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Don't trust Wired to change your car's oil!


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Don't trust Wired to change your car's oil!
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scratt
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: M-F: Thailand Weekends : F1 2010 - Various Tracks!
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2008-06-11, 04:33

What a dumb article.. What's worse it's wrong. Totally wrong!

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Change_Your_Oil

Quote:
Change Your Oil
You don't need the Apple genius bar to swap out your RAM, so why waste $50 at Greasy Lube when you can swap out your own sludge?
1. Lift the car. Never trust a jack -- drop $30 on a set of stands or ramps instead. Position a catch tub under the oil pan and unscrew the drain plug.
2. Remove the oil filter.... and so on..
Anyone spot the most basic mistake?

Apart from the stupid comments about even jacking the car up.. I've had evrything from Trucks to low slung Sports Cars. Not once have I jacked one up to change oil and filter.

If you don't run your engine for a while before hand the Oil change is pretty pointless.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2008-06-11, 06:31

I don't change the oil on my cars now, but I did with my first car, a Chevy Malibu coupe. I could slide underneath the car without jacking it up... of course I had to turn my head a bit to the side. In such a tight place you'd develop a zen-like calm. Handling tools had to be done by touch and memory; wrench is on my belly, others beside my right leg, etc.

I remember the rush of oil that would begin to dribble down as the oil filter began to twist freely beneath my hand. To keep the oil from coating my hand I used an old plastic bag from the Sunday paper. After getting the filter loose I'd turn it and set it down into the dented oil pan and then carefully peel the plastic glove from my hand.

Of course, in the 1980's the oil wasn't disposed of "properly", it was poured into the top of a tall compost/refuse pile - my Dad's version of a natural filter.

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
Captain Drew on Twitter
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scratt
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: M-F: Thailand Weekends : F1 2010 - Various Tracks!
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2008-06-11, 07:51

Love the bit about tools and the Zen like calm under a car.. I can identify completely. Even with the oil bit.. I never wore any hand protection though, would occasionally use a screwdriver to puncture the filter as a makeshift wrench, but I did also have an Oil Filter Wrench; a bit of chain on a bent piece of metal with a hook, which would grip it as you turned it once you wrapped the chain around.

I used to like the splash of hot oil as I punctured the filter, or broke the seal, as long as it was only a splash and not a hand blistering gush!

I took some old racing fuel to a petrol station in Thailand once, hoping they could dispose of it better than my mechanics. They walked proudly to a disposal unit by the side of the building and poured it in.. Almost immediately the oil reappeared through a hole in the bottom of the device and drained into the gutter and down into a ditch behind the building! Gotta love the developing world!

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2008-06-11, 11:00

Those Quicky-Change places are the greatest thing invented since the wheel itself. I used to change my own oil (screwdriver wrench ftw! ), but come on now...30 bucks for an oil change, filter, and they top off my windshield fluid to boot? And I don't have to deal with oil disposal? And they get finished in 10 minutes what used to take me 45? No. Brainer.

So it goes.
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Banana
is the next Chiquita
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2008-06-11, 11:05

Yeah. It's one of those thing where it's just better to let someone else do it, considering that buying your own filter and oil will set you back maybe $5 or $10 short of what you pay at oil change joint. I like to think $5 extra as a charge for passing off my hassle to someone else.

Jacking up or ramping the car is unnecessary... unless the author had a lowrider or a ferrari that hugs the ground?
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2008-06-11, 11:12

On my old '87 Honda Civic (my first car), I'd do my own (my grandfather showed me how, and I'd go to his house and do it there and we'd visit, and I felt safer with him nearby).

Moved to California, where I got my first Saturn. I had no tools and no proper "supervision", so it was just easier to let a place do it. Still do it that way, to this day.

I don't have any grease-monkey genes, which is odd considering that my grandfather, two uncles and late stepfather were all gearheads: truck drivers, classic car owners, motorcyclists, bike racers, stock car drivers and/or hotrod builders. I wish I could rewind the clock, go back and immerse myself a bit more into all that when I had a chance...



That whole thing somehow skipped me, and I'd rather be beaten with a stick than to be under a car all day getting dirty.

I'm coming around a bit, however, as I'm learning about some things on my own a bit (out of natural curiosity, etc.).
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Dave
Ninja Editor
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Bay Area, CA
 
2008-06-11, 11:14

Quote:
Originally Posted by scratt View Post
If you don't run your engine for a while before hand the Oil change is pretty pointless.
Why is that?
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Banana
is the next Chiquita
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2008-06-11, 11:16

I'd imagine that if you didn't heat up the oil and thus increase viscosity, it won't flow as much when you let it out, and leave more sludge behind.
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Dorian Gray
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2008-06-11, 11:25

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave View Post
Why is that?
What Banana said. Hot oil flows more easily than cold oil. But even more importantly, the point of changing the oil is to get rid of the chemical impurities and mechanical debris (metal particles from the valve train, etc.) that are contaminating the oil and causing abrasive wear. These sink to the bottom of the sump in cold oil, and will sit there if you drain it while cold. If you run the engine beforehand these impurities will temporarily be held in suspension, and will therefore come out with the oil.
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