There are two ways to do a work, first is do with rules and second is do with rules and add some common sense to do it even more smartly. I’ll tell you the smarter way. Here our target is to change our car engine oil and we know old oil is needs to be drained out as much as possible from the engine so that new oil does not turn black as soon as we pour it due to remains of old oil.
Plan a Saturday night when you won’t be using your car that night (means you don’t sleep walk and sleep drive LOL) and with some free time on Sunday (the next day). Prepare the place you will be using to change your car engine oil. I recommend that place to be your garage with a floor that is not inclined on any side but perfectly leveled. Saturday evening before auto spare shops closes keep a drain pan, wrench that fits your oil sump nut (the nut below your car engine from which engine oil flows out if loosen), disposable glove, funnel and some rags ready in your garage. Wear your not so new and good looking clothes and drive off to an auto spare part shop and but engine oil and oil filter for your car. Oil filter should be of OEM type as they are good enough, just tell your car model and the auto spare part dealer will give you the oil filter for your car. Go shopping for items that you might need for your home till Sunday morning because remember you won’t be able to use your car the whole night and next Sunday morning as well. Reach your home, park your car in garage with hand brakes and open the hood/bonnet whatever you call it. Now without any delay take the drain pan, place it below the sump nut and using the wrench open the sump nut. Don’t worry if the nut falls in the drain pan, you can retrieve it later. Things will be quite hot under your car so when you go under your car make sure your hand or face don’t touch anything. If your hands are long and car is not that big, you even don’t need to get under the car, just stretch yourself a bit and you can reach the nut. When the nut is fully open you will see black oil going into the drain pan. Enjoy the moment! Clean your wrench and hands with rag if it came in contact with oil immediately. Now look at your engine and loosen the engine oil checking dip stick. For those who are extra cautious you may want to take out one main HT lead or just the negative (-) terminal of your car battery so that someone don’t start your car by mistake. Starting and using the car without engine oil will kill the engine in few minutes. After you have done all this close the hood, lock the car and go to sleep.
Whole night the old oil drop by drop was drained from each and every corner of your engine. I told you to immediately drain oil after you came home driving from spare part shop because using the car on road for sometime will make sure old mixes all the sludge of engine in itself and also becomes thin due to the heat of engine. So when you drain it hot, it comes out with all the sludge easily. Next morning come and most probably no more drops would be coming out of the sump. Wear gloves and safety glasses too. Now locate the oil filter in your engine and move the drain pan just below it. Don’t throw this oil; let it be in pan for some time. If you have dropped the sump nut in it take it out using any wooden stick. Since engine is cold now you don’t have to worry about burning yourself. Now unscrew the old oil filter (anti clock wise) with your hands. If you can’t use both your hands and with a jerk apply your full strength and it should open. Use sandpaper if your hands are slippery. If it still doesn’t open, you will need an oil filter opening tool. While opening the filter keep your face away as some old oil will drop, well sometimes lots of oil if your filter is big. Once open pour all the oil that is inside the filter in the drain pan and keep this old filter aside with open side up. Use rag to clean that place from where you took out the old oil filter. Get few drops of oil from the new engine oil that you bought for your car, just few drops not more than that and apply it over the gasket (round black rubber part) of new oil filter. Now screw this new oil filter it in its place in clock wise direction. Tighten it with your hand only, not any tool. Take the sump nut, clean it with rag and put it back in its place (the sump) and tighten it with wrench. Do not over tighten else it may slip. Now open your car hood, push the dip stick back in its place and locate the engine oil filter cap on your engine. Mostly it’s a big yellow or black plastic cap right on top of engine, so easy to locate. Open it and using funnel pour the new engine oil. Again enjoy the movement of extreme satisfaction! Once done, place the filler cap back in its place, clean the engine with any spilled oil and wait for few minutes. Now take out the dip stick and look at the oil level. It should be touching max level now. If it does not don’t panic, wait for some more time as oil can take time to travel below the sump where oil level gets measured by dip stick. If it’s still below max level (slightly lower is ok) then you might need to buy smaller pack (500ml or so) of the same engine oil and top up till dip stick reaches max. In any case do not fill the oil above max level.
When all done, put the HT lead back or battery negative cable if you had taken it out to prevent accidental cranking of engine and start your car. Check that engine oil warning light is not glowing on your dashboard, if it does it means oil is low. The light will however come for few seconds even when engine is started because your oil filter is new and takes some time to get wet with oil fully and start working. If all fine, you have just successfully changed your car engine oil yourself! You have not only saved money but also made sure that your car gets the right oil in right quantity and everything is genuinely done. Some workshops use recycled oil if you are not around and alert enough to check what’s going inside your car, they even might not change the filter and save on spare parts as well, worse they might not even take good time to let entire old oil get out of the engine and pour new oil not only dirtying the new oil but also increasing oil quantity in the engine which is harmful for engine. You might not find drastic change in your engine response for now but after driving about say 50km you will start noticing some good changes in your engine due to this efficient way of oil changing. Make a note of KM reading on the odometer and date of change of oil on a small piece of paper and stick it inside glove box of your car. This way you can remember to change oil according to your manufacturer recommended interval. Same way you can change engine oil of your bike too. Enjoy the smooth ride and drive safe!
Request: Please do not throw old engine oil in drain, seal it in an air tight plastic container and give it to any auth. Auto workshop from where it will go for proper disposal. Also crush the new engine oil container so that it cannot be used for refilling and selling fake oil.
Our shiny gadgets are not just items for show off but some of them are very useful in day to day life. One such gadget is digital camera. Gone are the days when it used to cost a bomb and not everyone could afford a digital camera. With advancement in technology, prices have gone down drastically and now condition is that everyone in home has his or her camera. Finding more than one camera in a home is nothing new now. But due to the conditions where these cameras can be used, these digital devices get more prone to failure. For example going for picnic and taking your camera with you means subjecting your camera to shocks and contact with water as well. Both these are very harmful not only for camera but any digital device.
