gathermewool
Site Donor 2023
The short: The Auto Hobby Shop I do all of my maintenance at is closed and I have no idea when, if ever, it will reopen. I have a stash of oil and filters ready to use, but no where to change my wife's oil, which is currently as listed in my sig, with ~-1,200 miles on the MM (7-8k on oil, with recent top off of 3/4 quart.) My oil will be due in another 1.5k miles, as well.
I own a condo, which does not allow this kind of maintenance in the parking lot. I have friends whom I can ask to use their driveway in exchange for doing their oil change as well, but I'd rather not impose.
The other option is to have a shop do the oil change for me, using my oil and filter. I've never done this before, and don't really have a shop that I trust, since I do all of my own maintenance.
So, what do my fellow condo owners/renters think? All other options welcome, too.
The long:I have been changing my oil, doing brake and strut jobs, and various other mods/repairs that require or would benefit from a lift at the base Auto Hobby Shop for years now. Since I started doing my own maintenance there 5 or so years ago I've noted some pretty big changes in the negative direction: The workers (usually sailors on LIMDU, or limited duty) used to be knowledgeable guys who would happily help out in any way they could. One of my first experiences there involved a couple of really swell fellows who helped me with a really [censored] strut job (lots of rust, I lost my helper, and a lack of proper tools due to theft,) staying well past closing to complete the job and get me back on the road.
More recently, workers are not able to provide assistance, and the tools that were pretty sparse before have become even more so, I’m assuming due to theft or breakage. I was an idiot and, because neither they nor I had the correct tool, ended up breaking one of their cheap adapters. I bought them a new one that could handle being used at high torque values, though I doubt they would have followed up and bugged me about it had I not done so.
Over the past year, I noticed a petition box was posted outside of the pay window. They said there were rumors that the shop would be shut down, but it never happened. There had been rumors of that happening since I started going there, but nothing ever seemed to happen. A few lifts that had been out of commission for years were also fixed and the place has been run pretty efficiently most recently, so I never thought twice about it being closed down. I was there a couple of months ago doing my oil change and no one said anything about an impending or rumored shutdown.
Well, I went to change the oil in my wife’s Civic before going on travel a few weeks ago and it was shut down, with a little sign that said something along the lines of, “The Hobby Shop will be closed until further notice.” I got back from travel and checked yesterday, and it’s still closed, though the sign was removed.
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions…
I own a condo, which does not allow this kind of maintenance in the parking lot. I have friends whom I can ask to use their driveway in exchange for doing their oil change as well, but I'd rather not impose.
The other option is to have a shop do the oil change for me, using my oil and filter. I've never done this before, and don't really have a shop that I trust, since I do all of my own maintenance.
So, what do my fellow condo owners/renters think? All other options welcome, too.
The long:I have been changing my oil, doing brake and strut jobs, and various other mods/repairs that require or would benefit from a lift at the base Auto Hobby Shop for years now. Since I started doing my own maintenance there 5 or so years ago I've noted some pretty big changes in the negative direction: The workers (usually sailors on LIMDU, or limited duty) used to be knowledgeable guys who would happily help out in any way they could. One of my first experiences there involved a couple of really swell fellows who helped me with a really [censored] strut job (lots of rust, I lost my helper, and a lack of proper tools due to theft,) staying well past closing to complete the job and get me back on the road.
More recently, workers are not able to provide assistance, and the tools that were pretty sparse before have become even more so, I’m assuming due to theft or breakage. I was an idiot and, because neither they nor I had the correct tool, ended up breaking one of their cheap adapters. I bought them a new one that could handle being used at high torque values, though I doubt they would have followed up and bugged me about it had I not done so.
Over the past year, I noticed a petition box was posted outside of the pay window. They said there were rumors that the shop would be shut down, but it never happened. There had been rumors of that happening since I started going there, but nothing ever seemed to happen. A few lifts that had been out of commission for years were also fixed and the place has been run pretty efficiently most recently, so I never thought twice about it being closed down. I was there a couple of months ago doing my oil change and no one said anything about an impending or rumored shutdown.
Well, I went to change the oil in my wife’s Civic before going on travel a few weeks ago and it was shut down, with a little sign that said something along the lines of, “The Hobby Shop will be closed until further notice.” I got back from travel and checked yesterday, and it’s still closed, though the sign was removed.
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions…