Tips on Tuesday: Changing Oil
Recently, a friend of mine blogged about the fact that she had never learned to change the oil on her car. At first I was shocked, because I grew up in a family where men and women all learned this skill - it’s one of the essential things you should know how to do on your car, after all, right up there with changing spark plugs and changing a tire - but in this day and age, I guess it’s really not that surprising. After all, even though I know how to change motor oil, I generally pay the nice folks at Jiffy Lube and use the time not taking apart my car and cleaning up the driveway to catch up on hobbies, or play some fantasy football. It costs a few more dollars than changing it myself, of course, but without a NASCAR pit crew at my disposal, it’s the best I can do.
For this week’s Tips on Tuesday, then, we offer this video we found on YouTube that shows you how to change your motor oil (we apologize for the poor spelling the videographers used - we only found it, we didn’t make it):
If you decide to change your own oil, a few tips that bear repeating:
1) Use the right tools. You can strip threads if you force screws, nuts or bolts with the wrong tools.
2) Gloves are your friends, especially when dealing with hot motor oil.
3) ALWAYS let the engine cool before you start working on it.
4) Be sure to safely and legally dispose of old oil and used filters.
5) Change your oil every 3,000 miles.
