Curse The Sky
Active Member
- Joined
- August 1, 2011
- Messages
- 54
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- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2001 Sport Trac 4WD
Ok, maybe not a nightmare, but it certainly was a mess.
I did an oil change on my fiancee's 2003 Malibu. 20 minutes flat, no problems, nothing unexpected. Then, I decided that I'd might as well change the oil in the Sport Trac while I was dirty anyway.
I figured that since it was higher off the ground, I won't even need to jack it up (first mistake), since I'd only be under there for a few minutes anyway. So, I got everything ready, dove under, and started looking for the drain plug. Found it, 13mm socket (same as the Malibu), good to go. It took a bit of tugging, but it eventually came free. Cool.
Then came the first dilemma - where the hell is the oil filter? I looked around from the driver's side, passenger side, directly in front, down from the top, etc. By the time I finally found it (crawling in from behind the passenger wheel) I could have easily looked it up and saved myself the trouble. Oh well. So, given the very little clearance that I had, I started tugging away with the only arm that could reach it. It wouldn't budge. No big deal, I'll just go grab an oil filter wrench... except that all we had on hand was the old "cap" type, and it was for a much smaller filter. Ugh.
So, $30 and a trip to Sears later, I had both a strap style and some kind of "cap" style universal / adjustable wrenches. The cap style was a bit of a pain to get positioned (again, no clearance), but it did the job. The previous owner must have either forgotten to oil the gasket or way over-tightened the filter, because it started to crush in by the time it finally came loose.
That right there SHOULD have been my clue. But, instead, I continued on as usual. I grabbed the new filter, filled it partially with oil, oiled the gasket, and dove back under to install it. Again, clearance was tight, and I couldn't really see what I was doing (another mistake), but I managed to get it seated and tightened it up. I popped the oil plug back in, filled it up with 5 qts of Mobile 1 5w-30, and did a few quick start-stops as usual. When I started it up to let it run, I heard some strange bubbling noise. Weird. I got out to go listen to the engine when I noticed... OH F&#$! Five quarts of oil were leaking out all over the ground.
I immediately knew what the problem was and started kicking myself for it. Shut the engine down, grab some cat litter, find something to lay on top of, and dive back under. Sure enough, oil from the filter area had sprayed everywhere. I pulled the filter back off and just like clockwork, two gaskets landed on the ground. Yay.
I did some quick clean-up with paper towels, then off to the auto parts store one more time. $40 later, and we're back in business. This time I was extra careful to make sure that nothing would obstruct the oil filter from making a good seal. Of course, now I wasn't sure how much oil was left in the engine, so I had to add a quart at a time and check the dipstick. It took about 4-4.5 quarts to show full.
Now came the final problem. When I took it for a test drive, it smoked pretty good. The exhaust definitely got a decent amount of oil on it, and even though I mopped up what I could with paper towels, it's very difficult to get the top of the exhaust or get all of the oil off of what I could reach for that matter. I'm hoping that it will all just burn off and there won't be a fire or some kind of other bad omen in my future.
So, what was supposed to be a 20 minute oil change turned into a three hour ordeal (due to problems and having to run out to the store twice). The truck smells like burnt oil inside, and I'm nervous to let my fiancee drive it in fear that it could somehow catch fire or something. What a day.
I'm not an automotive expert by any means, but I've been doing my own basic maintenance for years. I've done dozens of oil changes, brakes, spark plugs, various filters and other fluids, a starter here, a fuel pump there, etc. It's so funny how one little issue that I should have known about could cause so much chaos. Oh well, at least it was only $40 and some clean-up time rather than some $300 part, or worse.
Ever have one of those days?
I did an oil change on my fiancee's 2003 Malibu. 20 minutes flat, no problems, nothing unexpected. Then, I decided that I'd might as well change the oil in the Sport Trac while I was dirty anyway.
I figured that since it was higher off the ground, I won't even need to jack it up (first mistake), since I'd only be under there for a few minutes anyway. So, I got everything ready, dove under, and started looking for the drain plug. Found it, 13mm socket (same as the Malibu), good to go. It took a bit of tugging, but it eventually came free. Cool.
Then came the first dilemma - where the hell is the oil filter? I looked around from the driver's side, passenger side, directly in front, down from the top, etc. By the time I finally found it (crawling in from behind the passenger wheel) I could have easily looked it up and saved myself the trouble. Oh well. So, given the very little clearance that I had, I started tugging away with the only arm that could reach it. It wouldn't budge. No big deal, I'll just go grab an oil filter wrench... except that all we had on hand was the old "cap" type, and it was for a much smaller filter. Ugh.
So, $30 and a trip to Sears later, I had both a strap style and some kind of "cap" style universal / adjustable wrenches. The cap style was a bit of a pain to get positioned (again, no clearance), but it did the job. The previous owner must have either forgotten to oil the gasket or way over-tightened the filter, because it started to crush in by the time it finally came loose.
That right there SHOULD have been my clue. But, instead, I continued on as usual. I grabbed the new filter, filled it partially with oil, oiled the gasket, and dove back under to install it. Again, clearance was tight, and I couldn't really see what I was doing (another mistake), but I managed to get it seated and tightened it up. I popped the oil plug back in, filled it up with 5 qts of Mobile 1 5w-30, and did a few quick start-stops as usual. When I started it up to let it run, I heard some strange bubbling noise. Weird. I got out to go listen to the engine when I noticed... OH F&#$! Five quarts of oil were leaking out all over the ground.
I immediately knew what the problem was and started kicking myself for it. Shut the engine down, grab some cat litter, find something to lay on top of, and dive back under. Sure enough, oil from the filter area had sprayed everywhere. I pulled the filter back off and just like clockwork, two gaskets landed on the ground. Yay.
I did some quick clean-up with paper towels, then off to the auto parts store one more time. $40 later, and we're back in business. This time I was extra careful to make sure that nothing would obstruct the oil filter from making a good seal. Of course, now I wasn't sure how much oil was left in the engine, so I had to add a quart at a time and check the dipstick. It took about 4-4.5 quarts to show full.
Now came the final problem. When I took it for a test drive, it smoked pretty good. The exhaust definitely got a decent amount of oil on it, and even though I mopped up what I could with paper towels, it's very difficult to get the top of the exhaust or get all of the oil off of what I could reach for that matter. I'm hoping that it will all just burn off and there won't be a fire or some kind of other bad omen in my future.
So, what was supposed to be a 20 minute oil change turned into a three hour ordeal (due to problems and having to run out to the store twice). The truck smells like burnt oil inside, and I'm nervous to let my fiancee drive it in fear that it could somehow catch fire or something. What a day.
I'm not an automotive expert by any means, but I've been doing my own basic maintenance for years. I've done dozens of oil changes, brakes, spark plugs, various filters and other fluids, a starter here, a fuel pump there, etc. It's so funny how one little issue that I should have known about could cause so much chaos. Oh well, at least it was only $40 and some clean-up time rather than some $300 part, or worse.
Ever have one of those days?
