I missed.
The oil drain container was placed right below the drain plug. Everything seemed to be fine.
I did a little left loosey. Got the drain plug off. A brief torrent of black fluid followed the nearest path of escape.
Straight to the floor of my driveway.
It seemed like I was getting it all. But thanks to a slight hill, about a quarter of it was spilling off to the side and onto the pavement.
I didn’t even notice the spill until it had crept out of the shadow underneath my car and onto plain sight. It reminded me of the old 1950’s move, “The Blob”. Except the mad scientist of the moment was nothing more than a young guy who apparently could not aim at anything right between his eyes. .
A rush under the car. A quick move six inches to the rear, and all was fine again. Except now I would have to use a few rags to dry off the spillage on the container and a long trip to the parts store to buy a heaping load of absorbent.
It took multiple doses of the stuff and a power washer from a neighbor to finally undue the damage. Thankfully, I learned my lesson and moved forward with continuing degrees of self-reliance.
But what about you? Were you ever involved or directly associated with an oil change that went the way of an old Three Stooges sketch? Feel free to include any botched repair if the world of oil has always been good to you. It’s Monday.. let’s enjoy a story.
Editor’s Note: I can be reached at steve . lang @ thetruthaboutcars. com (no spaces) .
I can change either of my cars’ oil in under 30 minutes, including the time to jack up the car and put it on stands.
My very first oil change, however, took nearly 3 hours and included a slow-motion fumble of a used oil filter that sent drops of oil ALL OVER the garage…
First time I tried to change my own oil was on a 1961 Buick and someone had replaced the orginal drain plug with a bolt that required a socket/wrench I didn’t have. I borrowed a wrench and the bolt was in so tight I couldn’t break it free on my own (of course my upper body strength wasn’t impressive back then).
So I had to drive to the nearest full service gas station and have someone remove the “plug”, drain the oil, and pour in the quarts I handed them. It’s been too many years to rember how many hours it took for the whole thing to play out.
Not the best start for doing my own oil changes. Never had a problem changing the oil on an other car but the first time was a doozy in wasted time and effort.
Didn’t look to see that the o-ring on the old filter came off with the filter. Put the new one on, filled up the crankcase, and went for a test drive. Didn’t get far when oil light came on. Oil all over everywhere.
I had this happen on a rental car at an unnamed chain quick-lube place. It was an ’08 Fusion V6. The old o-ring was still on, the new filter went in and new o-ring on, started the car, oil instantly covered the shop floor. The Fusion ran for about 10 seconds with very little oil in it. The noise was God-awful. We got it cut off, re-filled, and double-checked the o-ring this time. It ran fine back to the office (2/3 of a mile) and I got rid of it ASAP. No clue how much longer it ran…
My dad always taught me to run a rag or finger around the rim to make sure it’s clean/smooth…well a decade and several dozen self-changes later and I’d gotten lazy and that same thing happened to me…oil everywhere.
Been there, done that. Drove the car another 90,000 miles with no engine problems.
I had been changing my own oil for probably 10 years when this happened. It was 2007, and I felt very proud to be doing the my first oil change in the driveway of my new house, which my wife and I had just closed on 2 weeks earlier.
Just like the 162663 oil changes before it, put the Neon on the Rhino ramps, proceeded to remove and replace the Supertech filter, then drained and refilled the oil. I was done, it was now time to take a quick run up and down the road then check for leaks.
Hopped in, turned the key. The car started, but it sounded different this time. It sounded like when you just open the water valve on a long garden hose, a squishy squirty type noise. Rolled back off the ramps and thats when I noticed the blob…
Quickly shut the car off, got out and to my horror looked like 4 quarts of oil on the driveway. Great! Fail on my first oil change in the new house. Forensic analysys showed that the Supertech filter I removed had left it’s gasket on the filter flange, so when I put the new one on I had double gasketed it.
Took months to get the oil spot clean. But I did learn two important lessons that day:
1) Always check that the old gasket came off with the filter
2) Dont buy Supertech oil filters
Havent had a mishap since, except for the filter that recently would not unscrew from my Miata, but I guess thats a story for another day…
A Chevy 350 oil filter on an Olds 350 = 5 quarts of new oil on the garage floor!
A Chevy 305 filter on a Pontiac 350 does something similar. Witnessed my old man do that to our ’68 LeMans when I was about eleven. We rolled it back, scooped up probably 80% of the oil from the driveway, used a strainer to filter the biggest pebbles and twigs, and poured it right back in. Somehow the engine did not start burning oil like 1991 Kuwait after that.
Remove drain plug. Empty oil. Replace drain plug. Remove filter. Get new oil filter. Get distracted by an long but important phone call. Place new oil in block. No filter installed. Shit. Whoops.
Although the first time I ever did an oil change in my 04 Mazda3 (which btw, is significantly different than the 95 accord I had before) I started wrenching the transmission fluid plug not realaizing it until it started seeping out pink drops. Wait a tic, that’s not right….Oil isn’t pink….FYI. Lol.
I had a Fram oil filter with a bad O-ring pop off and the running engine pumped a gallon of fresh oil all over the garage floor. Not only did the engine and radiator need degreasing but the floor took a 5 gallon container of oil dry. Still have a stain today.
I didn’t buy the orange filter, the car owner did. He’s a Purolator man now.
Oil filters in difficult to reach locations on two of my cars, combined with hot oil dripping on my arm usually makes for memorable oil changes. And given the cost of oil, it barely makes any economic sense to DIY anymore…
I don’t do it for economic reasons. I do it because I enjoy it and I like knowing that the job was done correctly.
“Oil filters in difficult to reach locations…” Agreeed.
“hot oil dripping on my arm usually makes for memorable oil changes…” Agreed.
“And given the cost of oil, it barely makes any economic sense to DIY anymore…” Disagree.
Full Synthetic Mobil 1 with fram oil filter at Wal-Mart roughly $30
That same service done at any garage, Midas, Miniekee, Valvoline, Jiffy Lube, indepent shops, etc….Roughly $60+ unless you “know someone”
The only time I would agree with you here is if you are just using conventional oil with a $19.99 “early bird special” Where you are getting some no name “white” oil filter than filled with “sludge”oil (penzoil). Then at that point the cost differentiation would be minimal.
Pennzoil is a fine oil. It hasn’t been known as a “sludge oil” for nearly 40 years.
“Oil filters in difficult to reach locations”
Whoever decided to put the ’93 Toyota Corolla’s oil filter right next to the exhaust manifold should be shot and peed on.
Agreed! I had three separate oil change places refuse to do my 95 Prizm. One guy even showed me a burn scar on his arm when he explained why he refused to change oil in Prizms and Corollas.
I did it myself… once. Decided it wasn’t worth it on that car.
Try the first generation MR2. Oil dumps on the hot exhaust. Smoke and quite often flames. Get’s the customer’s attention.
I managed a quick lube for 4 years. I think I have seen them all. V-8 Mercedes with BIG drain plugs having very FEW threads and carrying 8 quarts. Always a joy.
First generation of front drive Maximas where you could see the filter from below but could not reach it. You had to lie on the engine, reach down over the back of the engine around the hot exhaust to get at the filter. Which you could not see.
I could go own but it is easier to drink.
seems a recurring theme here…the o-ring on a FRAM filter didn’t come off when I installed a new one on my 04′ Mountaineer, so upon start up I spewed oil all over my driveway. Thankfully I noticed within 10 seconds of starting the car and had some absorbent on hand to clean up the mess. funny thing is, to this day I still use the FRAM filters, because the back side of it dipped in the grit stuff helps me to grip it with greasy hands and I can always get them on and off easily. I just make sure now that the o-ring came off with the old filter.
The Fram I had did not have the metal pinched where the ring was to retain it. I use oil filter wrenches to remove the filter so Fram’s grit is not needed. Other companies are coating the bottom of their filters with grip enhancers so there goes the last reason to buy Fram.
If your engine rattles on startup replace the orange filter to correct it.
We saw the problem on many types of filters. I think it has more to do with how tight the filter is installed than anything else.
Last I knew, there were only 4 or 5 companies who made oils filters. There is really not that much difference.
I always make a mess when I change the oil so I put down a large piece of cardboard or a tarp so that it catches all of the spills and splatters. My next car is getting a Fumoto valve.
I had a “universal” filter wrench crush then tear open a stuck oil filter on a 60’s Dodge. Pounding two screwdrivers through the filter in an X pattern and gently turning ended up working.
Reminds me of what happened to my neighbor’s grandson and his 2.7L Dodge Intrepid. He had no filter wrench, so Grandpa tells him to stick a screwdriver through it. He did, with the end going into the aluminum oil pan. He still doesn’t have a filter wrench.
85 Ford 302 (in a Lincoln) with two drain plugs. The one on the front hump stripped. I still don’t know why. The rear one holds most of the oil so fixed with jb weld till I could fix it.
I thought that was a pretty fragile plug. Had to have it repaired with a helicoil type job. Still don’t know why it picked then to malfunction or what I could have done differently.
Saw allot of Fords with this problem. Poor quality metals in the pan nuts. VW had the same problem for years.
In the early 2000’s when I was a ‘pit-bitch’ at a local quick lube, it was common for FNGs to mistake diff and transaxle plugs on Subarus for engine plugs.
Not many Subies ‘back on the farm’ those days…lol
My friend had a ’89 Chrysler minivan with the turbo engine….yes, it was a factory turbo. He was working on the van and needed to disconnect the oil line to the turbo. While in the middle of his repair project, he needed to move the van a few feet up the driveway. When he started the van, he instantly discovered that starting the engine with the oil line disconnected from the turbo was a bad idea. The engine was on for only 10 seconds or so, but that was enough time for oil to shoot out of the engine compartment and on to the side of his house….up to the second story. To say that his wife was not amused was the understatement of the year.
Any Honda Civic or CR-V. Oil filter in the back of the engine and when I take the filter off, oil goes all over the suspension pieces. I make sure I have a lot of blue towels handy to clean me and the car.
Many years ago, I owned a 53 Chevy PU. It had the optional Delco filter added. You had to open the top, take out the paper filter and clean the oil out of the canister. When I put the new filter in, I somehow got the top on crooked and when I started the engine, oil went everywhere. Took me a while to clean it all up.
When I do my Element, I put a piece of newspaper under the filter draining into a container. The suspension still gets a shower, but the paper keeps it somewhat contained.
I was cleaning out my garage back in January–had one free, nice-weather day to get some work done.
I moved a couple of 5 gallon pails of waste oil to just outside my garage door, near some brake rotors that needed to go for scrap.
I was trying to maneuver a tall, heavy box outside the garage in the vicinity of the oil pails, when the box came down on me. I, in turn, fell upon one of the pails.
At least three gallons of oil spilled down my driveway. It never reached the street, thankfully, because I had a bag of cat litter in the garage so I could build a spill dam.
Six hours of spreading litter, sweeping, and spraying..and most of the oil was cleaned up. The asphalt still has a stain..and my clothes went into the trash.
I stripped out the threads in the oil pan on a 1973 LTD 400 in 1982, and fixed it with a “piggyback” bolt-within-a-bolt repair kit. Easy and cheap fix.
Sounds like excess O rings are a common culprit.
Bit me on an 89 Mercedes 300CE.
I’m lazy and use a TopSider to drain old oil through the dipstick tube, which is perfectly valid on many German cars.
Mercedes loves to stash the oil filter up and back, but at least they let you open the hood 90 degrees so you can reach it.
Anyway, sucked out the old, swapped the filter (Probably a Mahle), poured in the new, started up, watched the oil pressure gauge go up, then down. Shut down, look around.
Mine happened on a dirt driveway, so in the finest environmentally conscious manner, I just let the spill soak in. Hey, it was clean new oil, right?
TopSiders rule, and I always double check for the old O ring now.
I do all my own oil changes for our vehicles & to eliminate this issue, I invested in the Fumoto oil drain valve which controls the flow of the used engine oil your draining. I don’t even use an oil pan anymore…just a large container with a funnel (so I actually am able to skip a step & avoid ‘drain pan clean up’). Because I use Amsoil & do extended drains, I let the oil drain for about 6-8 hours. With my Lexus ES 330, I find getting to the location of the oil filter to be much more of a pain compared to draining the old oil out.
THANK YOU!! I’ve been looking for a device like the Fumoto you mentioned for YEARS! I had something similar on my old Toyota back when I was in college, but it was discontinued. I’ve already found and ordered a Fumoto on eBay!
The device on my old Toyota, I believe was made by Fram (can’t remember). You replaced the drain plug with a valve that also had a screw-on cap. When time to drain the pan, you unscrewed the cap, and inserted an orange plastic hose which interfaced with the exposed valve and slowly drained the oil with no mess.
I ALWAYS get a little spillage so this Fumoto is a Godsend!
It was the Fram Sure-Drain. I still have one in my garage that fits Hondas, or anything with the same size/pitch thread for a drain plug. I found with my car as low as it is, it was easier to switch back to a conventional plug and use a pan… or invest in a taller jack.
The worst oil spill happened to me when transporting 3 gallons of used motor oil to Advance Auto for recycling. The cap on one of the bottles was loose. I put the three bottles in a cardboard box, but it tipped over on the way. The bottle with the loose cap emptied into the trunk and down into the spare tire well. This was my personal Exxon Valdez accident. It took almost a year of kitty litter teatement to the carpeting until the oil stopped seeping onto the paper lining I put down.
Now, I tighten each bottle of used oil before I put it in the box in the trunk.
I’ve only done a handful of engine/transmission fluid changes and never really spilled anything, but for a few leaks and bad work by shops I’ve found cat litter cleans up oil very well.
My personal best: I was around 21 and owned a 1996 Mitsubishi Galant. My dad was kind enough to lend me the garage and he and I went to work doing a few regular maintentance tasks. I stepped inside for a few minutes and came back out. He said he had already drained the oil and put the plug back in, so I dumped new oil into the filler cap. Before we put the car down, I pulled the drain pan out and noticed the “oil” looked pretty red. Unbeknownst to him, the Galant’s oil pan and transmission fluid pan were mirror images of each other but on opposite sides of the exhaust. He had drained all of the trans fluid out and the crankcase now had 2x the oil it needed in it. We drained the oil out, went and bought new oil, and had to buy 7 quarts of Mitsubishi trans fluid from the dealer ($8/quart!). If you’ve ever owned a Mitsubishi, you know how crucial it is to get the actual Mitsu trans fluid.
So that happened…
I have been changing my own oil since I got my first car 7 years ago, but earlier this year I had my first oil-change disaster. I was at my girlfriend’s mother’s house changing the oil in both of their cars. Her mother is VERY obsessive (borderline crazy) about her garage being clean, so I took every precaution to make sure that no oil got on the floor: Cardboard box under the drain, garbage bag under that, and many rags on-hand. Most importantly, I was using the largest diameter drain container Autozone had on hand: http://www.amazon.com/RhinoGear-11838-Oil-Drain-Quart/dp/B000AMGYNA/ (not exactly that model but same design)
I got the filter off on her mom’s Solara in seconds, then removed the drain bolt and let the oil start pouring into the container. Not a drip of oil where it shouldn’t have gone. Feeling pretty good about how efficient of a job I had done, I cracked open a beer to celebrate while the oil drained out. When I looked under the car to check the progress, I practically dropped my beer in shock: The entire top of the container was full to the brim and about to start overflowing several quarts of dirty motor oil EVERYWHERE. I had apparently forgotten to open the little plug in the center that allows oil into the INSIDE of the container. This was a disaster even my well-placed cardboard box could not avert.
With no needle-nose pliers on hand I had two choices: Let the oil spill over and spend the rest of my visit (or perhaps the rest of my relationship) getting berated for ruining her perfect garage or pray to God that the oil wasn’t too hot anymore and reach my hand in there to undo the plug. I took option number two, plunged my hand in and spent two seconds trying to undo the plug before I realized I was cooking my hand in its thin nitrile glove. Quickly pulled my hand out and tried not to scream too loudly.
I ended up spending the rest of that afternoon with my hand in a a bucket of ice water and directing my girlfriend how to finish the job. Still never got a thank you, but I was more thankful that I didn’t have to spend many weeks recovering from the painful, severe burns I could have received.
I did this exact thing to a friend’s driveway. oh the shame! i spent a few hours with some dish soap and a large push broom, scrubbing away. can’t even tell it happened there now..
Did the same thing 6 months ago. Used oil container does not work so well if you forget to remove the plug in the drain pan. It took about two hours of pressure washing and a half gallon of Dawn dish soap to clean the driveway.
Good times. Neighbors were very impressed with my mechanical skills.
Had a perfectly good filter. Unfortunately I forgot to put it on. When I started the engine the oil light stayed on longer than usual (normal for first start after a change), off for a moment then back on. After about 45 seconds I noticed an odd smell, then a lot of smoke. 20 minutes to change oil. 3½ hours to clean up.
yep!
on the Mustang, they were easy. but, and this happens all the time.. the filter was jammed on there pretty tight. i tried the only filter wrench I had, and no go. with the pan having been emptied of oil and no way to go get another tool, I used the “jam screwdriver through filter and twist” method. the filter came off and I put the new one on. filled up the oil pan, dropped the car and started it up. i let the car run while I cleaned up. drove down the street, then I hear *hissing*. get out, see oil steadily pouring out from somewhere underneath. drive back up the driveway, and instead of just shutting the car off immediately i got out to look again. key mistake.. the hissing got louder and there was oil EVERYWHERE. shut the car off, put it back on stands, start looking for the problem. drain bolt was on and secure.. but near the filter is obviously where it was coming from. i wipe it down with a rag and see that the filter is just a little bit further off the seat than it should be..
apparently the old filter seal was essentially glued to the metal base, and so I put the new filter against the old seal without even realizing it. it didn’t start pouring out until the filter was full and the system fully pressurized.
such a rookie mistake!
1984 Nissan Stanza. I changed the oil on a cold and rainy January afternoon. First, the metal ramps I used to access the underneath the car were slick from the rain and I had a dickens of a time getting the
car to drive up the ramps. First attempt failed as the car slid back down. Determined to make attempt number two work, I sipped the clutch massively and with a acrid smell of burning asbestos in the air, promptly drove completely over the ramps, trapping them underneath. With growing irritation, I jacked the car up and removed the ramps. Attempt number three was successful, and I proceeded to remove the oil drain plug and oil filter. It was a little windy,too, so the oil didn’t fall neatly into the pan below the car, but close enough. Previously, I had purchased my filters from the dealer, but this time I decided to get a couple of Fran filters from K-Mart. I screwed on the new filter, tightened the drain plug, and added five quarts of oil. Starting up the car, I waited for the oil pressure light to go off, like it always did. But not this time. I sat there with the engine running for a good four minutes before I noticed an Exxon Valdez environmental disaster flowing beneath my feet on the driveway. Horrified, I discovered that the oil filter was leaking and every single quart of new oil was pumped right past it. I backed the car off the ramps to a different spot of the driveway so I could contend with the spill. I drove my other car to the parts store to get some oil-dry and spent an hour cleaning up the mess. Figuring that I didn’t tighten the filter sufficiently the first time, I really screwed it down and refilled he oil. After starting the car, I waited for the oil pressure light to go out and..you know what happened. Environmental disaster number two.
Back to the parts store for more oil dry and another hour of work cleaning up the mess. Now I was really pissed and it was getting really cold and dark. I took the Fram filter off and looked at the mount, thinking now that the old filter’s riing had somehow remained, but that wasn’t the case. I compared the Nissan filter to the Fram and it was obvious that the Fram was too wide in diameter. I had purchased another Fram and it too was the wrong size even though I made certain that I has purchased the right one. So, I put the old Nissan filter back on, filled the car with five more quarts of oil (which made for fifteen just that day), and finally got the task done. I was furious at Fram, frozen from being out so long in the raw weather, and resolved to never change my own oil again. It just wasn’t
worth it. That was twenty three years ago and I have never changed oil again. Life is too short.
Let me count the ways:
1. Yesterday. Popped the plug, nice stream flowing into the catch container. Crawl out from under the car, do a couple chores, crawl back to install plug, nice little puddle under the car. The wind had kicked up and blew the steam so it missed the container. Nice.
2. First oil change on my new Mini. Easiest car I’ve ever seen for oil changes, the filter is on top of the engine, right in front. But it uses an O-ring, which I treated like a gasket. Fortunately the smoke from the leaking oil alerted me before my shiny new engine got coated.
3. Jag XJ-6, must have got the filter cross-threaded. Fired up the motor, oil just spewed all over my driveway. Of course I was in a hurry to be 300 miles away at the time, but had to go shopping for kitty litter and do damage control before I could get out of town.
Edit: I’d like to thank the other contributors to this thread for making me realize that while I may be an idiot, I’m in good company.
I was doing my first oil change on an old Merc 300 Turbodiesel I’d bought. I’d done many oil changes before, but never on this car. I got out my tools, laid everything out by the car, put the drain pan under the car, and began loosening the drain plug. As will occasionally happen, the plug came loose and fell…. threads down, directly into the hole in the top of the drain pain, which filled up almost instantly. Due to the design of the pan, I couldn’t get the drain plug out of the hole. Thinking I had to stop the oil from overflowing onto my parents’ new driveway, I quickly stuck one finger into the oil pan to stop the flow out of the engine. Now I’m stuck under the car, hot, sootly oil slowly running down my arm and all over me, and I can’t reach my tools because they’re two feet out of reach. Using my legs and free hand I was finally able to pull my tool bag over. This is when I remember than my needle-nose pliers are sitting on TOP of the engine. Completely out of ideas, I use a flat head screwdriver to punch holes in the top of the drain pain so the oil will flow into the bottom. It took me another 20 minutes to get my burned and swollen finger out of the oil pan, and about 45 to get the oil out of my hair.
Note to self: do not change the oil on the carport (no garage) when the wind is blowing 20-30 MPH; unless you want everything (including you) to be covered with a fine mist of used motor oil.
Either that, or put the container on top of something so that the draining oil has less distance to drip.
COMMON SENSE! Why didn’t I think of that?! I have many unused bricks in my backyard that are now going to be used to prop up my catch pan!
I recently sold my old Subaru Forester, auto tranny, to one of my sons, who has for years changed his own oil — but this was his first Subaru. On a Sunday morning about three months later he called in a near panic. He had changed the oil and filter, and now the car would not move when he put it in gear. As I was driving to his house, pondering possible solutions, it came to me. Got there, checked the transmission fluid, sure enough it was dry. He had crawled under the car, found a filter and a drain plug, and gone to work. The transmission was empty, but there were about nine quarts of oil in the crankcase.
After a trip to O’Reillys for a new oil filter, transmission filter, fluid and oil, the Subie was again functional (but smoky for the first few miles).
My guess is that from now on he will RTFM on an unfamiliar car.
What year of Forester? Subaru changed the transmission plug to a star bolt on Imprezas for 2004 or 5 so I would guess the same happened to the Forester. Plus trans fluid has a pretty distinctive smell compared to motor oil.
It was an ’04. And he has no sense of smell due a a TBI.
First oil change on my A8 – I don’t think the part about the car actually requiring 8 quarts of oil sank in. Small 4 quart pan under sump plug …. Garage floor was a pool of oil. Oil change took about 30 mins, cleaning up the mess about 2 hours!
No oil change disasters for me, but I did have one quick tuneup which went long after a tiny mistake.
Replacing the points and condenser in a tired Slant Six’s ignition system, I somehow overlooked one of the fixing screws for the points and it dropped into the distributor’s internals, where it blocked rotation and caused the nylon drive gear to shear upon restarting the car. The local NAPA shop had one and only one of the replacement gears in stock which I gratefully purchased, then returned for the triumphant reinstallation of a now fully – and properly – reassembled distributor.
Somehow I missed engaging the proper drive gear tooth, causing the engine to crank but not catch. I lifted the distributor and moved it over one tooth, retightening the assembly and cranking the engine once again. Again, failure. I kept repeating this operation until the engine caught, then proceeded to the next step of timing adjustment.
The distributor gear had 13 teeth.
I installed it properly on the 12th try.
And for a Slant Six, avoid the old advice to pour some oil into the new filter to pre-lube it before reinstallation: the oil filter installs vertically, with the sealing gasket facing straight down, ensuring you’ll make a mess if you attempt to install a wet filter.
the first time I attempted my own oil change on my much-beloved 1974 BMW 2002, it took me TWO days. Oil filter wouldn’t come off, even after running a screwdriver through it to try to gain some torque on the stupid thing. Left the car sitting overnight in my driveway, screwdriver firmly planted in the filter and car non-op. The next morning, I went over to my neighbor (a rather large and healthy soldier) and together we (well, he) muscled the dang thing off. It was so bad that I wrote a piece to the Roundel and actually had it published.
A perfectly timed article. I had just finished my first ever oil change, a 45000 km 2008 MB C230 (it’s a 6MT! It’s rare! Rarest car in the world!) The under body panels were easy to figure out, even a pleasure, as they were screwed in instead of using those flimsy Honda plastic clips my mother’s MDX has. And there it was, the oil pan, in all of it’s glory.
And the drain bolt pointed sideways. God damnit.
I had hoped this M272 would be different from the W203’s M272, and had the drain bolt pointed in the right direction (backwards), but no, not only was it pointed sideways, it was pointed sideways right at the lower control arm’s connection to the frame. And that’s where the jackstand was sitting.
Oh well. Let’s crank that sucker open.
Oh. There’s oil everywhere. Balls. I held up the drain pan to catch the oil until the flow died down enough to put the pan down. Alas, at least a litre or two was all over the floor and jackstand. Newspaper is /not/ a good absorbent of oil. It doesn’t have the capacity necessary. Luckily, I had the foresight to have my girlfriend bring over a container of cat litter, and poured that over the oil spill. The rest of the oil change went smoothly. Oil filter is mounted in the engine bay, and while tight on, can be spun off with the aid of those little rubber mats used to twist lids off jars. Filled her up, and checked the level at 6 quarts. Ok. Extrapolating, all 8 (yes, 8 damn litres) would be perfect.
Nope. Check the dipstick, and the oil level’s above the max line. Damnit damnit damnit. This is after I let the engine idle for a few minutes too, and I’m wiping the oil stick. Then I remember the pan’s rear mounted, and my garage floor is slightly sloped back. I check again on level ground, and everything’s perfect. 100 km later, and nothing’s exploded. Crush washer replaced, oil filter o-ring oiled and replaced, all that.
All in all, seems to be better than some of the other stories here. My condolences.
Also, I had the filler cap left open when I first turned over the engine. A fine mist of oil got everywhere. Oh well.
Guilty as charged. I too have made the usual mistakes the the most unusual one was not tightening the oil fill cap on our Focus. After a while it fell off, and we noticed the oily smell and investigated. The cap had lodged in the front of the motor so we just put it back on, no problem. However, the MAF sensor was right behind the filler in the wind stream, and it decided that it didn’t like the trickle of hot oil that it had been exposed to. It crapped out the following week, which negated the cost savings of several years of self changed oil.
Bought a cheap hand-pump oil extractor, to save myself the hassle of crawling underneath to drain oil the old-fashioned way. Furious pumping resulted in a pathetic dribble of dirty oil, followed by a solid blast across my pantleg and up the garage wall when the output hose popped loose. Then the input hose became stuck in the dipstick tube, requiring 20 minutes of wiggling, cursing and swearing.
It turns out the old-fashioned way isn’t so bad after all.
Screw up – forgot to put the oil cap back on after filling it up, drove around and lost the damn thing, costs 15 bucks at Toyota dealer for another. Thank God my wife never found out, she’d want to trade it.
Gripe – my GTI makes you take a dozen screws (torx head naturally – but another screwdriver) out to get to the oil pan and filter, where my daughters’ Mazda 3 has a handy cut-out so you can access everything.
What year is that mazda 3? I know that on the 04’s the cut out for the oil filter was off centered rendering it useless. The only way you could get to it was to remove the whole splash gaurd underneath…Which ultimately I decided to keep off anyway. (weight reduction. haha.=)) They say its to protect rusting parts and underdraft. I have 156K my mazda 3 and no under car rusting at all. Paint, however is a different story. Mind you my car sits in the driveway un-covered 99% of the time. We have tornados, salt, rain, hail, snow and just about every other act of God you can come up with lol.
That might depend on the engine, it might well be in the right spot for the old 2.0. It’s off-center for the 2.3 so I got out the Dremel and made the hole slightly bigger.
I have the 2.0 and its off center as well….
Yeah, I never had an Exxon accident under my car, but there were times when the oil was on the hot side. Nothing like pulling the plug and having that stuff dripping down the side of your forearm like a lava flow. I finally bought a pump, but I still check the oil pan for leaks.
Somewhat like theeer, but worse. I have changed the oil on my GM 6.2 diesel countless times and it’s always a little messy (poor oil filter location). But the last time, I must have screwed it on too tight because the rubber gasket on the screw on filter was stuck, and I mean STUCK. This engine uses one of the largest filters available so the ring’s surface area is huge, and as a circle increases in diameter angular leverage goes down. What this meant was that the steel base plate and the gasket had more strength than the aluminum body could provide (also, this filter had no molded nut bottom).
After my band ring started crushing the body, I moved to a giant plastic cap. After torquing out the drive hole in the cap, I moved to a strap tool. After the handle on the strap twisted and the strap tore out of its base I moved to a three-armed cam. After creating a ductile tear in one of the metal arms (and put arm indents in the body), I moved to screwdrivers. These just tore bigger and bigger holes while making a giant mess of me and the driveway. After the screwdrivers I pulled out the tin-snips and went to work in the tight confines (back, bottom of engine). After getting more oil all over the place, I then tried needlenose pliers in the drain plate holes. After destroying the pliers I went and bought a new large three armed cam and took the thing apart to take advantage of the 1/4 thick steel plate with a square drive hole. In this I drilled two holes clean through the plate and installed two 3/8″ hardened bolts with plenty of washers for stability and locking nuts. These I made sure were just long enough to not touch the oil passages in the block but still clear the screw post.
Mounted that 3/8″ drive to a converter to a 1/2 breaker bar that was 18″ long. Put a pipe out on the end of that. Finding leverage with my feet and nearly blowing my own gasket I finally got it to budge. After cracking static friction it was easy. Upon removal of the tool, I found my hardened bolts had bent and were extremely close to the point of failure. I confirmed that it was only friction from the rubber (probably forgot to oil the gasket, and diesels are hot), and I would estimate that it took somewhere between 200 and 300 ft-lbs of torque.
Expected job time: 1 hr.
Actual job time: 8 days, usually outside in the rain and dark
Expected cost: $70 (full synth)
Actual cost: $160
Expected blue towel usage: about 8
Actual towel usage: 1 roll
Expected cursing: 3 to 5
Actual cursing: not quantifiable, but bad enough to make Eminem concerned about the quality of my language.
Very similar experience, but on a Bayliner Trophy. Customer brought the boat in for a LONNNNNG overdue tune up. Oil hadn’t been changed in about 3 years he figured, and the filter was not changed “because it was too hard to reach” Bayliner sinks the 4.3 V6 so far below the floor, then packs so much crap in around it that is is near impossible to get any real leverage on the filter.
Normal oil filter wrench- nothing. Strap wrench- nothing. Had the MAC and Snap-On trucks come by and I promised to buy whichever tool they had that would remove the filter. I didn’t buy anything from them. (that day at least)
Tried the screwdrivers, but just tore the filter apart.
Finally pulled the engine out of the boat, and used a chisel and hammer to free up what was left of the filter. While the engine was out, we installed a remote oil filter kit, which moves the filter up to the top of the engine at the front. Always fun trying to explain to a customer why his oil change is going to cost $800.00.
I’ve also had the two o-ring problem, but luckily when you are standing right in front of the engine when it starts on most boats, the cleanup was pretty easy.
You know I actually did try the Hammer/chisel trick on the base plate but I forgot to put that in there. IIRC it didn’t work because I couldn’t get enough angle on it; it was still providing too much inward force. I’d go back and add it to the list but apparently I can’t edit my post.
I got the bolt idea at the end off some youtube video of a guy who’s boat engine had a similar predicament, so it appears you’re not alone in extra-terrestrial oil frustrations.
Try this:
Next time you are on the ramps in a FWD car, leave the rear parking brake on with a couple chocks. Then, when you discover that a touch of throttle in R isn’t backing you off the ramps, you can give it even MORE gas, and shoot the ramps right out from under the front wheels.
awesome. Did you stick the landing?
One of my college roommates decided he was going to change his oil. We were renting a house with a garage and driveway and made good use of a shared set of basic car maintenance tools. This guy had been present when the rest of us had done oil changes in the past, but unknown to us he had never done an oil change or used ramps before in his life and was too cocky to ask for help. I’m walking out the door and I see him creeping up the classic metal ramps..when the right one folds up underneath his wheel well sending plastic trim pieces flying everywhere. He had neglected to attach the connecting rod between the ramp and the platform…ouch. Once we jacked up and removed the ramp and assured him that we could fix/replace the damage, he was grateful to get a one-on-one tutorial on the oil change process.
When I was living at home during a college co-op work semester I changed the oil for my dad in his 95 Contour with the 2.5L V6. The filter was almost impossibly wedged between the front bank of the engine, the exhaust manifold, and the radiator (or was it the fans, not sure). I know I got the old gasket off with the old filter, but putting the new filter on required fingertip spinning the can blindly with only one hand. It was next to impossible to tell how well the filter can was aligned to the post and when it caught the threads. I spun it on and it gradually got tight. It was cross-threaded, but I couldn’t tell.
Luckily I was in the habit of starting the car and then popping my head under to check for “drips” before taking it off the ramps. I nearly soiled myself watching 6qts of Mobil 1 squirting from the filter down onto the garage “apron” and run into the gravel driveway. Luckily I was able to cut off the engine before it had all pumped out. Luckily the cleanup wasn’t too bad…just doused the area with about a gallon of simple green and let it set while I went to buy another filter and new oil then diluted the mix with water. The gravel was always a little darker there, at least for several years.
I’m still in the habit of cranking the engine and then looking under the car before going anywhere or bothering to look at the gauges.
I’ve owned a couple early 80’s Yamaha Secas. The oil filter is in an aluminum housing held on by a hollow, 1-inch diameter bolt, that for some reason has only a 12mm head on it. On both bikes, previous owners managed to round off the head of the bolt, the only way to remove it was to cut off the aluminum housing. So my first oil change on both bikes included a trip to the bike graveyard.
Fortunately Yamaha sold a ton of those things. Also led to my long love affair with 6-point sockets.
Russycle,
There is/was an aftermarket drain bolt for those XJ (Seca/Maxim) engines that has a 17mm head on it for just that reason as you say. (Owner of 2 x ’82 Seca 650’s, rebuild/sale of Maxim 550, part out of Maxim 550, and renovation/sale of an FJ600)
I had an FJ600, ’84 model. God I loved that bike.
Yep, my car takes 5w50 full sync as the factory fill and the only place that carries it is the dealer. I picked up 7 quarts ( or so I thought) dumped three quarts in when I decided to actually read the slightly different looking bottles of oil. Turns out I had just dumped three quarts of 5w30 syn blend in there.
The dealership was kind enough to take back the unused portion and sell me the proper oil at cost. While its true I did give them the proper year and model, IMO I was just as big a dumb ass for not looking at the oil before I left the dealership.
Lesson learned ( since I wasted three quarts, had to borrow a car and spent about an hour and a half going to and from the dealership).
A couple years back, I was coming due for an oil change in the week leading up to Christmas, and between work and school, just didn’t have the time until I forced myself to do it after a shift. Outside. At 11:30 at night. In sub-freezing temperatures. Right away, I’m suffering from cold-induced idiocy, and proceed to tighten the filter in an attempt to get it off (after already draining the oil). With no filter wrench, I hand-screw the drain plug in and decide to finish it in the morning.
After utterly destroying the filter with a screw driver, I finish the change and head off for work. At then end of my shift, my fiancee and I were supposed to head to a family dinner, so she meets me at work and waits in the car. We get about a km down the road when we notice the low oil light, pull over immediately, and notice the car is lacking drain plug. Thankfully, it’s waiting for me at work, in a massive puddle of oil (better it shook itself loose there than somewhere along the trip to work).
Recently I had a major mess-up on what should have been even easier than changing oil….replacing the battery in my NC Miata. When I loosened the bracket securing the battery, a rod that connects to the top and hooks underneith the battery dropped. I could not locate the rod, due to the tightly packed engine bay, so rather than doing the right thing and start taking things apart until I could find it, I simply replaced the $3 part. Mistake. About a week later I noticed my AC was getting warm whenever the car stopped. I did some research online, and when I pulled up a diagram of the engine bay I knew what happened. The radiator & fan assemby sits at a 45 degree angle, partially under the battery box, ready to catch anything a rookie home-mechanic may drop. Sure enough I found the rod wedged in the fan.
While this story isn’t about an oil change mishap per se, it does involve the dipstick and a loss of oil containment, so I think it counts…
Once upon a nineteen eighty-something, a buddy of mine Down Under was having trouble starting his Mazda RX-4. Suspecting he’d flooded it, he’d already removed and dried the spark plugs, but it still refused to fire. The next thing on his checklist was spark, so he removed one of the plug wires and held it to a convenient part of the engine while another buddy cranked the engine.
Well it had spark alright, which jumped from the plug wire to his chosen metal object: the handle of the dipstick. It them ran down the dipstick, and arced to the body of the engine somewhere deep in the bowels of the sump.
Unfortunately, with all the cranking on a flooded engine, a small amount of gas had washed past the rotary’s side seals, and the air space above the usual five quarts of Castrol GTX now contained a volatile air-fuel mixture.
The resulting small explosion ejected most of the contents of the sump via the path of least resistance – straight up the oil filler neck and into the face of our erstwhile shade-tree mechanic. The aforementioned dipstick was also summarily ejected, narrowly spearing past his ear.
In honor of this exceptional effort, the Mazda Car Club of Australia inaugurated its annual “Dipstick Award”, presented to the club member who performed the stupidest mechanical act each year. As far as I know, nobody has yet come close to matching the original.
So here’s to you, Howdy – long may you be immortalized.
I’ve been changing my oil for over a decade and I’ve learned quite a bit from many of you!
With all the chat about double gaskets on cheap oil filters, I’m glad I pay extra for Mobil 1 or K&N oil filters. Also, I check the new filter against the old one to make sure they are the same. You never know…the clerk may grab the wrong one off the shelf or some prankster could switch items around…
Did oil changes on my old Elantra and my current Mazda 6 and it all worked out fine, no messes, no mishaps.
Feeling confident.
Told mom, “Don’t worry, I’ll change your car’s oil filter for ya!”
Put the 03 Camry on ramps, went under expecting the filter to be in the same place as the Mazda…
No filter
WTF?
Looked around and around, where is it? Finally decided to look in the engine from the top down…ahh there it is. Wait a minute, it’s upside down…next to the manifold…and other hot parts…deep inside the engine. I have to warm the engine so the oil can drain smoother right?
Right.
Hey mom!….uuuhh….Jiffy Lube?
Used an empty kitty litter container to drain the oil into. Got new filter installed, plugged it, put oil in. Fired up the car and backed it off the ramps. Forgot to remove the kitty litter container and all that nicely contained oil was dumped all over the garage floor.
Also drove over ramps with a Safari van once setting up for a change. Fortunately it’s tall enough that I wasn’t stuck.
Back when I was a very green parts apprentice I had to go out to the workshop to check out a part that was needed for a Nissan Patrol. Well, our dealership used these kind of big aluminium buckets on extendable stands for oil collection. The vehicle was up on the hoist, and somehow I failed to notice that there was one of these drain buckets under the truck…. so I lowerd the hoist, and 2+ tonnes of Patrol quickly crushed that aluminium bucket, tearing a hole in the bottom of it…… approximately 12 litres of oil started draining onto the floor….
This happened at a Goodyear store I used to work at:
New technician just out of tech school is changing the oil on a Ford Expedition, as the oil is draining the customer asks if we can look at the brakes. The tech replaced the drain plug and filter and lowered the vehicle halfway to remove the wheels. Turned out the vehicle did need front pads which we didn’t have in stock. After an hour or two the new pads came and the tech went back to the Ford replaced the pads, turned the rotors, lowered the vehicle, checked the brake fluid, and shut the hood. He then took the vehicle on a test drive, he came back walking. Yep that’s right he never refilled the oil and the engine seized. It gets better, the customer is on his way from our suburban Detroit location to a funeral in Alabama. The store decides to rent the customer a car so he can go on his trip, at the rental place the customer is firm that he wants an SUV because that is what he brought in. The limit on the company credit card is relatively low so the shop foreman has to rent the SUV on his personal credit card. The next day it takes one of the more master techs half a day, and a really long breaker bar on the crank, to free up the engine after coating the cylinders in penetrating oil overnight. Meanwhile before the customer returns one of the techs has a friend call the shop foreman and impersonate an Alabama trooper saying that the car rented in his name was involved in a hit and run and that local police would be coming by to question him. This resulted in a day and a half of paranoia by the foreman.
Great story. Thanks… LOL
Several incidents: In 1981, I was dating the woman who would become my wife, she had a 1977 Olds Delta 88 with 403 that needed an oil change. In an attempt to impress her, I offered to change the oil. Same rookie mistake as many others, I didn’t check the filter for tightness after replacing. An idiot light on the dash and 5 quarts of 10w40 later…
In 1984 I bought a 1979 Ford Pinto ESS that only had 20,000 miles on it, and looked like it had all of the original filters… As it turns out it DID have the all of the original filters. The oil filter took three grown men trying with five different tools, in the end the phillips screwdrivers crossed through the body of the filter finally got it off. Then we had to scrape off the o-ring…
In 2001 I bought a used 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis off of an iron lot. When I looked under the car, the area around the engine was damp, but not dripping with oil. The engine ran fine, no idiot lights or anything else. I get the car home and go to do the first oil change. As I put the socket on the nut, it’s near impossible to move. Then, it breaks free with a crack. I realize then that the nut was cross threaded, and the tab that holds the nut in place has broken off inside the oil pan. What was once a $10 oil change turned into a $400 R&R the oil pan!
Worst places for oil filters: On my 1990 Mercury Tempo with 2.3 HSC 4 cylinder along with my 1997 Chevy Cavalier 2.2 pushrod motor, the oil filters are horizontally mounted, but close to the firewall. The Cavalier’s oil would routinely drain into the flex pipe portion of the exhaust system, causing an oily smell for weeks after the oil change is done. Even if you use brake cleaner to chase out the oil, you never get all of it… I use the Chevy dealer in town for oil changes because they have a real skinny kid that works the pit and can reach up and grab the filter. Fatter guys can’t do it…
Three come to mind.
1) Changing the oil on my mom’s previous car, a PT Cruiser. Didn’t realize I double-gasketed the filter, and it sprayed out radially when I started it. Pain in the ass!
2) was working in a tire-n-oil-change place, did a change and rotation on a twin-cam Saturn. We left the caps off of cars that hadn’t had oil put back in yet. I filled it and forgot to put the cap on, while I rotate the tires. A “helpful” co-worked put another four quarts in while I wasn’t looking. The “pop” noise when I started it and the valve cover gasket let go was hilarious. the customer never knew it happened, which is a shame because we replaced their RTV gasket with a real rubber one. I bet they wondered why their oil leak slowed down!
3) Oil change on my dad’s Dodge 6.7 Cummins. “Wide mouth” advance auto pan, everything ready to rock, dropped the plug. Those things hold 14+ quarts of oil, and it comes out FAST. so fast that it splashed out of the oil dran pan and onto the gravel driveway quite a lot. Embarassing, but lesson learned!
Love oil changes on the E36 BMW I have now. Oil dran plug faces straight down (so no guessing what angle the oil will come out at!) and the filter is awesome. It’s facing straight up right next to the valve cover. Use a 36mm socket to take the cap off, pop it up and let it draink, put another gasket on the cap and a new filter in, done. So easy.
About 15 years ago, it was time for an oil change in my girlfriends new Totota. Not wanting to screw up, I took the owners manual out and studied it. No problem. Removed plug and oil started running. Seemed like their should be more oil then the 2 quarts I’ve got in the drain pan. Pulled dip stick and see engine still full of oil. Studied owners manual again, Oh I see, this heres a Toyota and the engine is mounted sidways. So I drained the trans. A few hours later, I’m done. And I will forever remember to check what the hell is the front and what’s the back.
Fastforward 15 years and 3 girlfriends later.
New girlfriend asks me to change oil in her mustang Cobra.
I opened the hood and looked right , then looked left. Then looked again. Where’s the oil filter ? Started to have flash backs from Toyota oil change. I passed on the oil change.
But my best story involves my Harley oil change. Working slow and checking the service manual at every stage. I did the change and started my Bike, and the top of the oil filter splits open sending oil everywhere. I’m thinking, thats not right.
Seems using the power of “the internet” I purchsed sub standard oil filters. And now that I’m looking closley, I notice Harley-Davidson is spelled incorrectly. Still have one of the knock off parts to remind me, too good to be true = not true.
I had oil one time land right on the oil container’s plug, which had a curved head to it, and it was like an oil fountain. “Like a shot in a million, doc! Shot in a million…”
Whoever put the 3.0L in the Ford Ranger never had to change the oil himself on a driveway.
You have 2 choices :
A – You get under the engine to remove the filter, you have to position yourself so that you will receive all the oil on you when you pull it.
B – You pull the filter from OVER the engine. You have to get burned by the headers.
I imagine standing up under the truck, the filter removal is a trivial process. So changing the oil in the Ranger means waiting until the engine is cold.
Not a *change* story per se… but just as amusing one about oil and epic fail…
I was a powersports dealer tech in AZ in the late ’90s, just getting into the work, when a Honda TRX400EX sport quad came in with a complaint of top end noise. Owner said the quad began rattling horribly after a a day at the dunes, so being that Arizona and dune play are pretty synonymous, (and the TRX-EX/XR400R have a dry-sump tank that is easily filled improperly by new owners), I suspected a lack of oil failed to quiet the camchain tensioner, as I rubbed my chin. A proper fill with an inspection and test, and they’re on the trail again, I thought…
It sounded *loud*, way too loud for a camchain. I removed the valve cover to discover a blackstrap mess with little metal flecks in it, rocker arm pads worn to oblivion. Holy crap, I thought… and took off the RH engine cover…
TRXs and XRs have a plastic oil pump gear driven by the crank, held onto its shaft with a circlip. This circlip was nowhere to be found, and the gear was lying in the sump, free of gear-wear marks. It was never secured to the shaft at all at the factory, as the gasket was clean and unmolested.
Owner of course got a brand-new TRX-EX on the spot, after a call to American Honda and some photographs. But that Honda had run with zero oil pressure, and only what oil it had been assembled with, for several hours of WOT dune riding before it finally gave up. It still ran, just crappy and noisy. Wish Hondas were still made this way. :)
Double-gasketed an F150 for a 4 quart mess. Always make sure you have the old gasket in hand!
When I was 16 (probably the 3rd oil change I had ever done) I forgot to put the plug back in and tipped about 2 pints of oil straight through the engine onto the garage floor before I realized.
I have never made that mistake again.