From reddit: "Hall of Famous Last Words from customers with sad engines"

Will wrote: I still want to know how much an oil change should cost if the $80 version is too cheap.

If oil retails for about $4-5 per quart for the cheap stuff an oil filter retails for $10, and you bill for 7/10ths labor at $100/hour (the bare minimum for a vehicle servicing including actually looking at things), that's about a hundred bucks.

Nobody makes money on oil changes.

In reply to Knurled:

Maybe it's just sticker shock because I always change my own oil, but...

I think if I took my Camaro somewhere for an oil change and they said "That'll be $100," I'd have a Redd Foxx "I'm comin, Elizabeth!" moment.

In reply to Will:

Which is why hardly anybody actually charges what an oil change costs.

The quick lube places get by via high amounts of corner-cutting, using the cheapest parts they can get and scraping the margins thin besides, and overinflated prices on additional services.

I vividly remember someone else's estimate that was brought to us for a pricematch, where they undercut our oil change by $13. But with all of the other things required at that maintenance interval, our pricing was $200 cheaper overall. (It was like $600 us vs. $800 them)

But we didn't get the job because we wouldn't budge the $13 difference on the oil change.

I really don't get people sometimes. Well, a lot of times. Most of the time. And this is one of them.

Lucky you don't have a semi then; 10 gallons of oil, huge oil filters, fuel filters run $250+ but 12,000 miles and up per change.

Knurled wrote:

Knurled wrote: So today, I had a 2.8l X3 where the oil filter was so wedged into its holder on the cap that the holder separated from the cap (spilling a ton of oil everywhere), and I had to cut the filter off with side cutters. It was mooshed in all around and mostly plugged solid. That's not the good part. The good part is the vehicle's owner brought it to us for an oil change, because she took it to the DEALER for an oil change and they told her that it wasn't time yet.

Heard back from this one. Apparently the truck is currently at the dealer with sludging issues in the top end. And the service manager is berating the truck's owner for getting an unnecessary oil change done! (Bear in mind that the dash display was indicating the oil was 1000 over *per the very lax BMW internal schedule*, so probably 15000+ on that oil/filter) According to them, you change the oil once a year and any more than that is bad. Well, sure, it keeps you from buying a new BMW every three years. Although from what I have been seeing, this "service" schedule is a great marketing tool for Acura and Infiniti and Lexus, which brands people buy when they swear off BMWs as being trouble-prone. I still want a 3er, but I am thinking more and more that I will see dealer service records in Carfax as a run-away indicator, not a selling point.

Lets set the way back machine to 1936 and the KDFwagen and its open crankcase and 3k mile oil change interval which happily coincided with then valve adjustment schedule.

BMW has been recommending the onboard computer Interval of ~15k miles for over 10 years at this point. I'm sorry if I don't remember reading about all the post 2006 BMWs blowing their engines and spiking the value of all pre N series engines.

Climb out of the primordial ooze and admit that lubrication issues do not Kill modern engines with modern oil. That is the truth regardless of you recommending OCI from the open crankcase era.

Maybe in an ideal world. In the Driver's manual it even says that "extreme" conditions mean more frequent changes. I take extreme to mean stop and go driving, short hops were the engine never gets a chance to burn off contaminants in the oil, and things like summer time here where there is so much pollen in the air it looks like you are underwater. Throw in the salt that is always in the air here and blowing sand.. I am changing mine a LOT less than every 15000 miles

In reply to mad_machine:

I read the owner's manual from my MINI, regarding OCI and "extreme" conditions. My take was anything that wasn't in a clinical, surgically clean environment in addition to driving for a good long period, to get the temp up and burn off contaminants, was "extreme".