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Oil change, DIY vs shop (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/dadsplain@lemmy.ca
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If you read any manual on changing your oil, it's going to tell you to let that thing drip for 15 to 30 minutes to clear out as much of the old oil as possible. Meanwhile, your average oil change place is advertising that they will have you in and out of there in 15 minutes from start to finish. Which means there's no way they're letting it drip the minimum of 15 minutes.

The soil change was so overdue. There is a difference between the service interval and abuse interval of oil. I definitely got into the abuse range on this occasion. I just didn't have the money for the oil and the filter.

And while you're taking care of your own oil change. Make sure to check your brake fluid engine coolant and washer fluid and top them off as necessary.

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[–] 1 point 1 week ago (13 children)

At oil change shops I’m pretty sure they use compressed air to blow all the oil and residue out

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  • [–] 10 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    I can confirm for you that they do not do this.

    Source: I worked at one for many years. We let it drain till it was either a slow drip or stopped entirely depending on how busy we were.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    TIL. Thanks for the information! Once I saw a guy use a special vacuum set up but I don’t think it’s typical. I almost always change my own oil anyways

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    TIL as well. I've never seen or heard of a vacuum setup for oil changes. Other fluids? Absolutely, but not oil. To be fair, I've also been out of the industry for about a decade now so some shops may very well be introducing it, just none that I've personally seen yet. Neat either way!

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    It was the cleanest oil change I’ve ever seen. I can’t even remember where he attached the vacuum to, but it had a tube with threading that fit an oil jug and then attached to a shopvac down the line, and it just sucked the oil out into the old container and then he capped the container and that was that. I was gobsmacked

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    When they change your oil at a shop they pull the cap off and they unscrew the plug. They don't attach anything to your car to speed the process up. And there's nothing they could do that would speed it up. Air pressure with the plug removed would just cause the air to go out the other end and wouldn't speed up the oil at all.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    Full disclosure, when I was driving an ICE car I did all my own oil changes at home. However, 25 years ago I had to pay to have an oil change done.

    And there’s nothing they could do that would speed it up.

    The process this shop used was to empty the engine oil, put the drain plug in again, and fill the crankcase with new oil, run the car for 5 min with the new oil, drain again, then fill with more new oil.

    In my mind, thats a pretty effective way to get the old oil out.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (2 children)

    I feel like a lot of places nowadays just take off the fill cap and vacuum pump it out.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago

    Hmm, on paper this sounds neat but I don't think that's how it works. Where the oil lives (the crankcase) isn't air tight. There's a breather valve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crankcase_ventilation_system which lets air and vapors out. While the engine is running, the vapors are directed back into the intake system so any unburned fuel in the vapors has a 2nd chance.

    Either way, adding a little bit of pressure isn't going to make the oil come out that much faster. The reason why you might want to wait 15+ minutes is because if the car has just been running, oil is all over the place in all the nooks and crannies. Gravity is the only thing that can bring it all back down to the oil pan.

    I do use compressed air when changing oil, but it's to run a vacuum extractor. Vacuum extractors make for a nice clean job, but they are much slower than pulling the drain plug.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    They absolutely do not do this and I have no idea why anyone would think they do. It would be utterly ineffective because the oil fill tube goes directly to the sump.

    Good lord, the silly things I'm reading in this thread...

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