reluctance to get off your dead butt and start on a minor project.

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.
Staff member
I generally do oil changes at the first convenient opportunity, once the cars gone about 5K -6k miles,have been accumulated, since the last oil change.
yeah it takes a 15-20 minutes out of your schedule but its certainly not something that takes weeks to plan or do!
hell a brake jobs generally under an hour and you can replace all 6 u-joints in under 2 hours by yourself.. faster with skilled help!.
obviously it helps to have a lift, experience and the correct tools, but even an amateur can do an oil change with very little experience.
now At times, waiting for that first opportunity, too do that oil change, might drag things out for several hundred extra miles.
most of us have families and wives that tend to alter priorities at times
my 1996, corvette, does not get a great deal of mileage, but a couple weeks ago I hit 5500 miles so I purchased the required oil filter(s) (I generally buy 2-4 oil filter at a time,
along with a case of oil.)
and I was all set... well until my neighbor saw my buying the oil and filters...
and he asked if he could do his oil change , and use my lift.....
I said sure come on by, I need to do the corvette, we can do your car at the same time,
so last weekend he calls and said, lets postpone, his oil change,
till this weekend, ok.. theres no real critical rush....
this morning he calls and says this weekends not good either.....
now Ive put an extra 100 plus miles on the car...
certainly nothing critical, but still, Im thinking...should I wait to help this clown?
certainly a couple extra hundred miles on the oil is of little consequence...
but why would I live my life based on this jerks schedule
, I'm waiting too do my oil change, based on helping this guy,
a guy who obviously has no intention of actually doing any oil change ....
so rather than wait indefinitely, until he gets his act together,.....
I drove my car out to the shop, put my corvette up on the lift and did my oil change.
As I get that done, and check the grease in the ball joints etc, and inspect the brakes and do all the other basic maintenance ,
I realize, that I was waiting on a guy who had little or no real concern for maintaining his cars maintenance.
I wonder how ;long it will be.. if ever before he calls?

http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...resting-oil-change-question.10380/#post-50718

http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...ellect-does-make-a-differance.117/#post-34589

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/which-oil-what-viscosity.1334/#post-2910

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/motor-oil-question.3225/#post-8583

its generally a very good idea, too,
keep a bound note pad with notes in your glove compartment,

on the wiring, wire colors, wire gauges, relays used ,
ground locations, fuse amps, fuel and oil and air filter part numbers, type of oil used,
dates on oil/filter changes, brake fluid replacement dates, when the brake pads/calipers etc were last changed etc.
keep a log on, when alignments were done, what size and brand of tires you use,
and visually inspect the tires, brake fluid and oil levels every few days
and any time you remove a wheel, inspect the brake rotors, pads and ball joints and if the car/trucks up on a lift,
it certainly helps to visually inspect the u-joints, ball joints and do a suspension lube
 
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BTW where do you guys dump the used oil?
theres a N.A.P.A near me where I drop mine off, but its a P.I.T.A.
Ive got an oil catch can like this,(link below)
but once its near full its rather heavy and theres having difficultly to put in the corvette,
to bring it down there to empty,so I empty it well before its full.
and it certainly takes a good deal more effort to transfer the used oil into several 5 gallon buckets with lids, I used to have a shop, parts chaser, truck,
but I gave it too my son and he moved to TEXAS,

https://www.harborfreight.com/20-gal-Portable-Oil-Lift-Drain-69814.html
 
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your 100% correct, its too tall and heavy to fit in a corvette if its over 1/3rd full,
I generally don,t let it get over 1/2 full, or its too heavy to easily move,
generally at about 5-6 gallons I go and empty it.
If I let it get too full the only real options to fill two or three 5 gallon buckets for transport.
 
Because I had plans someday of installing a small ce g mounted, trash oil burning heater in my garage or in the garage I plan to build, I have. Cccnv a 200 gal. oil tank tucked out of the way, out of sight that I Dump all my used oil into. I also invited a few friends that still gets their hands dirty to dump their oil into this tank. My original idea for this tank was for storing heating oil to fuel a backhoe I had plans to purchase and for those rare times I needed fuel for my Duramax. Before all this I just took my used oil to the closest auto repair shops in the large jugs the new oil came in.
 
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I used a set of these to move my oil to O'Reillys or Advanced where I work now.

jugs.jpg

Actually it was one of these, it fits in the TBucket when the weather is nice!

F218671082.jpg
 
Very nice containers Rick. If I had those I would put new oil in them to take to the recyclers just so I could use them!
 
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