If you know what you are doing change it yourself. I love the story a guy I use to work with told me about changing his oil for the first time. To make it short, he ruined his nice jacket, lost his watch which he set on the trunk lid when he test drove the car and ended up going to the emergency room for some reason I can't remember. All told it cost him hundreds of dollars. He will have to change his own oil for the rest of his life just to break even. So take this into consideration before you start doing it.

I would advise you to change your oil yourself or bring your own oil and filter to a Pepboys, Sears, Midas etc(They usually have coupons for the service/labor charge.). and just pay for the labor should be around $13-20. With AMSOIL you get the best 100% Synthetic Oil in the World that allows you to go 25,000 miles on the same oil and filter as well as giving you a 6% savings in fuel.

If you know how to do it you will be much better off changing it your self. You can get your stuff at auto zone or oreilly and they will let you bring your old oil and filter and they will dispose it for ya. I never pay anyone to do my oil changes.OK

I have my OWn system taht works GREAT for me! First of all, FORD uses CONOCO PHILLIPS oil! This is JUST okay! from experience I know that MOBIL ONE 0W-30 is abut the BEST Oil you can use in ANY FORD ENGINE that is a GAS engine! If you are SMART< never use VALVOLINE EVER! NO factory uses it ANYWHERE on this planet! is is a WAX abased HIGH ASH content oil that leaves TAR< sludge and WAX behind! It is okay for some OLD PUSH ROD engines, and nothing more! IT was NOT JIFFY lube that "GOT" your family, but the OIL CHOICES that were made, and the TYPE of cars you had oil changed in! MY SYSTEM goes like this! I have LOTS of customers that trust me! WHATEVER THE CAR or TRUCK is, I buy the right OIL and filter, and then pay JIFFY LUBE $10-20 to change the oil for ME! I have done this with BENZ< AUDI< BMW< and other REAL autos as well as domestic and japanese ones! I know nearly ALWAYS which oil is bets for each type of car! THIS WAY you get a FREE INSPECTION and have NO mess to clean up or OIL to dispose of! THEY DO THAT! It is better for your health as well! NEVER TRUST ONLY VISCOSITY RATINGS ALONE! The WORST made oil in the world has THAT! Look for SPEC NUBIMERS< ILSAC< JASO< and ACEA codes, and GL numbers, even A, and B numbers! EUROPEAN CARS require ONLY EUROPEAN GRADE FULL SYNTHETIC OIL because THAT is what they were engineered with! Most OIL FILTERS made with PAPER are also JUNK! BENZ uses FLEECE filters, and MOBIL ONE synthetic filters are SUPERB! Even FRAM, owned by Honeywell, has GREAT FILTERS in the 3,6 and 10X designations! USE ONLY a real SYNTHETIC OIL in your Explorer, is it IS a real GERMAN ENGINE! AMSOIL< MOBIL ONE, or PENNZOIL ULTRA that gives a 15 year 500k miel OIL WARRANTY< it is ALSO VERY GOOD! Amsoil is good for 25K miles or one full year OF USE! The issue with a JIFFY LUBE or QUICKY lube is the training of the staff and their OIL CHOICES and FILTER CHOICES! I know EXACTLY what to look for, and in MICHIGAN we have a few that use TOTAL ENERGY OIL from FRANCE! it is PRICIER than MBOI LONE< but is about the BEST for all EUROPEAN ENGINES VALVOLINE and other WAX REDUCTION OILS do VERY poorly in OIL TESTS and always decompose FIRST! I have MADE over HUNDREDS of engines from ALL different cars makers, and it is OIL that does the most damages to them! GOOD LUCK!!

no reason wasting time buying and disposaling the oil if the cost of the oil change service is low.

But then I still change my own oil because I don't like other people touching my cars.

You might save an extra 5$ doing it yourself. I would just take it in to get done if I was you.

i have always changed my own oil.

i have no idea what places charge to change it.

Many people say, just go to the dealer because it cost the same as doing it yourself.

Others say do it yourself because you get better oil and let the old oil drip all the way out.

I am planning on changing the oil myself on my Explorer for the first time, should I do it myself or just take it to my local Ford dealer?

Which one is better?

BTW: This question does not include Jiffy Lube or many other quick lube places because they are scam artists and scammed some people in my family(grandma, mom).