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kitsjayI changed my first oil filter today!
Sean's car had been running funny, and I told him I thought it was probably because the oil needed to be changed. He scoffed--wymyn don't know cars! Sure enough, two days later, the oil light comes on. So I told him he needed to get it changed, but he's either working or sleeping so I said I would take it down to Walmart and get it taken care of. Christy and I waited an hour for them to change it, only to find out they said the drain plug was rounded off (stripped screw, basically) and it was an "unsafe environment". They actually refused to even change the license plate light because of it. Wtf.
Anyway, the car was acting worse, so around 6:30, Todd goes, "Well, we still have some daylight left, we could go change it ourselves."
I was kind of worried about it, so we checked the dipstick and it was bone dry. Todd was amazed the car was running at all. After a Walmart supply run, we went ahead and got the oil filter off and switched out, and it turned out there was a little bit of old oil left, so we decided to go ahead and change the oil completely. The drain plug turned out to not be rounded off in the least, but was frozen, so I'm guessing that's why the guys at Walmart decided not to work on it. Todd and I both tried it, Todd even using a hammer on the socket wrench to get it to budge, but it wouldn't move, so we ended up having to abandon that in favor of just putting in some new oil.
So the bad news is that the oil still needs to be changed (which Todd said he would show me how to do once we get some deep penetrating lubricant--no jokes, please, from the 12-year-old crowd, you know who you are), but the good news is that it will run at least another 1000 miles on this batch and is running so much smoother now.
Even better news, I am sunburnt, covered with grease, oil, and dirt from lying on my back under a car, and I have never felt prouder in my whole damn life.
Sean's car had been running funny, and I told him I thought it was probably because the oil needed to be changed. He scoffed--wymyn don't know cars! Sure enough, two days later, the oil light comes on. So I told him he needed to get it changed, but he's either working or sleeping so I said I would take it down to Walmart and get it taken care of. Christy and I waited an hour for them to change it, only to find out they said the drain plug was rounded off (stripped screw, basically) and it was an "unsafe environment". They actually refused to even change the license plate light because of it. Wtf.
Anyway, the car was acting worse, so around 6:30, Todd goes, "Well, we still have some daylight left, we could go change it ourselves."
I was kind of worried about it, so we checked the dipstick and it was bone dry. Todd was amazed the car was running at all. After a Walmart supply run, we went ahead and got the oil filter off and switched out, and it turned out there was a little bit of old oil left, so we decided to go ahead and change the oil completely. The drain plug turned out to not be rounded off in the least, but was frozen, so I'm guessing that's why the guys at Walmart decided not to work on it. Todd and I both tried it, Todd even using a hammer on the socket wrench to get it to budge, but it wouldn't move, so we ended up having to abandon that in favor of just putting in some new oil.
So the bad news is that the oil still needs to be changed (which Todd said he would show me how to do once we get some deep penetrating lubricant--no jokes, please, from the 12-year-old crowd, you know who you are), but the good news is that it will run at least another 1000 miles on this batch and is running so much smoother now.
Even better news, I am sunburnt, covered with grease, oil, and dirt from lying on my back under a car, and I have never felt prouder in my whole damn life.
