What should be done during an Oil Change Service?

What should be done during an oil change? Welcome to Mercie J, where compassion and craftsmanship come together, I'm Rick Smith.

So first of all, let me say that there's a difference between an oil change and a service. So an oil change is when we pull the drain plug out, we drain the oil out we fill it back up and then we also replace the oil filter on the car. So that's your basic oil change. The problem with that is, most vehicles don't make it into the shop for oil changes more than about twice a year and a lot can happen to your car between those times. So you have to ask yourself a question, do you just want to protect yourself from engine failure or do you want reliable transportation?

So during a typical oil change, a service, we need to rotate the tires because they should be protected so they wear evenly and you don't have to spend as much on them. Then we should do a very thorough inspection on the car, in the case of Mercie J, we have a checklist that's on a tablet for the technician. It's great because it communicates with you with transparency because we take pictures and we do a very thorough inspection. The inspection needs to be DONE, not pencil whipped. So that's going to depend on the shop. You don't want to get pulled over for something like a license plate light burned out because you didn't get a good inspection on the car. So the brakes, the belts, the hoses, all that kind of stuff should be checked. All the fluids should be topped off. The tire pressure should be aired up and the maintenance reminder light should be turned off.

So there is a difference between just an oil change and a full service. I would encourage you to do a full service. It takes us about 45 minutes to an hour to do a service so it's also better if you could drop the car off and give us time to do the job properly for you. Otherwise you can go to one of those places get an oil change real quick and get out but you're not really going to get the inspection and all the other details that need to be handled. I hope this has been informational to you and until next time, safe travels and blessings to you.