This Really Happened!
D.I.Y. oil change and tire rotation…
It was
over do for my oil change and with four kids, work and everything else my
husband had not gotten to it. It was
driving me crazy because I knew it needed done, but with my husband’s busy work
and his never ending to do list he just didn’t have time to get to it yet. I decided it couldn’t be that hard,
right? First I had to do some reading up
on it, I did not even watch a YouTube video which is huge for me! I found this very clear page with great
instructions and off I went (after getting my husband to agree to it ha-ha).
First my
husband and I went to the automotive store (with a couple kids) and got the oil
and filter my car needed. We got home
and I went to change in some work clothes than I was ready to go (with my
husband sitting back watching in case I screwed up to bad). First things first I had to jack up the car
and put it on jack stands, you really have to lay on the ground to figure out a
good place to put the jack, so you have a good place to put the stands. Alright once the jack stands are in place and
you are confident the car is not going to smash you it’s time to get dirty (in
my case very dirty). First I found the socket
and wrench I needed to loosen the oil drain plug…after getting the oil drain
pan under the car I laid on the dirty garage floor and got to it.
Well let me tell you that plug was so tight
after several times I finally let my son help loosen it, so there I was unscrewing
it by hand now I get the pan situated under the stream and once I get the bolt
out….the oil starts shooting out like two feet from where I had put the drain
pan! I tried to move it as quickly as possible but by the time I got it under
the stream there had to be at least a quart or two of oil on the floor (insert
crying face here) so while it was draining I started the cleanup affords. I was really focused on cleaning up the oil
when I looked over and noticed the damn oil was now draining a foot in front of
the drain pan (laughing at the situation is better than crying). Ok once the oil was done draining mostly, I
wiped of the drain plug with a clean rag and put a new washer thing on it, than
in it went (thank gosh that part was over). Well I took a few minutes to clean up the
extreme oil mess, than I got a different oil drain pan since there was oil in
and on the other one (a lot of oil) I mean next time I do this I am using a
container that goes under a bed for storage!
Time to take the filter off that was pretty easy took it off and dumped
it upside down in the drain pan and cleaned up around where it had been. Now I had to scoot out from under the car
again to get the clean filter and put clean oil on the gasket, back under the
car I got that sucker on and cleaned up some more! By this point I am a hot sweaty mess but the
show must go on, right, right! Ok than
since the car is already jacked up I had to rotate the tires.
I had to find the right socket and wrench
thing and got to work and let me tell you this was my husband’s favorite part,
at least he sure was laughing A LOT!
Getting those lug nuts off with just a regular old socket thing and not the air tools took
some effort! On the last tire I got all
the lugs off and no matter how much I pulled on it I could not get it off…so I swallowed
my pride and asked my husband to help… all he did was tap it with his foot and
the damn thing fell off, I really wanted to hit him with the wrench at this
point! At this point my husband is laughing pretty hard, well I got all the
tires rotated tightened the lug nuts, time to lower the car. May I suggest when lowering it do it slowly
so it does not scare the crap out of you. The last part after having the car
lowered was to poor the new oil in and check the level with the dip stick, and
there it is I did it!! I changed my own
oil and now if my husband is busy I have the skills to do it myself! Hopefully
next time it will not be as messy since I know that the oil shoots out differently
depending on the amount of oil still needing drained. also I really plan on using a huge storage
container one of the long ones that go under beds that should cover the whole
area of drainage!
And if you happen to do this to
your husbands garage floor (insert laughing face here) just get a bag of unmixed
cement, poor a few cups of the dry mix on it and sweep it around. It will
soak up the oil so there is not a big stain in the garage and so your husband
will let you in his garage again.
It seems like you had a tough time changing your car's oil and rotating the tire, and cleaning the garage too. Well, all your efforts are worth it, because you managed to have it all done. Thanks for sharing this, and I hope that your husband will still let you use his garage, even after what happened to the floor. Haha! Have a great day, Lori! :)
ReplyDeleteAbraham Yates @ Apache Oil Company