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@sda

I think about that sometimes....

Living in interior Alaska, the topic of hunting is a regular one. People are shocked when I tell them that I've never done it. Not that I am not inclined to do so or have an aversion to it, but it was just not something that I ever did growing up (oddly, my father regularly hunted, but he never, not once, took any of us kids with him or taught us how to shoot. My first experience with shooting a firearm was when I was at USMA). As such, I've always been a little hesitant to just go out and do it, and I've never managed to find someone willing to take me under their wing. Now that I am an old man myself, I don't even bother with contemplating it anymore... Given how expensive it can be to take up that particular passion, I decided to just stick with the automotive vice.

However, cars were a whole different thing. I spent a lot of my childhood in a rural setting, and self-sufficiency was a thing. We learned about most basic repairs the hard way: By breaking down or getting a flat way out in the middle of nowhere! And, oil/filter/fluid changes were something we always did at home, so I just took it in stride. Once I was out on my own, there flat wasn't a choice in the matter anymore. If I didn't do my own work, I wasn't going to have a car because I *surely* didn't have the money to pay someone to do it. No matter how complicated or intimidating, it was just something that had to get done.

The older I get, the more I see (from those aforementioned logs) just how much money I spend on maintenance. And, if I take those numbers and multiply them by five, that's about what it would have cost me at a shop. Not. A. Chance.

I need to be better about tracking service on my cars. I bought some stickers a while back and wrote a very long one for the Alfa. I should take a pic. That reminds me, I should write one for the Volvo. Although those new fangled cars tell you when to service them. I seriously can’t recall when the Fiat last got an oil change. I bought the stuff for it this week, along with trans fluid because the kid says it is slipping. I doubt it but I’ll do it anyway just because it is over 10 yrs old.

Oh, did I mention the Volvo’s plugs? When I changed them, all 4 had some buildup on the electrodes. Two were far worse than the other 2. I’d estimate at least half the gap was filled. And I had noticed a chuffing sound from the car when I’d hear the wife pull in or out of the garage. It seems far happier and sounds healthier now. Needing a special tool to remove the filter angered me to no end. And, even with the newly acquired tool, it took A LOT of torque to remove. Only supposed to be 25 nM when tightening. Either it is a poor design or the previous tech has no idea what 25 nM means.

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My money is on the tech screwing it up, literally.

Years ago on my GM V8’s, the rule of thumb for the AC Delco metal canned oil filters was no more than 1 1/2 turns once the oil filter gasket made contact with the oil filter can mounting assembly surface that was bolted to the block.

I had a friend who took his ‘72 GTO to a dealer who obviously didn’t follow that rule. After calling me one Saturday with a filter he couldn’t get off, even after driving a screwdriver through the can so he could grab both ends of the long screwdriver to try getting if off that way (an old shade tree mechanics trick back then), I told him if he could un-bolt the oil can mounting assembly from the block, I could probably get the filter off by putting the assembly in my bench vise and using a large pipe wrench to grab the heavy metal plate on the bottom of the filter can. That worked but it still took some umph to do it. Those old metal can filters with the large round gaskets seemed to glue themselves to mounting assembly if they were over tighten. Not something you’d want to screw up by over tightening the filter.

jmonroe

We've probably gone over this before, but I've had used oil analysis performed on several of my cars, and most every one confirmed that a 10k mile oil change interval was fine- and that included my MS3, which had a motor that was supposedly very hard on oil. I've followed the one year 10,000 mile oil change regimen for over 15 years and I've never had an oil related problem- even with cars driven over 150,000 miles.

Very true! I usually change the oil out on my trip car after we return from Ohio, but I totally spaced it this year. In mid-May, I was doing some car stuff with my son on his car, and oil came up... then the light bulb illuminated! I checked the odometer, did a little math, and realized that my wife's Crosstrek was closing in on 17,000 miles since the oil was changed the prior AMW!

Well, I figured I'd just split the difference and change the oil a little early this year. I sent the in the oil for analysis; it came back a few weeks later with flying colors. I do use high-quality oil, but it still has to hold up to all those miles! I mean, on the trip, we were working it pretty well given the massive load we asked that little car to carry. Over that whole interval (the oil change), I only topped off the oil one time (~ 1 quart) and late on our return trip.

Aside: Her car just turned over 100,000 miles. I replaced the spark plugs and ignition coils on Sunday, and it said "100,321" on the odometer.