Adventures in oil changes?!

Embarked on this trivial (!!) task this morning. I had my Wix filter and Mobil1 15w50 ready to go.

Jacked the car up, put my jack stands under the control arms on the inner portion and started to undo the drain plug.

Here's where things start to get fun. I have an oil temp sensor that bolts into my drain plug, so unscrewing the drain plug kinda sucks.

Then when I get it out, the oil spurts out of the pan, *past* my oil catch pan and begins to hose down my jack stand and floor. I quickly get the bolt back in, spend several minutes cleaning up the garage floor and then move the jack stand out of the way.

I drain the rest of the oil pan without any further difficulties and move on to the filter. I have an oil filter relocation kit, which is on the drivers front corner of the engine bay. I grab the filter and twist it off.

Then I try on my new Wix filter and it doesn't want to fit. I twist it off and the stud for the oil filter relocation kit comes off with the filter. Great. Unscrew that from the filter, look at them both, and then screw the stud into the filter, confirming I have the right one.

Good. Lube the gasket on the filter and screw everything back together. Fill the car with oil, clean up the tools, drop the car to the ground. Move the car out of the garage and over one bay in the driveway. Step out of the car and to my horror notice a LARGE pool of oil from underneath the car!

Jack the car up, it's coming from the oil filter. Spend several more minutes cleaning the lake of oil from underneath the car. Tighten up the oil filter, run the car and check for leaks. No real leaks. Drop car to the ground.

Go inside to play Wii with my daughter. She says something about why was the oil filter leaking? I think for a minute, then bolt outside to the garage to check something. I dig through the trash for the old filter, find it and sure enough, it's missing the gasket.

Great, so that's why my new filter leaked, it's got two gaskets in there! Ugh. Jack up the car, twist off the old filter, remove the extra gasket, try to put the filter back on. Of course it doesn't want to thread. Remove the filter and the stud again. Crap! Thread the stud into the filter, thread the entire assembly back on and tighten.

For a third time, clean up and put away the tools.

What a freaking odyssey...

Thank God for your daughter

i almost did the same thing last time i changed the oil on my car...went to thread on the new filter and it stopped after like 2 turns. i think "what the hell? that's not supposed to happen!) look down at the old filter and smack myself in the head.

Yeah, tell me about it! Otherwise I would've started the car again and left another lake of oil on my driveway.

Did that last year with the wife's Mustang, still can't get the stain out of my fairly new concrete!

I doused it down with brake cleaner, but it looks like I'll have to hit it with some Simple Green and scrub it into the driveway, then wash it off.

As I was changing out my race brake pads and race tires at the track I noticed that I have an oil leak at one of the oil cooler fittings.

Add that to the list of things to take care of on the car. One things for sure, pounding the car around a race track quickly brings the faults up to the surface. I hope to have it thoroughly vetted shortly.

The nice thing is everything is small and hasn't ever kept me from going out on track.

Gotta love the double gasket mishaps.

Used to watch cars leave the local Walmart with oil pouring from underneath. It was common practice for a new motor after those incidents. I still think the same two idiots are working there too. Oh well.

First time that's ever happened to me. Now I know to look more carefully on this car. Still have the damn oil stain on my driveway, even after scrubbing it down with Simple Green.

Fixed the oil cooler leak, just had to tighten one of the fittings.

Now it's time to grind kitty litter into the concrete and let it stay there overnight...

Might need to pick yourself up a pressure washer. I recently grabbed a Karcher electric based one and it's been doing wonders.

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Outside of a couple of quick connects from your local lawn care place, you really can't argue the price.

My neighbor has one. I might soak it down in Simple Green again and then borrow his pressure washer...

I have a Honda gas pressure washer and Karcher electric, oil stains are really tough, the Honda will remove the top layer of concrete if you are not careful!