I would never be able to justify the $150 simply because our cars do not have high oil requirements/specs. Also during oil changes i check everything on the car underneath myself for tightness, leaks, fluid levels, air pressure, replace cabin filter if necessary, tap out dirt out of engine air filter, sometimes clean inside of wheels, wash engine bay so i can spot leaks in future.......i make a project out of it.

I used m1 5w-30 for the last 40k miles, have recently switched to penzoil platinum 5w30 at about $21 per 5quarts, car takes slightly over 6 if i remember correctly. Look in my album for internal engine pics during valve cover seal replacement.

Yes there is a plastic part you have to take off. I have ramps that i pull on to. Getting it on the ramps is the hardest part since the car is dropped and bumper pushes them.

Mine drinks about a quart over 5k change interval, which does not alarm me. It has been doing that consistently for the past 40k since i switched to synthetic. Now it has 75k.

Originally I was thinking of replacing the factory fasteners of the plastic piece with butterfly nuts or something along those lines, but it doesn't bother me anymore. You can always get a hole saw and drill holes in the plastic accordingly.

 

I can knock out an oil change in the STR in less than 10 minutes if I rush. If you take your time it'll never take more than 45.. The plug and filter are less than a foot away from each other and the filter is the easiest one to get to out of ANY car I've worked on.

I spoke with a Jag master tech and he told me that "Jaguar Spec" states that "Burning up to 1qt every thousand miles is perfectly normal." any more than that and I would be concerned, but as long as its only around 1qt/thousand your fine.

Eric

 

Ummm - Walmart does mine at around $33.50 - inclusive of filter and extra oil. I get the "Basic +" or something like that, which means regular old dino oil, fluid check and vacuum.

Jiffy Lube charged me $75 once when they upcharged for "exotic" status. Wrote a letter to Corp. and never used them again.

The guys at Wally love the car, treat it like a king and thank me for trusting it to them.

Yea, yea, yea - I'm cheap but really, they do a great job. Heck, it's just an oil change.

Good luck,
Eric

 

Oh yea - forgot...

My '03 STR drank a quart about every 1,000 to 1,500 miles - no smoke though. She had 60K on the odometer and the regular driving habit was 80mph for 25 miles to and from work. The techs on this board said "no need to worry".

My '05 doesn't partake in any extra oil sippings.

Good luck,
Eric