Am I cheap or? Oil and filters...

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It's hard to know if you are being cheap since I doubt you would ever find out in real life whether a higher dollar oil and filter would make your engine last longer than using a cheaper oil and filter.

Because it makes me feel better, I usually use factory recommended filters and a name brand oil. I don't use the most expensive of either.

I say use what makes you comfortable as I doubt your engine will ever notice a difference.

Wayne
 
I dunno if it's called cheap or smart. Ivery only used RA only once, but will be using it more. On parts I don't need right this minute, I'll buy from them because they're usually ridiculously cheaper than the local parts stores. As for oil, I've been using Rural King full syn,good oil for a great price, a full syn for $2.79 @ qt, how do you beat that? Probably not PU,but far in excess of all specs needed, so why not?
The way I look at it, I can feel good for $2.79 or feel a little better for $5+ @ qt w/ PPPP, and yes I fall for it sometimes.
 
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Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
We have 5 gallon bucket in the shower tube to collect cold water before it is hot enough to take a shower.


I have thought of doing something like this many times as I cannot stand the thought of how much water my family wastes waiting for the hot water to come up to the second story from the basement. I could probably water my lawn every day for free with that wasted water.

OP - you're not cheap, you are smart for thinking of ways to spend less money and get the same results. Also using up every bit of a resource's value is smart, too.
 
You drive relatively new cars. In 2 - 3 years it's not quite probable to have any oil related issues. The problems would possibly come to the second hand owners of your vehicles.
 
1. Decide what spec you need / want to meet.


2. Buy the most affordable product that meets that spec.


Just seems like a reasonable way to proceed to me.
 
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Originally Posted By: threeputtpar
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
We have 5 gallon bucket in the shower tube to collect cold water before it is hot enough to take a shower.


I have thought of doing something like this many times as I cannot stand the thought of how much water my family wastes waiting for the hot water to come up to the second story from the basement. I could probably water my lawn every day for free with that wasted water.

OP - you're not cheap, you are smart for thinking of ways to spend less money and get the same results. Also using up every bit of a resource's value is smart, too.

First few times were hassle, but I got used to save few gallons of water every time household members take a shower. Using it to water the plants everyday do add up to a real saving of natural resource.

Just remember that in some countries people use less than 5 gallons of fresh water per person a day. We waste that much of water before we even take a shower.
 
Originally Posted By: sw99
I drive a lot and I like to maintenance my vehicles. 5K on oil for the most part and the wife and I both drive 20-25K a year. On the tractor I like to change the filters every year if not every six months. Personally I like to get under my vehicles more frequently to see any other potential issues and I like fresh oil in there.


I agree. I think it's important to get under there and have a good look around every so often. My wife's Kia calls for 15K maintenance intervals but I go with 7.5K. Then I can rotate the tires more frequently, check CV joint boots, exhaust, brake pads, lube locks and hinges, remove mouse nests, etc. One persistent mouse built a nest under the engine cover, lived there at night and presumably left during the day when my wife went to work. When I finally discovered and removed the nest the mouse built a new nest on the exhaust manifold which didn't last long because it caught on fire.

You say that you cut every filter apart. Have you ever found any dirt or debris in there? I cut a couple apart and never found a speck of anything.
 
Originally Posted By: Thebimmerfan
You drive relatively new cars. In 2 - 3 years it's not quite probable to have any oil related issues. The problems would possibly come to the second hand owners of your vehicles.


The Honda has 100K and we have owned it since new. The Ram has 144K. My previous Subaru had 200k+ on it. I take great care of my vehicles and they last. Interesting comment considering that you know nothing about me. Cheers
 
Originally Posted By: NibbanaBanana


You say that you cut every filter apart. Have you ever found any dirt or debris in there? I cut a couple apart and never found a speck of anything.


Sure, all the time. After cutting I tip the can upside down and let the fluid drain out. There is very fine debris you can feel on your finger. Granted it's very minimal and shows that the filter is doing it's job.
 
It might actually be cheaper for you to buy a premium oil (Amsoil SS, M1 EP, etc) and a filter rated for 15K (Amsoil Ea, M1, Fram Ultra) and only do OC every 9 months. Just a thought.
But there is nothing wrong with what you are doing if it gives you peace of mind and satisfaction doing it more often.
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Originally Posted By: sw99
I drive a lot and I like to maintenance my vehicles. 5K on oil for the most part and the wife and I both drive 20-25K a year. On the tractor I like to change the filters every year if not every six months. Personally I like to get under my vehicles more frequently to see any other potential issues and I like fresh oil in there.
 
You are cheap. You're getting every dollar out of the supplies you buy, which is smart.
There's no reason not to go cheap when you can get good results in doing so.
Why spend more than you have to and why not use drain oil in a mechanical injection diesel? A little bit in the fuel won't hurt anything, although a lot might cause excessive carbon buildup.
 
Originally Posted By: sw99
Originally Posted By: Thebimmerfan
You drive relatively new cars. In 2 - 3 years it's not quite probable to have any oil related issues. The problems would possibly come to the second hand owners of your vehicles.


The Honda has 100K and we have owned it since new. The Ram has 144K. My previous Subaru had 200k+ on it. I take great care of my vehicles and they last. Interesting comment considering that you know nothing about me. Cheers


I may be way off but I feel that 100 & 144k on a 4 year old vehicle is not the same as a vehicle that has the same amount of mileage except 20 years old. Your oil is in and out pretty fast and if you are doing a lot of highway miles then its being stressed even less.
 
I think there is quite a differentiation between "cheap" and just being frugal. Not a thing wrong going with what offers what you need at the best value you can get it. That is what generates the best market for a wide range of products.
 
Well I have a Honda Accord with 289,000 miles on it - and it would be a lot more but it's not my primary driver anymore - and I was about as cheap as you can get with that motor. I used anything that was on sale. I used whatever was cheapest - usually Super Tech. I did keep the oil change intervals to around 3,000 (back then that was the norm), and I used whatever filter that was in stock at Walmart (usually Fram). I once put three different brands in it at the same time because it was all that I had laying around and I also threw a couple quarts of diesel oil in it. Never had a problem.
 
What used oil to diesel fuel ratio do you put to your tractor?

The idea of this scares me, but it sounds like you do it issue free.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Do you go to the RockAuto "economy" section to order brakes?

Yep.


Nothing wrong with this either IMO. Many of their economy lines are name brand parts. Wagner, Raybestos and Centric to name a few.

Who's to say they are lesser quality than mid tiered parts store branded pads?
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: Donald
Do you go to the RockAuto "economy" section to order brakes?

Yep.


Nothing wrong with this either IMO. Many of their economy lines are name brand parts. Wagner, Raybestos and Centric to name a few.

Who's to say they are lesser quality than mid tiered parts store branded pads?


A couple of years ago, I ordered some Wagner rotors for my F250 pick up from RockAuto. Including shipping, these rotors were about 1/3 the cost of what I could buy local. What I got was some American-made rotors that probably had 1/3 more material in them than anything that I could buy locally. I have no problem buying brakes in the closeout section of RockAuto.
 
Originally Posted By: sw99
Originally Posted By: Thebimmerfan
You drive relatively new cars. In 2 - 3 years it's not quite probable to have any oil related issues. The problems would possibly come to the second hand owners of your vehicles.


The Honda has 100K and we have owned it since new. The Ram has 144K. My previous Subaru had 200k+ on it. I take great care of my vehicles and they last. Interesting comment considering that you know nothing about me. Cheers


100 000 miles in 3 years mean a lot of highway driving, which's always less penalizing an oil. Indeed you must be a bad case of car neglect if you succeed to ruin a Honda's engine in 3 years (with great part highway driving).
The only things I know about you is what you share about yourself - in this case that you always use cheapest alternatives in maintaining your vehicles, which considering the quality of most cheap oils and especially (oil) filters is a terrible idea. I have had problems using cheap oils and even worse ones using cheap oil filter (I did this error only once, then I promised to myself I would never ever save money on oil filters).
The truth is I don't wanna know anything more about you to suppose that it's quite possible to keep your vehicles running without any serious drama, especially if not making long OCIs and having a conservative (highway mainly) driving pattern.
Nevertheless I think that generally cars being maintained by people who don't like spending money on quality stuff, always looking for the cheapest alternatives are not the best second hand buys, for obvious reasons.
 
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