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Hi,
I am new to this forum. I like to fix my car when possible and take a lot of pride in it. I don't know anyone who works on cars and so I really need the advice of a trusted community, so I am very happy to have stumbled upon this forum. Sometimes the internet is just too dense to find a good answer to a simple question. Thanks for being here!!

Here is this week's question:

I am wondering if it is better to go to place like JiffyLube to get an oil change or to take my car into my trusty mechanic who is expensive, but does a great job on taking car of my Honda Civic 98?

Jill Eliza

 
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A good majority of the people on here do their own oil changes, along with a lot of other work. If you really must bring your car to a shop, bring it to the dealer I guess.

 
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I live in Minnesota and it is about -5 degrees out now, so although I have changed my oil myself, this week I am going to take it to someone else. I very much appreciate your advise and will take it to my mechanic who does the fixes that are beyond me at this point.

Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 218

Okay. As long as you have a trusty mechanic, you should be good then. I've just had bad luck in the past and I'm very hesitant about letting anyone touch my car. Lol.

 
Rep Power: 512

I refuse to take my car to a place to do work on my car unless the work is truly out of my ability. However, given the temperature conditions where you're at, I'd probably do the same, unless I have access to at least a garage. Then again, the only time I've experienced anything close to -5 is when I was in navy boot camp in Chicago, and we were forced to bundle up

edit: oh, and welcome to the forum!

 
Rep Power: 812

never take it to any jiffy lube type places unless you want a messed up car. you cant even begin to imagine the kinds of damage ive seen caused by incompetent mechanics. oil change is very involved. search the internet some more and you will find thousands of complaints against small oil change places like jiffy lube.

 
Rep Power: 218

Don't forget Pep Boys. How the hell do you forget to put brake drums back on? HOW!?!?!?!?

 
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lol, luckily for me, there's a couple of dudes that are big into the Honda scene at my closest pep boys. They offered to hook me up with free work over at one of the guys' houses.

Anyways, yea, back on topic. If you have a mechanic you can trust, then cool. Back when I first started on these forums, I hardly knew how to do anything short of changing my oil. Now, thanks to the help of a lot of people here and trying stuff, I know my way around my car fairly well.

 
Rep Power: 285

Never take your to a jiffy lube place, its hard to believe that it's possible for someone to mess up a simple oil change, but we've had a number of people come here and complain about major problems after going to one. The people who work at those places are mostly kids fresh out of high school doing extremely repetitive work, with little or no training and accountability. I know someone who worked at one who replaced someones oil with coolant and destroyed the motor in a new F350 diesel, because he didn't like the customer and he had already given his two weeks.

I would personally take my car to the dealership if I couldn't do the work myself, but if thats not possible then go to a trust worthy mechanic and watch him do the change since it should only take 15 minutes.

 
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Thanks for letting me know about JiffyLube. I did do a search, and found one that got good reviews. The rest in my area sounded like they didn't care and didn't know what they were doing.

However, I will take the forums advice and take it to my mechanic, who drives his Hondas till they have 300+ miles on them. He also takes his time to explain what is going on with my car even though I am over 50 and a woman.