Oil change
In a friend’s car, last night.
Sort of.
See, to change the oil, it should have some, and it had- about 14 ounces. Not even enough to fill the oil filter.
And it was running. I have no idea how.
But it’s got oil in it, so it’s much nicer now. Holy sweet mother of God. Anyway, the young lady in question now has some spare oil and a funnel to put it in with so hopefully thatr will let her ride last a bit longer.
Never check or change the oil for several years is about the only way for that to happen. But if you have a car that burns or dripps oil, good luck making it past 5 months like that.
“Never check or change the oil for several years”
nailed it in one
Back in the 80’s I was riding with an employee in a company car:
Me: How long’s that “check engine” light been on?
Him: Oh.. I don’t know… a few weeks maybe.
Me: Why’s it on?
Him: Don’t know.
Me: Have you checked the owner’s manual?
Him: Nope. It’s running fine.
Me: Hmmm, the owner’s manual here says that it could be caused by a “low engine oil”. Pull over at that station ahead.
He pulled over and I pulled the dipstick. Oil not even touching it. I poured a little over three quarts in it to fill it up.
When we got back to the office I wished him well with his future career.
“I have no idea how.”
Slick50!!! :D
“I have no idea how.â€
A really low oil pickup.
On the other hand, contra libsare, “Check Engine” often means nothing at all (especially when there’s no obvious other symptom of a problem).
I’m actually amazed it managed to mean something critical-but-otherwise-symptomless…
In the OBD II system, a steady-yellow “Check Engine” light is a non-critical warning. Get it scanned and diagnosed at the soonest opportunity, but you can drive to the shop to do so.
When the same light illumiates as a red-warning, it means to pull it over right-the-hell-now, and shut it down, lest your engine become a multi-thousand-dollar paperweight.
Yes, I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the gist of the warnings.
Some systems can give a flashing yellow for more urgency than the steady yellow, but I’m not up to speed on which models and years of vehicles that was found in.
Personally, I’m glad that my car shows it’s oil pressure, water temp and voltages. If I had a car without those guages, I’d install an aftermarket set of ’em. They’re that important.
A bit of a thread jack though? For max MPG, not only would a vaccum gauge be essential………but how ’bout a brake temperature guage? Surely, the hotter the brakes, the more energy from momentum being converted to heat. That momentum cost fuel to generate, so the lower the brake temps, the less energy lost to braking, and subsequent re-acceleraton.
Any merit in this? Just wondering.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
With my last pick-up I had the check engine light come on several times. Brought it to the dealer parked it and shut it off at the maintenance bay each time, when they hooked the computer up there was nothing wrong.
When the light turned on the next time I left it running and had the dealer hook up the computer, the computer said the illuminated light was not on.
They changed out the engine management computer and the problem went away.