Poor decisions during an oil change, part 2

Just go ahead and assume the same drain pan you use for changing the oil in your MR2 is big enough to use with an F150.

Or an air cooled dry sump 911

Filling with out drain plug

Starting with out the filter on. 

Moments of learning. 

How about discovering some cars have 2 drain plugs. 

Only time inever had an issue was a double gasket.  

Odd thing was the old gasket was on the old filter...

Listening to bmws advice in oil change duration. 

I haven’t ever poured oil in without a filter or drain plug on.

I always double check after I saw my dad make that mistake when I was a kid 

I have a step by step routine.    Works very well.

How about using a bucket you found in your yard to drain a gas tank from a car that has sat for 4 years?

Only to find out you didn't notice the huge crack in the bottom of your newly acquired bucket until about 3 gallons of the worst smelling gas you've ever dealt with starts running down the driveway of your rented house.

Oops 

Being extra careful and taking extra time to not spill any oil, and as soon as the job is done you yank that pan from under the car just quick enough to slosh a quart all over the concrete driveway.

I always maintained our fleet & when the last ex-wife remarried, she sorta implied to her new husband that he should also maintain their fleet.   I may have experienced a tiny bit of schadenfreude when our son told us she had to have her car towed to the shop after new husbands 1st oil change attempt.  He had added the oil to the transmission.

maschinenbau said:

Being extra careful and taking extra time to not spill any oil, and as soon as the job is done you yank that pan from under the car just quick enough to slosh a quart all over the concrete driveway.

I’m ashamed at the amount of times I’ve done this exact thing 

In an attempt to save a girl I was dating some money I offered to change the oil in her Vega, in my parents driveway. Drained the oil, put a filter wrench on the oil filter and promptly crushed the filter. Still did not panic, someone had once told me you could drive a screwdriver through the filter and use it as a lever. That did not end well either, it just shredded what was left. Now panic was setting in, her car was not going anywhere soon and my bag of tricks was empty. I spent the next two afternoons chiselling the remaining pieces off the car and finally got it running again. I later learned that the shop she had taken it to previously used a chain wrench to tighten the filter, who does that? 

Jacking up the front of my van to change the oil while at my ex's house. Being safe and placing jack stands under the van. On an asphalt driveway.  During the middle of Summer... I'm sure the ex- walks by those divots and curses my name every time...

maschinenbau said:

Being extra careful and taking extra time to not spill any oil, and as soon as the job is done you yank that pan from under the car just quick enough to slosh a quart all over the concrete driveway.

After doing the same exact thing, I learned to leave the pan under my F100 and pick it up after I moved the truck back out of the way.

Didn't work so well when I let the jack down after servicing my new (then) 79 Mustang. Kinda smashed the pan and emptied it at the same time.

SaltyDog said:

maschinenbau said:

Being extra careful and taking extra time to not spill any oil, and as soon as the job is done you yank that pan from under the car just quick enough to slosh a quart all over the concrete driveway.

After doing the same exact thing, I learned to leave the pan under my F100 and pick it up after I moved the truck back out of the way.

Didn't work so well when I let the jack down after servicing my new (then) 79 Mustang. Kinda smashed the pan and emptied it at the same time.

My driveway is a bit of a grade but I wind up doing my oil changes out there anyway, so my favorite variation on that theme is to position the "input" hole on the oil tank uphill from where the waste oil comes out of the pan and hits the receptacle.  I get a few drops in the oil carrier and the rest goes over the back and down the driveway.  yay.

I've used plastic ramps to change the oil in all of my cars for years without trouble. I realized that all of my other cars were AWD or RWD when I started having trouble getting my wife's FWD Sienna up on the ramps. I gave it what should have been just enough gas to put it at the top. And it was, for the right side. The left side spit out under the van, which landed on top of it. After I jacked up the van and retrieved the ramp, I realized the small rubber pad had fallen of that side.

In reply to Will :

Leaving the oil cap on top of the air cleaner and slamming the hood.

Sorry, Curtis.

Overfilling my e36 by 1 quart making for a total of 9 quarts in the pan and then on the next oil change only draining out 4.5 quarts. Wait, no, that wasn't my fault just the car burning a metric ass load of oil.

Get everything ready on the flat spot of the driveway, push the end of the ramps right up against the front tires of the cavalier, drive completely over the ramps, landing on your new 5qt jug of oil.

It's been about 10 years,and 3 loads of gravel, but in the summer you can still see an oil stain. 

First oil change on my son's new Swift, he drained the oil and refiled it while I was doing some  suspension work. After checking the level a few times he said, Dad, there's something wrong here, I can't get a good reading. Run it a bit and recheck it I said. That didn't work so I had a look.

There was something funny going on with the reading on the dipstick so I checked the pan and realized that he drained the transmission then filled the motor with 5 liters of new oil.

A few years back after an oil change on the Colorado on start up I heard some top end noise after a few seconds and shut it down. Inspection revealed that the old oil filter gasket stayed on the truck. Two of those gaskets stacked couldn't take the pressure and I lubricated the driveway with 5 liters of fresh synthetic 5W30.

Alot of you guys seem to have difficulties with oil changes. 

I figure I've probably done more than 200 oil changes so less than one in 200 is a pretty decent record.

smokindav said:

Or an air cooled dry sump 911

And not having the correct drain plug gasket on hand. The 911's gasket is huuuuge, so I try to always have extras on stock by tacking a few onto every parts order. Of course, that now means that I must have 50 of them on the shelf. 

Ah... remembered another one...  getting the oil pressure hose caught under the oil filter on a Volvo B20.  Oh boy did that make a mess upon start-up.  Again, the ex- was not amused...  

Fortunately, I've managed to not screw on the filter cap on a R53 MINI cock-eyed, which is easy to do and will result in oil going all over the back of the engine (and is virtually impossible to clean up).