. But I don't know if its true or not

 

I'm guessing somebody at the dealership told you that. Most peopld would rather have service records, even if they are on a database that you did yourself. Plus the extra money that you will spend on an oil change over the life of the car, it makes sense to do it yourself

 

The factory usually puts the original filter on VERY tight. There have been various threads verifing this. A dealer can deal with this easily. I wouldn't trust the yahoo's at the local zippy lube to do the first oil change because of this.

 

dealer or quick lube, either way they're gonna leave a bunch of oil under the filter area. I really have to be busy to have the dealer do the changes because when I get home I have to spend my time degreasing. when I change it myself there's no cleanup after.

 

dealer will do your first oil change. the oil filter is stuck on incredibly hard from factory. have the dealer do it and then do it yourself there after.

 

Me personaly I'd trust the drug tested tech's than the local druggie drunks at the local oil change place.. well atleast around where I live that is what its like lol...
After my Warrenty I'll most likely be doing it myself, rather not have any problems down the lines because I went to jiffylube instead of them yanno.

 

good adive, then tell them not to put it on too tight because you want to do the oil changes in the future.

 

I did my first oil change at dealer cuz it was free :O

After that, all by myself. I had some free service thing at dealership, but I dont really trust them (Sorry guys!)

I go dealerships mostly jsut for recalls or warranty stuff (like WDS, etc)

Cuz I want more control over of my own car. Thtas all (Im giving her 5w30, hey, she likes it more than 5w20)

 

+1

crawl under there and try to even budge it if yur not a believer. After the intial change, I'm not particularly fond of leavin my baby in anyone's else hands when i can do it myself.

You wouldn't believe some of the improfessionalism that oil lubes AND dealerships can have on new cars and used cars alike. Even heard it from a bud who was previously a mechanic at a dealership...

"if it's not ours, we couldn't care less on all the little details...as long as it gets done and presents correctly, it's a success to us. We've got a schedule to keep, and don't have time to treat every car like it's an exotic."

scary, huh?

 

stick to one place, because if they **** up your oil pan or drain plug you have a place to blame and take it to court.

 

Well let me tell ya why I like my dealer to change my oil. I had a 3G Eclipse. On the first oil change they did not tightten the bolt so I was leaking oil. So I take my 8 to my local dealer the have her serviced. This way if my oil leaks out and I drop a rotor I can blame it on them

 

I had an 97 saturn that I took to a Jiffy Lube for an oil change , those idiots ended messing something else up. they move some pump and the car started over heating. I took it to the dealer and they showed me what they had done. I will never take my RX8 to any of those corner oil places !

 

If you here the guy /Gal cussing a blue streak then you know they are replacing the filter.
I nearly couldn't get the factory installed one off. Till I stabbed it with a screw driver.

 

There's another reason to avoid the chains and go to the dealer. Most of the guys at Mazda know not to lay their full weight across the top of the fender. the chain guys wouldn't know or care.

 

a good idea would be to take it to the dealer for the first oil change to have them muck with the filter, the do the rest of them yourself.

 

No wonder he was "previuosly" a mechanic at a dealership. Sounds like he is more suited for a quick lube place.

 

I had my first oil change at a dealer. They overfilled by at least 3 quarts. it developed a few oil leaks. Two were fixed. The third is a tough one. It takes about half an hour on the freeway and even then it's not dripping, but smokes a little. 3 visits to a different dealer on my way home from work - they can't find the leak, but definately agree something is wrong. The smell of burning oil comes through the fresh air vent after about 20 minutes, and they know it's not normal. Then again they aren't the butchers who overfilled it to begin with. (The butchers told me "it's normal for an RX8 to leak a little oil" after running on the highway!)

Good thing Texas has a lemon law. It will be interesting to see how dealer negligence plays into the fold.

It doesn't matter whether it's a dealer or a Jiffy Lube. Someone earning barely minimum wage with half of that going to the Snap-on man is all you get to change your oil at $90 an hour.

The funny part is the dealer that sold me the car gave me a real good price, even saying they don't make money on car sales, they make money on warrantee service.

 

did i mention he retired from Reineke Mazda (dealership) with numerous top-wrench awards?

It's one thing to be foolishly optimitic, but it's another to be completely ignorant to unknown variables.

While dealerships are a better call then any corner lube, don't be blindly led off a cliff thinking that they're always a gold standard.

If you'd like, i can lead you down a long path of problems i've had with my 8 in the month and a 1/2 i've owned it, all due to a mechanic's carelessness to simple details. Tune in...it'll be fun for the whole family.