Pit Row - Santa Clara, CA - First Oil Change - Good DIY Shop
 

Did my first oil change this weekend on 98 Boxster - No biggy just wanted to share my experience at Pit Row - DIY shop.

Pretty straight forward - you have to sign a couple wavers using their lifts and tools. First time at the shop the owner walks you through how to use the lift and where the tools are located. There are some specialty tools available but they recommend Porsche owners bring their own specialty hand tools in case they don't have them. Brought in my own oil filter wrench, glad I did since they only have conventional oil filter wrenches.

The owner is an expert BMW mechanic from Germany. His knowledge of Porsche was impressive. Down to certain specs and of course reminded me I needed to use the torque wrench for the oil plug and filter cover. I came prepared with torque requirements embedded in my brain. If you live near Santa Clara, San Jose CA this is a great place to do work on your Boxster. He was impressed how maintained my Boxster was. I gave him a little history of the car and I left with a wealth of knowledge.

Any maintenance I dare to do myself I will definitely go back. On a side note...they prefer you bring what they call "a helper" but since I was just doing an oil change it wasn't a big deal I was by myself. May take my daughter next time to give her some car knowledge. I wanted to fill it out the first time out.

I would love to have a place like this near by. Very cool.

Good to know. Thanks for the info.

I even know where Alviso is!
Great tacos from the food truck at the Liquor Store

haha- yeah the tacos are excellent. Next time you are in the are check Maria Elena's restaurant. Food is good but the Salsa is fantastic. You can order it by the jar and get it to go :dance:

I think I have eaten there as well

I used to live just off First street near Tasman, so Alviso was close.

I'm back down in San Diego now. If you get down this way, give me a shout. i know some great Mexican restaurant here

Its nice that there is a rent a service bay place close. We have one here as well

Will do - I am always open to Mexican food recommendations - on a Oaxcan Mole kick at the moment

I was wondering how you knew about that taco truck.

I used to live up there by First and Tasman.
I worked just off of Great America just S of 237 and when the 237 was all backed up, I would drive through Alviso, up Gold and then down First

I'm fortunate to have a Navy base auto hobby shop 3 miles away...$7/hour, 8 bays, two tyoes of lifts, double stack of snap on tools at each bay. Lots of specialty tools as well such as 55 ton press, sand blasting station, parts washer, tire mounting/balancing equipment etc.

I never crawl under the car to do work!

...wanted to add that I always wondered if a facility such as you described woud be a profitable business. I'm sure it would ahave customers just wasn't sure about making a profit.

Wow $7 per hour...nice perk! Pit Row charges $30 an hour and charge around $2.50 for oil disposal fee. With taxes I walked out paying $39 for the hour. If you can do the oil change within 30 minutes they charge you $20. Since Boxster takes 20-25 to drain doing it under 30 minutes is impossible. The gal at the desk said the average time for oil change when someone brings in their Porsche is about hour and a half.