Ahhhh...that perfect oil change.

[Patman]

I find that when it's a windy day, that's when things go wrong. Oil just ends up getting blown all over the place when you're draining it and when you try to pour it in the engine also. I'm actually looking at the forecast for this week's weather and have ruled out Wednesday and Thursday for the oil change, since both days call for being windy (they also call for chance of showers too, so that's obviously an even bigger factor)

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: Patman
I find that when it's a windy day, that's when things go wrong. Oil just ends up getting blown all over the place when you're draining it and when you try to pour it in the engine also.


Yup, EXACTLY!

Since I'm one of those 'long drain men', and let it drain for hours sometimes, it goes down to those small, fine drops which are ALWAYS carried outside of the diameter of the drain pan (NO MATTER HOW HUGE it may be!) by even a 10mph wind.

But I've NEVER had a problem with the fill since I use a round funnel to cradle the RL bottles in the fill hole.

 

[david_ES2]

ahh ive had one of those perfect oil changes.

oil drains perfectly into pan. oil filter comes off the first try. doesnt spill on engine block. lube up the new filter. you fill it back with oil like in one of those engine oil commercials you see on tv. start the car. know that you did job right and confident there wouldnt be a leak in the world coming from your engine but you check underneath the car anyways. then you wonder when you should probably change it again. you put everything away. no spills at all to clean. go for a short drive somewhere enjoying that fresh oil feel & wish that feeling wouldnt go away.

 

[glum]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Since I'm one of those 'long drain men', and let it drain for hours sometimes, it goes down to those small, fine drops which are ALWAYS carried outside of the diameter of the drain pan (NO MATTER HOW HUGE it may be!) by even a 10mph wind.

One of these would solve those problems. (Can't you change the oil in a garage?) when I do long drains I put the hose on my Fumoto quick valve and have no worries... Although I'm not worried about wind but rather bugs crawling into the drain! (Would have to be a really stupid bug!)

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: glum
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Since I'm one of those 'long drain men', and let it drain for hours sometimes, it goes down to those small, fine drops which are ALWAYS carried outside of the diameter of the drain pan (NO MATTER HOW HUGE it may be!) by even a 10mph wind.

One of these would solve those problems. (Can't you change the oil in a garage?) when I do long drains I put the hose on my Fumoto quick valve and have no worries... Although I'm not worried about wind but rather bugs crawling into the drain! (Would have to be a really stupid bug!)


One of those devices would have been on my car a LONG time ago if it were not for the 2 part warning under "SAFETY" on that link.

Even if I were NOT lowered, I do not trust some of the ricer punks around here, and just how EASY this thing makes it for them to dump all of my oil out when the car is not attended (you know that old domestic vs. import spitefulness/animosity/vitriol, etc.).

Sadly NO, in my current situation I have NO garage in which to work on my ride.

I am lucky the owners association does not stop me from working on it in my assigned (and PAID FOR) parking spot.

 

[glum]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: glum
One of these would solve those problems.

Even if I were NOT lowered, I do not trust some of the ricer punks around here, and just how EASY this thing makes it for them to dump all of my oil out when the car is not attended (you know that old domestic vs. import spitefulness/animosity/vitriol, etc.).

I think any idiot who would drain your oil with a Fumoto would either do so using a crescent wrench or do something just as bad or worse like smash your windows in, etc... Just doesn't seem like a realistic concern to me.

 

[JustinC25]

I had one of those perfect oil changes the other day.
Didn't spill 1 drop. This was in my dirt driveway no less.
I've done enough of them on my Camry over the last 8 years, I know where it all goes. Didn't even need a filter wrench. It just came loose by hand. Even emptying the drain pan, didn't spill any.
See my sig for what I used.

 

[Patman]

I changed the oil in my Corvette today and didn't even come close to doing the perfect change

Everything looked good before I started, it wasn't windy out and plus I put the car on the ramps in the garage just in case the winds picked up (which they always seem to do for me the moment I start draining the oil!) But as soon as I went to take the sample, even with the flow of oil being very slow (thanks to the Fram Sure Drain system I use) I managed to somehow get oil on the outside of my sample bottle. So that made a mess on the garage floor when I put it down (didn't have any shop rags handy, I can't find which box I packed them into when I moved) Then when it came time to fill up the new oil filter, I tried doing it slowly from the 5 qt jug but that didn't go well, I ended up with oil spilling over onto the sides of the filter. And then when I removed the old filter, I managed to drop it into the drain pan full of oil. So even though I wasn't in any rush, I still made a big mess. Hopefully I have better luck when I change the Civic's oil in a few more months.

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: glum
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: glum
One of these would solve those problems.

Even if I were NOT lowered, I do not trust some of the ricer punks around here, and just how EASY this thing makes it for them to dump all of my oil out when the car is not attended (you know that old domestic vs. import spitefulness/animosity/vitriol, etc.).

I think any idiot who would drain your oil with a Fumoto would either do so using a crescent wrench or do something just as bad or worse like smash your windows in, etc... Just doesn't seem like a realistic concern to me.


Yes, maybe I'm being a little bit paranoid, but there still is the chance of ripping the thing out of the ALLOY sump given the 10% grade of most of the parking lot driveway entrances around here, and the insistence of everyone having (UNAVOIDABLE) 1.5' high parking lot speed bumps in this area, especially with a lowered car.

(NOT everyone drives, nor wants to drive, a Baja 1000 ready SUV/pickup.)

 

[mva]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
After all the oil changes I've done in my life, I'm still bemused by the fact that some go spotlessly, and others get messy. Some days, the simplest, most routine things just go bad.


I changed my oil yesterday and i couldn't believe all of the rookie mistakes I made:

- van was nice and hot for the oil change

- pulled hot plug, normal amount of oil on left hand, everything ok so far.

- filter tight - used wrench to undo, loosened a few turns to let drain with pan below, still ok although there were a few drops splashed outside of the catch tray.

- had a beer and watched the news while the oil drained.

- went back out to the garage, put the drain plug back in and removed the filter.

- drained the filter into an empty jug using a large funnel. The filter would not drain much so i put it on my work bench and hammered a nail into the end of the filter can - rookie mistake oil immediately drained out all over my workbench and the floor. I quickly grabbed the filler and put it back in the funnel but the jug was pretty well empty so as i was cleaning up the first mess the jug/funnel/filter tipped over sending oil drops every where @#!$%!

I have been doing this for over 30 years and I still made a total mess.

Minutes later I dropped the allen wrench into the pan doing a tranny drain and fill - I couldn't believe it. Maybe I will save the beer until I am done next time.

 

[schuylkill]

Quote:
Now that I use a Fumoto Quick Drain Valve and know about the 2-liter trick for the oil filter, I hardly ever get a drop of oil anywhere.


How does this 2-liter trick go?