Leaderboard

I haven't been to a dealer except for a warranty recall in 45 years.

I agree - The cost of the oil itself and the filter is minimal. It's the moron they hire to change it who leaves the drain plug loose, or under or over tightens the filter (or neglects to change it at all) or leaves the oil filler cap off the engine The more often you need to have someone work on your car, the higher the probability one of them will screw something up True story - My daughter took her car to the dealer for an oil and filter change and they left the filler cap off. About the time she got home and shut the car off, she noticed smoke rolling out from under the hood. A check showed she was a quart low. Then, the dealer had to keep the car two days to steam clean everything. Better I guess than the finger tight drain plug stories I've heard so many times where all the oil runs out I think the manufacturers realize that if your first service isn't due until after the warranty expires, there's much less chance one of their 'technicians' will screw something up which would require a new engine under warranty! Don

I suspect that changing the oil too often was never the cause of early engine failure . The extra cost of too many oil changes is minuscule in the total cost of a vehicle. If the drive-train warranty of the EU transits is 100000 Km the oil change interval will not make a difference. They will weld the hood closed soon!!

jrm222 - check his first page.. he talks about the batteries under the floor there. Chong: would it be possible to fix that remote start timing system to a temperature sensor as well? I'd be interested in having that as a back up for my car when I have the dog with me. We are extremely careful in monitoring our dogs in the vehicles when at training or searches, but it would be a nice back up system to have the car auto start with the AC on full during the summer. Either once every hour on a timer or when the temp sensor hits 100F. Tiller