A little humor: Oil changes

[imzjustplayin]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

We, communally, do treat them like that. It is not just an issue to take up with Ford, it is an issue with this country.

That angry rant came from the fact that I have seen the Ford plant in Mexico. I know how Mexicans live and I know that they look up to our country as a place of opportunity.

Yet we still shut them out because we are afraid "their" culture will dominate "our" culture. Immigration has been big in the news lately, and the one thing no one wants to do is grant amnesty.

I ask, what is so bad about amnesty? I thought this country was about "give us your poor, your hungry..." all that ****. But no, it seems like we communally have decided that we built this country and now we're going to keep it to ourselves.

Then we go and send the work to somewhere else where we can indirectly abuse the workers, say we're helping bring them industry, then turn around and tell them to get the **** out when they make the crazy assume they have as much right as anyone else to live in the US.

If crime and huge government spending didn't follow poor people, I'd imagine a lot less people would be apprehensive in letting these people become citizens. Oh and well, you know, that whole "illegal" thing..

[IndyFetch]

Back to the oil change topic, I recently changed the oil, did a tune-up, and detailed a Honda Pilot for a guy I work with. He had always taken it to the local lube joint for oil changes. When I changed the oil, I was surprised to learn that the threads from the oil pan were almost completely stripped off. The drain plug was threaded in 1/2 turn (that's all the thread that was left) and was essentially glued in place by a liquid-gasket material. The oil change place claimed no fault, of course.

The poor guy was stuck buying an oil pan.

[bowtieguy]

yes, be careful of where your services are done...

my neighbor's nephew had the motor in his year old(~10k miles) suzuki seize due to sludge. he had the oil changed religiously on time, at wally world. the manufacturer denied replacement because they claimed wal-mart used the wrong grade of oil.

is wal-mart liable?

anyway, he and a mechanic friend tore down the motor and used 39, yes 39 cans of cleaner to de-sludge it. they put it back together, and it runs yet again. i wonder about future issues.

i'll stick w/ my synthetic oil thank you.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

I've gone well more than 10k miles between oil changes and not had a sludge problem. However, most of my driving is long enough distance that any acids in the oil are boiled off. But, if he had his oil changed on time there must have been some other problem rather than the oil...unless they were replacing his oil with the stuff from the recycle barrel...if it was really crusty old oil that might do it...

[bowtieguy]

i would question walmart's practices. but i often wonder about different climates and the affects on oil. and of course, driving habits. it's uncertain how many short trips he took in his first year of ownership, however.

[IndyFetch]

I have always used Pennzoil conventional oil. I have always changed the oil at 3,000 miles in all of my older vehicles (2,000 in my old Ford, when I was 16 and didn't know better). I change the oil at 4,500-5,000 miles in my '05 Civic since it is fairly new and the oil is still relatively clean at 3,000 miles. It is also convenient for me, since I usually put about 4,500 miles on the 2005 Civic in the amount of time it takes to put 3,000 on the VX. I've never had any sludge or viscosity problems. I could probably go longer between oil changes with synthetic oil, but with the cost difference, I fail to see the benefit. For those who want to go the full recommended distance between oil changes (or even a little longer), I would recommend synthetic.

[shatto]

One thing Mexicans have that Americans don't.

American Work Ethic.

[kamesama980]

my shop gets a car a week from walmart that we gotta fix. best one was when walmart punched a hole in the filter of an acura trying to get it off, failed, and sent the guy on his way minus $20 without telling him he had the old filter on much less a hole in it. Guy came to us cause we were 1/2 block away and there was a trail of oil from walmart and the bottom/rear was covered. Friend of mine took his car to a jiffy lube and they forgot to put the drain plug back in. called him 5 mins later telling him to pull over and turn the engine off cause they found it on the floor. didn't give him a new engine cause it didn't actually blow up.

[theholycow]

My mom had a local mechanic forget to put the drain plug back in. She should have kept that car and seen how many more miles she'd get from it...the new car she bought had a badly designed engine that failed young.

My truck had a leaking seal when it was new and ran dry because I thought the low engine oil light had to be a failed sensor. I eventually brought it in for the sensor and they replaced the seal (and told me about the oil). It now has 186,000 miles on it and runs great. Running dry temporarily is not a death sentence.

[trollbait]

Originally Posted by bowtieguy

i would question walmart's practices. but i often wonder about different climates and the affects on oil. and of course, driving habits. it's uncertain how many short trips he took in his first year of ownership, however.

Back in the days of dial up I came across a paper that discussed just that. The basics as I remember are that there is always some oil that gets scorched. These scorched particles become acid when mixed with water. The oil needs to be changed when the acid neutralizers get used up.
Climate and driver habit affect how much water gets into the oil. Greater the difference between ambient and engine temps, the more likely condensation will happen within the engine during cool down. Short trips don't boil off all the water before mixing and forming acids.
The author, in the UK, recommended changing the oil three times a year; before winter, after winter, and the middle of summer. For those who have to have a mileage interval, 5000 miles, but out of the 5 or 6 influences on oil life mileage was at the bottom of the list.

As to sludge, I believe that's more an issue with the detergent in the oil. Too much oil scorching and there is too many particles for the detergents to carry to the filter or out the drain plug, and they clump up and settle out. In that case, the problem would have been endemic to the engine line, like Toyota's 2.4L from a though years back, or happen again in the engine after the cleanout, without anything else fixed.
Or there wasn't enough detergent in the oil to begin with. Such as using a non-detergent flat 30 weight oil. At a wal-mart or other similiar auto center/super store, they could even have been using chain saw bar oil.