Where do you get your car maitenanced?

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pittpizza

pittpizza

CAGiversary!
Basically what I'm looking for is general car maitnance info. WHere do you get your oil and tires changed and how much does it cost you? Do you DIY, if so where/how cheap do you get your parts?

I usually pay 29.99 for an oil change (or 39.99 when I rotate my tires too) and for the last year or two I have been getting a $10 rebate in the mail so it ends up costing me $20 bucks which isn't bad for what you get. I just spent 360+tax for 4 60,000k mile tires at sams club.

Also I'm personally looking to get Serius Satellite Radio installed in my car, how much should this cost me and where should I get it done?
 
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I do the majority of the work myself- oil from walmart and filters (depending wich of my cars i'm doing diffrent oil for each and filter ) runs me about 14- 19 an oil change, and tires take me a bout 20 minutes to rotate in the driveway with an iron/jack and stands. On a lift, takes about 4 minutes with impact gun :) i buy most of my parts for both my '72 mercury and '93 t-bird from advanced auto, pepboys or if i have to (their parts are better, but cost a lot more) carquest but never from auto zone, very bad luck on getting the right part or getting it complete (love missing gaskets)- if it's an upgrade/dress up, i go through summit racing or jegs or a swap meet. most of the work is done in my driveway, unless soemthing major or cold weather, then it goes down to my younger brother's shop downtown.
 
I work on German cars for a living and I can personally tell you that anyone who can set up a home network router will be able to install an aftermarket Sirius system on their own. The real money we make when you are charged for this comes from the warranty or service warranty.

I would never pay $29.00 for an oil change considering that is less than how much the oil we use costs for most cars. Our most popular model in for service uses 8 quarts @ $10 each. That being said, I have no clue what you drive; paying that little may be perfectly normal for your car. The average rate for the services you listed at any national automotive parts store will usually range from $14-30. Any place you go for the oil change should be fine, just make sure they are competant people. Doing it yourself is the smartest route.

So do not shop by price alone, your particular model of car and it's recommended upkeep is important.

I will also honestly say that the prices at Costco are not half bad for tire changes. Many high performance tires are also reasonably priced at Costco.
 
I usually just take my car to get the oil changed, just because I don't have time to do it myself. For oil changes and tire rotations, I take it to a place called Express Oil Change. Oil changes usually run me $70, but that's do to the quality of oil my car uses, and the fact that I always opt for Mobil 1 instead of whatever it is they use by default.

For major service, like service to fix a problem with the drivetrain, engine, window, air conditioning, whatver, I always use the dealership. They're the only ones I would trust to touch my car with something like that. I don't care if they're more expensive, the peace of mind of knowing it's in good hands is enough for me.
 
Also, is the Sirius going to be a direct connect? Like, do you have a tuner box that will do in your dash and plug in to your headunit, or are you using one you're going to just clip on/stick to your dash. If it's an internal tuner, you SHOULD be able to install the Sirius yourself if you already have an aftermarket headunit, and can pull it out rather easily. If it's an extrenal tuner, you can install that in like, 10 minutes. I'd opt for internal though, but it's more expensive but looks clean as fuck, because there's no wires or anything, because it's all in the dash.

If you get it done by someone else, you're looking at about $50 for an internal tuner. And if you do it yourself, you don't actually have to put the antenna outside your car. You can get full reception by just routing it to the back of the car, hiding the wire under the floorboard or just the mats if you want, and then up and as far back against the rear windshield as it will go.
 
I dont really know what kind of sirius system it is. My sis had it in her work car but the new one she got already had it in so she is giving me her old one. My stereo is bose which is the original head unit in the infiniti i30 i drive.

How about alignments? How much do you guys spend on those?
 
I highly recommend not taking your car to any place that will give you an oil change for under $20. I did that one time and they broke something on my axel and wanted me to give them like $500. I told 'em to screw themselves and I spend a day fixing it myself >_<

So it went from being a $10 oil change to a $80 and 7 hour oil change, fudge that!
 
[quote name='whitedeath']i think wal-mart has oil changes for 11.72 dhmtt[/quote]

A small price to pay for getting your car ruined.

Personally I buy my oil filters from the dealer because those are the only ones that provide the correct flow on my car. As for changing the oil, I do it myself since I installed a Fumoto valve awhile back and it has made doing my changes a breeze.
 
I take it to the dealer. I know, I know. But it's just easier. Plus, by buying the car and having all service done by them I've become one of those "repeats" that people are always nice to. Works for me.
 
I used to do my own OC but Jeep sends me coupons for $14.99 changes every three months so the few shekels I save isn't worth my time anymore. The rest is still under warranty.
 
[quote name='WebScud']I take it to the dealer. I know, I know. But it's just easier. Plus, by buying the car and having all service done by them I've become one of those "repeats" that people are always nice to. Works for me.[/quote]Same here.
 
I used to go to Wal-Mart for oil changes, until they ruined my Toyota. I got an oil change, two weeks later the engine seized due to the oil level being nonexistent; I saw no signs of leakage leading up to it.

Now I go to JiffyLube across the street. Its about $5 or so more, but its nice to have it being taken care of by, y'know, an actual mechanic.

At the moment, I've got a ten year bumper to bumper on my car, so its dealership repairs for the price of on-the-house for me.
 
I used to work at a auto shop, and we used to constantly get customers bringing their cars in for repairs that Wal-Mart's techs had caused. My favorite is the oil change where instead of taking the old filter off, they took about 3/4 of it off with a wrench, leaving the thing crossthreaded. They then screwed the new filter on the exposed threads, causing some pretty nasty oil leaks.

That, and the story of the missing drain plug. Apparently, the tech misplaced the old drain plug when he removed it. He replaced it with one that was slightly smaller than the original plug, and somehow fucking tack-welded it into place without anyone questioning what the hell he was doing. The look on our tech's face when he attempted to remove the welded drain plug was priceless.
 
Alignments anybody? This is something that most people don't have the equipment to do themselves. WHere do you go? How much should I look to pay? Any coupons anybody knows of?

I mostly have this stuff done at pep boys and really have never had a problem. WHat do you guys think of that store?
 
[quote name='pittpizza']Alignments anybody? This is something that most people don't have the equipment to do themselves. WHere do you go? How much should I look to pay? Any coupons anybody knows of?

I mostly have this stuff done at pep boys and really have never had a problem. WHat do you guys think of that store?[/QUOTE]
I use Kwik Kar for alignments. Costs about $70 and they give you a printout of the before/after measurements on everything. I only do alignments when I get new tires though, or if there is very noticeable pull to either side.
 
I just go to the dealer, the dealer I go to alot of other people I've seen online go to.

Plus my car is still under the extended warantty that I got for it. So if something is broken they'll let me know and it should be covered.

An oil change is like 30 I think, but 90% of the time I have a coupon they mail me to bring it down to 20 bucks. So in my case I think going to the dealer is smart move.
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']I used to go to Wal-Mart for oil changes, until they ruined my Toyota. I got an oil change, two weeks later the engine seized due to the oil level being nonexistent; I saw no signs of leakage leading up to it.

Now I go to JiffyLube across the street. Its about $5 or so more, but its nice to have it being taken care of by, y'know, an actual mechanic.

At the moment, I've got a ten year bumper to bumper on my car, so its dealership repairs for the price of on-the-house for me.[/quote]
If there was to little oil in the car it shouldn't take 2 weeks for it to seize, if it did seize it would happen within minutes unless you have no piston rings left and are burning a ton. Also Jiffylube will hire anyone off the street, they don't have any training that makes them great, its a very simple job so it's not a big deal.

I work for a Chrysler/Jeep dealer (I drive a Chevy though :D) so I do all the work myself. As far as installing Sirius, its pretty basic and you can save yourself money and go it alone, I'm sure there is a walkthrough on the internet. If you want to pay someone you can always go to Best Buy/Circuit City/Tweeter. And for alignments, the cheapest places are usually Sears and Town Fair Tire if you have one near you. A dealer is usually $130.00 or so while the others charge $60-80.
 
Midas will do an alignment for 49.99! Any reservations about gettin it done there? Its a pretty simple proc. right?

As to installing siriuos, any links to do it yourself installation yall can find (don't hate me; im not from texas; i just didnt feel like typing out "you all." But I guess since I am typing out this rather longwinded explanation it would have just been quicker for me to actually type "you all" instead of "yall" and then this explanation, oh well too late I suppose.)
 
Installing a sat radio is easy if you are going for a "plug and play" unit. Try reading this http://www.sirius.com/install If you have any other questions, post them here. I can help you, I have done the install of my "plug and play" XM unit as I'm sure many others on here have too.
 
Thanks so much for that Sirius link. I am pretty sure this is plug and play so Ill let you know if I need any help. Thanks again to everybody that posted helpful responses! Kudos!
 
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