Vehicle Oil changes

[WinterDeere]

A friend of my wife had me look at their daughters car when the engine started making a hammering noise, I knew right away it was too late. Her car had an idiot light too, glowing bright red too, trouble was, she had a picture of her boyfriend or someone sitting right in front of the idiot light!
Similar thing happened to a co-worker of mine. He said his car had a loud knocking sound. Went to look at it, it was out of oil and the light was glowing a bright red! I said something like didn't you see the light? He said he didn't know what it meant, dah, red usually means stop or danger or warning, etc!! Just cause you are an adult male with a license to drive, doesn't mean you have any common sense or mechanical knowledge!

I have a funny story, but the reverse of these. My wife calls me from the shoulder of the PA Turnpike one day about 20 years ago, the "oil light" had come on in her relatively new Audi A3, so she immediately pulled over and shut it down. Good girl!

I can't remember how that was resolved, someone may have seen a cute young woman stopped on the side of the road and stopped to help, or maybe she called AAA. In any case, got a fresh quart in there, all was good.

It happened again a few thousand miles later. The car was our first with full-synthetic spec and something like 7500 mile oil change intervals, but the light would come on almost predictably about 5000 miles after an oil change. I never drove that car, so never saw the light myself, I just made sure to always have a spare quart of oil in the trunk so she could top it off when needed.

A few years later, we traded up to a larger car, and a buddy wanted to buy that A3 off of us. I warned him about the oil consumption thing, he didn't care, so he gave us what the dealer was going to offer in trade.

A few weeks later, he saw the infamous "oil light", and noticed it was an oil level sensor, not an oil pressure sensor that was throwing the warning. Apparently Audi put a fluid level sensor in the pan above the sump, to warn you when it was getting a little low, way before you ever lose oil pressure. My wife had been treating that as an "all-stop" emergency light for at least 3 years and probably 50k miles.

Better safe than sorry, I guess.

 

[RjCorazza]

I also do my own oil changes and light maintenance. For years I used (4)? 2x10's stacked with 45 degree cut edges, but they were SOOOO heavy. Couple of years ago I got a light set of long plastic ramps from Harbor Freight, and they work great.

 

[MMM2]

Pretty much since forever, I've always done my own oil changes in vehicles; except of coarse work vehicles. Wife got a 2019 Charger RT a while back, and it won't go on ramps, and Way to low to crawl under, so I've had my son run it up to the non-chain tire/lube place I take work car. It's always been expensive (IMO) at $120; but ok. Today, wife is Way over, no time to run it to the other place, 45 min away; so I steal it at lunch and run it to one of those, 5 minute, stay in your car, chain places. Da'Yum, $174, for basic synthetic, basic filter, and a $35 cabin air filter. Is it just me, or is that ridiculous. The $120 place; they atleast vacuum the car, and leave you a mint with a Bible verse on it; and I'm up there every 7500 miles with the work car. They are a but out od the way, and not that fast, but.....

Hello, I have a car that is very low. I cut to 2 x 8 x 2' at 45 degree for both front tires. If you need more then stagger another couple. you are building a gradual incline. Think about it , not difficult and it is a lot cheaper for lumber you can keep for all oil changes.... Good Luck

 

[paulsharvey]

I found a set of 4 low profile, long ramps, on Amazon for like $58. The set of two was $38. I'm still milking the steel ramps I bought in high school at Discount Auto like 24 years ago; but maybe it's time.

I did used to have 4-2×12s per side, left over from a truck loading dock issue many years ago; but they were so dang heavy, and even being PT, after about 12 years, there wasn't much left, and I got rid of them

 

[paulsharvey]

If you ever think geometry doesn't matter; we build a commercial pipe supply building a life time ago (design build, steel building) with a pit style truck loading dock. Well, it called for 60 ft dock; but the designer drew it as 60 ft Including the ramp down... not 60 ft of flat. Anyways, the number of configurations; single axle truck, 45 trailer; 53 ft trailer w sleeper cab; were the movable axles were on the 53' trailer; "town" trucks, ect; depending on how the tractor was pitched, it would affect if the trailer hit the forklift ramp or not. So, the temp solution was 2x12 stacked configurable ramps.

 

[bdhsfz6]

When I got to an age where I had a few extra $$ in my pocket, I thought I'd be smart and bought a 4 post lift to change oil & do vehicle maintenance.

Then, because of the few extra $$, I decided to pay someone else to change the oil & do the maintenance.

Go figure.

 

[aba4430]

I do all oil changes and other general maintenance on my cars and equipment at home. For a couple of BMWs, I drive the front wheels up a pair of ramps for oil changes. If I have to raise all four wheels for non-tire removal type work, then I drive the vehicle (truck and our subaru's) up 4X ramps or for the lower clearance cars, two ramps and then raise the rear (or front if I drove up the rears) with a hydraulic jack on each side and sufficiently high so I can slide in 2X more ramps and have the vehicle raised and level on 4X ramps. For wheel removal type work I will use jack stands.

If the front of the car is real low and you need to lift the front only, then you can use a low profile hydraulic jack on each side to progressively lift each side a little at a time until you can slide ramps below the wheels. Make sure to block wheels as appropriate.

Anyway, a couple of recent maintenance pictures. yesterday was front stabilizer bar bushings on a Crosstrek. The truck picture is from last week when I replaced front and rear differential fluids.

 

[WinterDeere]

I found a set of 4 low profile, long ramps, on Amazon for like $58. The set of two was $38. I'm still milking the steel ramps I bought in high school at Discount Auto like 24 years ago; but maybe it's time.

lol... I still have the crazy-heavy stamped steel ramps my father bought, probably when he was in high school. Always kept indoors and dry, they look almost new, like right out of a 1950's auto parts catalog. I've tried to sell them on C'list a half dozen times, at basically "give away" prices like $40, but sign of the times... there are very few buyers for oil change ramps these days.

As mentioned way back in this thread, I use Race Ramps now, 72" length 2-piece setup, which are far more convenient and lighter to move and store. The old steel ramps hang on the wall, but I can't even remember the last time I used them.

 

[panamaguy]

Pretty much since forever, I've always done my own oil changes in vehicles; except of coarse work vehicles. Wife got a 2019 Charger RT a while back, and it won't go on ramps, and Way to low to crawl under, so I've had my son run it up to the non-chain tire/lube place I take work car. It's always been expensive (IMO) at $120; but ok. Today, wife is Way over, no time to run it to the other place, 45 min away; so I steal it at lunch and run it to one of those, 5 minute, stay in your car, chain places. Da'Yum, $174, for basic synthetic, basic filter, and a $35 cabin air filter. Is it just me, or is that ridiculous. The $120 place; they atleast vacuum the car, and leave you a mint with a Bible verse on it; and I'm up there every 7500 miles with the work car. They are a but out od the way, and not that fast, but.....

Get a new set of ramps or build something that will let you do it

 

[mrmikey]

I still have the crazy-heavy stamped steel ramps.....

That's what mine are, wouldn't trade them for nuthin' . I've read a couple stories of those foam ones collapsing after a few years, granted they could have been the cheap ones.