Wal-Mart Synthetic Blend Oil Change?

[amazingarthur]

Gang,

For $20, Wal-Mart will change my oil and add Quaker State Synthetic blend.

I check and they said they DO fill it up all the way. And there are no hidden charges.

Am I missing something or is that a good deal?

[alceryes]

Sounds like a good deal...I would check the level afterwards just in case.

[Mr.Blonde]

do they change the filter too?

[CREWZIN]

quote:Originally posted by amazingarthur

Gang,
For $20, Wal-Mart will change my oil and add Quaker State Synthetic blend.
I check and they said they DO fill it up all the way. And there are no hidden charges.
Am I missing something or is that a good deal?

What your missing is that QS Synthetic Blend is not a FULL Synthetic oil. I believe the name of the full synthetic is SYNTEC and is about $4-5 a quart. The Synthetic Blend is only $1-2 a quart so that's how they can do it.

[amazingarthur]

Synthetic blend is still good, better than regular oil anyway.

$20 for a synthetic blend seems like a good deal to me. I'm doing it.

[CREWZIN]

Arthur,

Not to say I don't trust those kinds of places that do mechanical work and oil changes on the side, but reach over and put a scratch or mark of some kind on the filter. After it's changed, just look at the filter and make sure you have a new one in it's place without the scratch/mark. Also, park on a level spot and check the dipstick to make sure you have enough oil.

[PTCumming]

Had my oil changed at Wally World. I went with the Castrol Synthetic oil and the 15 point checkup. Total cost $30.
Just for laughs I went to J-Lube they wanted $60

[amazingarthur]

Thanks for reviving my topic.

I am happy with the Wal-Mart change. Can't beat that price!

Is a blend ok? Or should I cough it up for full synthetic?

Thanks

[Cal Cruzer]

quote:Originally posted by amazingarthur

Thanks for reviving my topic.

I am happy with the Wal-Mart change. Can't beat that price!

Is a blend ok? Or should I cough it up for full synthetic?

Thanks

For a Turbo, I would highly recommend using synth. The exreme temp that the bearings reach has a tendency to fry the oil on them after shutdown in a process called "coking" (no, not stuffing white powder into the intake). It can destroy bearings in a relatively short amount of time. This does not happen with synth. That was the thinking behind the cool down periods recommended for oder turbos. Keep the oil circulating to cool the bearings. The more modern turbos like ours are liquid cooled with the engine coolant so this helps tremendously, but I still oon't trust it so I run synth.

[robinjoe]

I have a friend who swears by (not at) Walmart for his oil changes. I went in this Wednesday morning before work my first time for a synth blend oil change. There was no line, and they were done in about 20 minutes.

BUT--- When I went out to get my car, I noticed a stream of brand new oil leaving a trail from the garage to a puddle under my car!!! They were very apologetic, got an extra quart and put it in for the drive back in to the garage, and re-filled it.

They claimed that the problem was a defective oil filter. Has anyone ever heard of this before? The stream of oil was thick, and I would estimate that the entire 5 quarts was drained in less than 5 minutes (including up to 1 minute of driving).

I wonder if they left the filter off entirely. But wouldn't it all have drained out before they even got it out of the garage? An other possibility might be that they didn't screw it on straight.

They said it pretty much just dropped straight out of the engine, and that it didn't spray around on the engine. I told them to make sure to clean any spillage off the engine.

I'm not sure if I'll go back. My friend has never had a problem with Walmart though.