The Do it Yourself oil change Or why not believe the flat rate book.

[greg g]

In preperation to the driving season in general and the trip to Rhinbeck i decided and oil and filter change was in order. Here is my story so far:

Sunday April 29. Assist Brother in moving his project car from storage to his house. Suddenly he has no vehicle with a trailer hitch (3 hrs)

Stop at Tractor Supply Co. near his house as I use ther Traveller Brand All fleet 15W40 Oil. Smile as it is on sale for 9.99 per gallon, buy two.

Monday April 30. Call local NAPA to see if they have a 1080 filter on the shelf. Guy say yep. half hour to find out Napa 1080 Gold Box, does not contain 1080 fliter. Counter goof say he will order one from warehouse have it by 4 PM. 5:30 to 6:00 recover actual 1080 G filter and gasket from NAPA

Price 15.00 with prefered customer discount. Coulda had it sent ot house from Rock auto for half that....

Wed May 2nd. Spend 15 minutes looking for oil drain pan, can not locate, find plastic dish pan from camper instead. Take 10 minutes looking for turkey baster to empty filter canister, Can not locate. Take 5 minutes to custom design and fabricate oil catch container from half gallon plastic cider jug.

Remove top of filter after 10 minute search for 1 inch socket. It's in the tools I don't use much tool box behind a bunch of stuff on the work bench shelf.

Remove drain plug and drain filter canister into custom designed container.

Remove old filter catching drippage in plastic dish tub.

Jack up car, find custom designed oil catch container less than 100 % effective in catching oil from filter canister.

crawl under car using newspaper to address oil spill. Find that oil pan drain needs 1 1/4 inch socket, find same in little used tool box after crawling out from under car.

Drain oil into dish pan.

Remove jack stands lower car. Wife says its luch time ( Already???)

Have lunch

take 15 minutes to locate funnel, add fresh oil, start engine check for leaks,

Check oil, add to full

Back car out, and take 10 minutes to finish cleaning up oil spill from filter canister.

Ahh the satisfaction of doing it yourself as opposed to spending about the same and having the guys at Instant Oil Change do it while you sit in the car refusing all their add ons...........

Hey what else did I have to do today???

Edited May 3, 2012 by greg g

[Young Ed]

Dang your napa is expensive. I picked up a 1010 and a filter for my dakota for just over 6bucks a few weeks ago. Glad I'm not the only one that cant occasionally find stuff in his own garage. I must say now that I bought the bigger toolbox and got most stuff sorted into it I'm better at it. There are a couple small spots of workbench that are actually clear enough to use.......

[Don Coatney]

Would be interesting to know exactly how much time the 1946 flatrate book allows for this service? Also the cost of oil, filter, lunch, and labor rates in 1946.

Here are some of todays prices from this website.

http://chicagoist.com/2008/05/22/how_much_is_a_gallon.php

How Much is a Gallon?

Gas prices are heading up, up, up, and as every media outlet in town has noted this week, Chicago's prices are topping the nation's, averaging over $4 per gallon. But that got us wondering: How much do gallons of other liquids cost?

Milk $3 (on average)

IBC Root Beer $5.33 ($3 for a six-pack of 12 oz bottles)

Miller High Life $5.33 ($15 for a 30-pack of 12 oz cans)

Ketchup $8 ($2 for 32 oz)

Hydrogen Peroxide: $10.32 ($1.29 for 16oz)

Coffee $17.44 ($2.18 for a 16oz iced coffee from Lovely)

Paint $24.98 (No conversion necessary! It comes in gallons.)

NyQuil: $93 ($7.29 for 10oz)

Super Glue $365 ($11.99 for a six-pack of .7oz tubes)

0diggs White Out Liquid Paper $738 ($4.29 for 22ml)

Polo by Ralph Lauren $1984 ($62 for 4oz)

Chanel Nail Polish $5760 ($18 for .4 oz)

[Young Ed]

Would be interesting to know exactly how much time the 1946 flatrate book allows for this service? Also the cost of oil, filter, lunch, and labor rates in 1946.

I couldn't find a specific reference to an oil change in my 40-48 plymouth service operation time schedule. However it does list 1,000 2,000 6,000 and 15,000 mile lubrications which are .7 .8 1.1 and 2.0 hours. Doesnt say what all is included in those beyond including the air cleaners. The labor rate chart in the back of the book is in .25 increments from $1 to $3. So even at the most time of 2 hours it was $6.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Young Ed

[greg g]

The thousand miler was just an oil change, the 2K was oil and filter, the others probably included chasis lube, and lubricating the door, trunk and hood hinges and the hood release, probably lubing dist and the genny. as well as a belt and hose check. Probably trans and diffy fluid levels.

[54Illinois]

Great story!

Our local NAPA has 15w-40 for 9.99. I am currently running 10w-30. Will the heavy oil quiet the sewing machine???

[greg g]

couldn't say its pretty quiet as it is.

[wldavis3]

Just glad that my car doesn't run on nail polish.

[steveplym]

Price for a napa 1080 must have gone up a bit. I thought last year it was abour $10. I bought a WIX filter from a local auto parts store this spring, as napa doesn't have a store in town. They were able to cross reference the napa number and actually got it right.

[greg g]

The napa filter is made by WIX the wix number is 51080 as opposed to the 108 Napa uses.

[Captain Neon]

I just go to O'Reilly's to get my 51071. They always have my filter in stock, and it is the same price as NAPA. They are open every day with plenty of time for me to pick one up on my way from work. They are usu. open past my bedtime any way.

The only NAPA that says that it carries my oil filter is located near all of the new car dealerships and closes the same time their service departments close, 4:30 PM. On a good day, I am out of the office at 5:00. The other NAPA's close by 6:00 PM. I don't think they have much interest in retail business at the Topeka KS NAPAs.

[steveplym]

The napa filter is made by WIX the wix number is 51080 as opposed to the 108 Napa uses.

Good info Greg. I did not know that. I guess if I would have looked at the

numbers closer it would have made sense.

[plyroadking]

I just go to O'Reilly's to get my 51071. They always have my filter in stock, and it is the same price as NAPA. They are open every day with plenty of time for me to pick one up on my way from work. They are usu. open past my bedtime any way.

The only NAPA that says that it carries my oil filter is located near all of the new car dealerships and closes the same time their service departments close, 4:30 PM. On a good day, I am out of the office at 5:00. The other NAPA's close by 6:00 PM. I don't think they have much interest in retail business at the Topeka KS NAPAs.

Napas in IA are the same! Opens at 9 and closes at 4 during the week. Weekends are worse, 9 to 12 Saturday only! Sure makes it hard to wrench on the weekends or after classes, I've switched to advance auto.

[Captain Neon]

Napas in IA are the same! Opens at 9 and closes at 4 during the week. Weekends are worse, 9 to 12 Saturday only! Sure makes it hard to wrench on the weekends or after classes, I've switched to advance auto.

I forgot to mention that, last time I checked, none of our NAPAs are open on the weekend at all.

I remember when I moved from Colorado to Missouri. I drove my P15 through Kansas to my brother's house south of KC. I caught a nap in a small rural town, don't remember which one any more, but before leaving decided to stop by NAPA to get an oil filter.

It should have been an indicator to me of what I had to look forward to in Trenton, but they refused to sell me an oil filter. Without even looking in their stock or punching any thing up on their computer, they told me that they didn't have my oil filter when all I gave them was a part number. I can only assume that they kept one in stock for their buddy with a Massey-Ferguson, and weren't about to sell it to an outsider.