I’ve been too embarrassed to ask about this, and I hate reddit

amirza786 · Oct 17, 2019

consensual_induction said:
so my sports car history is just like a lot of yalls adult video website history....substantial and all Japanese

But despite doing my own bolt ons for every one- header back, boost gauges, and even applied decals to the rear quarter panels once.........I’ve never done an oil change and i for some reason am really too scared to try now.

I know it sounds so dumb, but I’m at 3k miles (which is abuse to not have done one) but I’m also just wondering if I have to pay $90 for them too. AND there’s a thread right now about an oil change from hell another user posted.

So...exactly what oil do I get, what’s some stuff you wish you knew before you got good at it, is it hard, and I honestly don’t even know what videos to watch.

In my defense, the last two cars I had were boxer engines and like...sideways...but it’s time I did this.

Link what you believe is the best tutorial, share any tips, do I need a towel? Can I do it in my garage? Should I change anything else while I’m doing that? What jacks to get? Anything.

I feel so dirty and ashamed. But at least if someones gonna make fun of me here, they have to write it out, not just abstractly downvote and numerically categorize how bad I should feel about this.

In all seriousness I appreciate the help, ask am for whatever reason I am kind of intimidated by this.

Thanks!
~Consensual_induction

Nothing to be ashamed of, I have my mechanic do it, but he charges me $60, which includes tire rotation, checking all the fluids etc. First thing I do want to say is...please, please, please don't change your oil at 3K. Fully synthetic oil is not like grandpa's oil. Follow the MM for God's sake and save yourself some money. Two oil analysis's I conducted at 7K of extremely hard driving in temps up to 115 degrees F at sustained 80 to 90 MPH for 6 to 8 hours and hours of hellish LA stop n go traffic showed the oil could have gone another 2 to 3K and was in excellent condition. I can post my last report if you want.

BTW, sorry...I don't waste my time with porn. That's what my wife is for

aighead · Oct 17, 2019

Zeffy94 said:
In that video..maybe it's just me, but is it REALLY safe to trust those wood blocks to hold your cars weight?

While the width of the blocks would have me a bit nervous (just for driving sideways off of) wood is HUGELY able to hold that weight. Look at anything that is temporarily holding huge weight and it's always wood blocks. Assuming you are using the wood in the correct grain direction, parallel to the ground, wood is one of the strongest materials to hold stuff. You can lift houses and hold them up with wood blocks, heavy equipment that can easily be over 10 tons can be held with wood blocks. There's actually not a whole lot of materials out there safer than wood.

To the point of the topic at hand...

Learn this from me. Remove the waste oil pan from under the car prior to lowering it or driving off the ramps. Did you catch that? I did it twice, so apparently I didn't. Remove the waste oil pan from under the car prior to lowering it or driving off the ramps. It's a real dumb mistake but it's surprisingly easy to do. Maybe less so with the location of the oil filter on these cars (I did it on a 1981 Prelude and a 1985 Golf, I think).

The whole job is super easy, lifting the car or driving up the ramps is the sketchiest part.

Yal · Oct 17, 2019

I once changed my oil in my 69 Mustang. I left the collection pan underneath, refilled, then fired up the engine and blew used oil everywhere...

My biggest peeve is getting the old oil into a container to take to O'Reilly's for recycle/disposal

ltrinh · Oct 18, 2019

FWIW, my house is on the right side of the street which has 4-inch curb sideway. I parked my car with front right wheel on the sidewalk. Parking brake on, a wood block behind the wheel to make sure no rolling... That gives me enough clearance to change oil. I also replaced the nut with the "EZ Oil Drain valve" (or Fomoto) so I do not need to remove/tighten the nut anymore. It's a little slower to drain though.

Once you have done it, you will say 'easy enough'. ;-)

ltrinh · Oct 18, 2019

Mark11 said:
i don't trust other drivers enough to do something like this

the only place im putting my melon underneath my car is in my garage

I live in a cul-de-sac of 10 houses.

MannyT · Oct 18, 2019

Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but make sure you run the engine for about 2-3 minutes before draining the used oil. This helps with the oil flowing better and coming out faster.

mauiSI19 · Oct 18, 2019

Dan from Austin · Oct 21, 2019

I’ve been the Always-change-my-own-oil type for 30+ years but that changed when I bought my Civic. The dealership charges about $25 more than I can do it for myself. They vacuum and wash my car, I drink a free frappuccino at their snack bar and, best of all, I don’t have to crawl under my car in the rain or 100 degree weather. more than worth the $25 premium.

ltrinh · Oct 21, 2019

Dan from Austin said:
I’ve been the Always-change-my-own-oil type for 30+ years but that changed when I bought my Civic. The dealership charges about $25 more than I can do it for myself. They vacuum and wash my car, I drink a free frappuccino at their snack bar and, best of all, I don’t have to crawl under my car in the rain or 100 degree weather. more than worth the $25 premium.

That's great for you.

Started a few years back, my SoCal dealer said " due to water conservation, we are no long offer complementary car wash ". And of course no vacuum either... Just free coffee for $39.99 or about.

The Vyzitor · Oct 21, 2019

Mark11 said:
i would run it much longer then that,

i take mine for a 10-15 min drive before changing my oil

Yep it takes a good 10 to 20 minutes for oil to come to operating temp in most cars. The Civic might warm up a little faster with all the wizardry Honda implemented in pursuit of fast warm ups for peak efficiency

ebatr24 · Oct 21, 2019

You should start watching ChrisFix, that man has a video for just about everything. Super entertaining videos too.

Dan from Austin · Oct 21, 2019

ltrinh said:
That's great for you.

Started a few years back, my SoCal dealer said " due to water conservation, we are no long offer complementary car wash ". And of course no vacuum either... Just free coffee for $39.99 or about.

Even better, when it looked like my wait was going to be extensive my dealer gave me a free Uber ride home and back.

Drake · Oct 21, 2019

Dan from Austin said:
Even better, when it looked like my wait was going to be extensive my dealer gave me a free Uber ride home and back.

What the heck. We may need to start a "Good Dealers" thread so we can pinpoint all these angels.

Dan from Austin · Oct 21, 2019

Drake said:
What the heck. We may need to start a "Good Dealers" thread so we can pinpoint all these angels.

First Texas Honda, Austin Texas

bigbacon · Aug 19, 2021

I've gone full circle over time. never did my own work, to doing my work, to not wanting to, to doing some things but not others, pretty much back to I don't to squat unless its easy and not fluid based.

I can have my deal do an oil change for 35 bucks, not worth my time anymore to do it myself and I hate that cars all have huge plastic shields with a million fasteners or the oil change is ALWAYS a mess no matter what, our honda fit is like that.

Also agree on the Reddit thing. I hate that site. it still doesn't make sense to me how it is organized for some reason and it seems to be the worst place for snobby douchey responses to things. I agree, asking what might be considered a "stupid question" there is almost always a bad idea.

I’ve been too embarrassed to ask about this, and I hate reddit

amirza786

Senior Member

aighead

Senior Member

Yal

New to the brand

ltrinh

Senior Member

ltrinh

Senior Member

MannyT

Member

mauiSI19

Senior Member

Dan from Austin

Member

ltrinh

Senior Member

The Vyzitor

Senior Member

ebatr24

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Dan from Austin

Member

Drake

Senior Member

Dan from Austin

Member

bigbacon

Senior Member

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