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My $36.50 Oil Change

Dibbons

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La Paz, B.C.S., Mexico
Did it myself, '96 Dodge Dakota (3.9L five-speed 4X4), STP oil filter, Castrol 20W-50 motor oil. After the engine warms up, I hear a slight rattle (and I can't remember now if that is a new sound or one that has been there for a long period of time).

I needed a breaker bar to remove the drain plug, and half-destroyed the oil filter trying to remove it (filter access on a 4X4 is limited). I can only assume my local quicky oil change guy uses gorilla strength on that stuff.

Dodge Dakota in yard copy.JPG
 
20-50 is pretty high viscosity for a 3.9
Yours is the age where the converter can fall apart inside and rattle. When that happens you lose performance as the exhaust is restricted
 
Did it myself, '96 Dodge Dakota (3.9L five-speed 4X4), STP oil filter, Castrol 20W-50 motor oil. After the engine warms up, I hear a slight rattle (and I can't remember now if that is a new sound or one that has been there for a long period of time).

I needed a breaker bar to remove the drain plug, and half-destroyed the oil filter trying to remove it (filter access on a 4X4 is limited). I can only assume my local quicky oil change guy uses gorilla strength on that stuff.

View attachment 1283987
...or he hasn't been changing anything at all in the past.
 
I was gonna say, that's pretty cheap! My oil changes are all do-it-myself, and run around $75. (Nine quarts of synthetic in the car, 11 and 14 qts in the diesels, plus oil and fuel filters of course....)
 
Timing chain tension-er rattle.
There is no tensioner.
At that price, you are buying your oil and filters at the wrong place.

The noise you hear may also be the injectors firing.
 
There is no tensioner.
At that price, you are buying your oil and filters at the wrong place.

The noise you hear may also be the injectors firing.
No tensioner?????? You had better do some reading.

07.jpg
 
When I bought my 93 Dakota 3.9l the chain was hitting the cover. (no tensioner)
I bought the chain and tensioner from the dealer for a 99 I think and they were pretty reasonably priced.
It was pretty snappy after i put it back together.
 
Isn’t anything paved down there?
 
Not in the outlying ("suburbs") areas. In the city, asphalt and it's accompanying potholes are being replaced by concrete, little by little.

 
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