Monday, March 28, 2011

90. What it takes to change your oil

Changing the oil in your car isn't as hard as you might think.  Is it work?  Yes.  Is it hard?  No.

I started changing my oil when we moved into our house 5 years ago.  Here's a quick tutorial for how much/little work it takes to do it.

I walked over to Advance Auto parts and spent $28 to get this stuff.


Here are the tools that I use.  A jack, socket set and oil pan.

That is all that it will take to change the oil in the car and the van.

First, you will need to jack up the car to allow you to get under to release the oil. Then get your pan into place.



Next, you need to do is open up the cap on the engine so the air can get out to allow the oil to flow freely.

After doing that you will need to unscrew the drain plug. (For a wonderful tutorial for how to locate and remove it check out this "expert".)  After it is loosened it can be done by hand pretty easily.  Just be careful when unscrewing it because remember, there is oil ready to drain out immediately after it is removed.  If you forget, your arm will be covered in oil which smells and is difficult to scrub off your arm.

After the oil is all drained you can then put on the oil filter. (To identify the oil filter, just open the box of the one you just bought.  Look at it.  Now look under your car and find something that looks like the one you just took out of the box.) All you have to do is unscrew your old filter and put the new one on.  Use the same caution removing the oil filter as you did with the drain plug.

After you have replaced the drain plug and put on the new oil filter you can put the new oil in.

When you are done with that, replace the oil cap and you are done.

For recycling oil, I just fill up empty milk jugs with the old oil and bring it back to Advanced Auto where they recycle it for free.

This goal is done.  I know I won't be driving over 3,000 miles in the next 52 days.  Heck, my car has only driven 2,400 miles since August 19th.
I know it isn't the most interesting of posts, but I figured this was a better way to say I was done with this goal than to just have a generic post stating that I had changed my oil.  That would be boring!
Time to start ticking off more goals.  Not too much time left!

3 comments:

Mom said...

Very good explanation, Eric! Now.... do you provide this service for say... mothers????
I love you!

Eric Weis said...

Stop on by and I will do it for you.

Eric Weis said...

Or you could use the above tutorial and do it yourself.