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add some oil

mac68

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Dec 10, 2010
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Location
franktown co.
i was 16 and my good friend and i were out cruising in his demon when the dash said "i need oil" so we pulled into the gas station and i checked the dipstick and told him to add 2 quarts of oil , i was inside the gas station when i looked out the window i saw him under the hood with smoke pouring out , i ran out to find him trying to pour a quart of oil down the dipstick tube.true story.he got the nickname smokey. it stuck
 
True story. I was changing the v6 in a 78 Monty, started by pulling the drain plug got busy with pulling wires and hoses when i see a **** load of oil running from under the car. Thinking I missed the drain pan I look under the car and the thing is full. Now a buick v6 (3.8) holds 3 1/2 quarts and the pan holds like 8 qt. Now picture this I drove this POS to my house about three miles, it was running like crap and smoking BAD and when i pulled it into the garage oil was coming out all over. I still dont know how much oil was in this thing, but when i asked the girl that owned the car, she said she didnt know, but it took forever to put it in that little hole. I said what little hole? and she replied you know the one that you use to check the oil with.
 
True story. I was changing the v6 in a 78 Monty, started by pulling the drain plug got busy with pulling wires and hoses when i see a **** load of oil running from under the car. Thinking I missed the drain pan I look under the car and the thing is full. Now a buick v6 (3.8) holds 3 1/2 quarts and the pan holds like 8 qt. Now picture this I drove this POS to my house about three miles, it was running like crap and smoking BAD and when i pulled it into the garage oil was coming out all over. I still dont know how much oil was in this thing, but when i asked the girl that owned the car, she said she didnt know, but it took forever to put it in that little hole. I said what little hole? and she replied you know the one that you use to check the oil with.

thats great
 
I'll take that over what my wife did. She called me at work once and said she wanted to take the Charger for a ride with a friend. I told her ok, but add some oil before you go. I guess I should have given more directions, because when I got home I discovered the oil still low. I asked her if she added any, and she said yes. She then showed me where she put it. In the power steering pump.
 
I bought an almost brand new lawn mower in a yard sale for $10, guy said the engine was locked up after the first tune up he give it. I got it home and pulled the plug...new oil poured out. The guy I guess read to oil the foam filter and he filled the carb n filter with oil. Amazing! That was 10+ years ago and the mower still runs great.

Gary
 
I get brand new mowers from two stores in my area that sell them to me for parts.I get them very cheep because they have been written off due to damages under warrenty.I have gotten lots of stuck motors never run, rite out of the box because the new owners thought they had to add oil to a motor that came already full of oil ...You would think the retailers would check them over rather than take the customers word for it....Drain the oil fire them up,let them smoke for a minute or two then watch them sell faster than I can put them up for sale lol.
 
When I was a younger man of about 20 I worked at a local service station. It was self and full service back then. A young lady pulled in to the full service side with a 240 Z. I went out but she told me she just needed some oil and would take care of it herself. We had the out side racks with oil in them. So she has the hood up and is doing her thing. She comes over to my window after a while and asks " Do you have any more of this oil ?" She had emptied the rack. It was 5 quarts. She said she needed more because she could not see the oil level where she was adding the oil. (the valve cover) I told her I was pretty sure she had added enough oil. True story.
 
Quite a few years ago I had a 550 cc yamaha street bike that this young kid was begging me to sell him. I made him get permission from his Dad so he could take it for a test ride. The kid took the bike to show his old man at the lake. His old man wanted to check the oil. Now, on this type bike, there is a little window on the side of the crankcase, it just has to be level somewhere in the window, He thought it needed oil. So he puts in 7, yes 7, quarts of oil, or until he could finally see the oil through the hole in the top of the case. needless to say, he blew all the seals in the motor and I was paid my asking price for the bike. Too funny
 
My story is from the other side of too much oil. When my wife and I were dating we bought several cars together. One was a 62 chev corvair, 4 speed with nice body/paint and a good runing engine that used oil. We sold it to a young gal and I told her to check the oil often as it will use oil. She said she understood, bought the car and went on here way. In about a month she calls me to tell me the engine blew and she wants her money back [$200]. I asked her what happened and she told me she was on a trip and the oil light came on. I asked here how long after the light came on did she continue to drive. She replied " about 25 miles" Then I asked when was the last time she checked the oil level? She replied "what do you mean?" Oh boy!
 
I have a ton of these stories, i cant believe the non-automotive knowlege, and ignorance out there. Some i admit are not the person who is drivings fault, its their partners fault for not teaching them.

I worked as the manager in a oil change place at a car dealer. Did you know a Subaru 2.2 motor can hold 10 quarts of oil, yeah thats to the top of the oil filler cap. I got a call and told the lot guy to put oil in the car, he said it was full to the top of the dip stick, ummm thats a little too much.

I worked at Midas for a while,, you would be suprised at how much crap is running around out there. I worked at the busiest shop in Bellevue, Wa, we probably did 20 Brake jobs a day among other things, we were a million dollar shop, so thats a lot of work.

Probably 1 out of 10 cars needed over $1000 worth of work, we are talking eveything was shot, master cyl, wheel cyl, or caliper, hoses etc, sometimes the customer would just say hey you can have the car.

We had a rotating list of the person who got the next basket case, i missed out on a 64 Falcon, another guy got a sweet Ford LTD with a 400M in in. In other cases the person says no thanks, i will do it later, ya right, just dont be behind me at the next stop light.

One guy had a car that was totally unsafe, we wouldnt let the car leave. The guy said he was going to call the police, yeah, go ahead, cops came and impounded his car.

One time a guy with a 1 ton Dodge truck comes in, sinking pedal, "it was making a noise, but it stopped" Took the tires of, the front brakes had been worn down, halfway through the backing plate for the pad, and the backing plate had worn the rotor and half of the cooling fins away so far that the piston in the caliper had been pushed out past the seal. I just dont get it.
 
I worked as a store manager at an auto parts store for a while and some of the cars that woulde come in there wre unbelieveable. I had a college kid come in with a honda of some sort and said he thinks he is low on oil and wants to know if I can check it for him. I said sure and pull his dipstick and it is bone dry. I advise him to put in 2 quarts of oil and we will recheck. Still no dice...puts in a 3rd quart of oil and I finally get a little drop on the bottom of the dipstick. It takes another quart and a half to top it off...THEN, the bombshell question.

"The light has been on for a while...but I decided to bring it here when it started making this weird noise, if I start it up real fast, could you tell me how to fix it?"

I said sure, fire it up. He starts the poor honda and there is a nice deep thunking in the bottom end that increases with idle speed. I break the news to the kid that he has a rod knocking. "So what can I do to fix it?" I tell him to start saving for a new engine or a rebuild and he was not happy with that at all.

That is just one of many many many stories of people that went there. Most common answers I would get to the question of "When was the last time you checked your oil?" was either "Never", "im supposed to do that", and "the last time the oil was changed"
 
I worked as a store manager at an auto parts store for a while and some of the cars that woulde come in there wre unbelieveable. I had a college kid come in with a honda of some sort and said he thinks he is low on oil and wants to know if I can check it for him. I said sure and pull his dipstick and it is bone dry. I advise him to put in 2 quarts of oil and we will recheck. Still no dice...puts in a 3rd quart of oil and I finally get a little drop on the bottom of the dipstick. It takes another quart and a half to top it off...THEN, the bombshell question.

"The light has been on for a while...but I decided to bring it here when it started making this weird noise, if I start it up real fast, could you tell me how to fix it?"

I said sure, fire it up. He starts the poor honda and there is a nice deep thunking in the bottom end that increases with idle speed. I break the news to the kid that he has a rod knocking. "So what can I do to fix it?" I tell him to start saving for a new engine or a rebuild and he was not happy with that at all.

That is just one of many many many stories of people that went there. Most common answers I would get to the question of "When was the last time you checked your oil?" was either "Never", "im supposed to do that", and "the last time the oil was changed"

Another job was at a service station, you also get the people with the 2-5 yr old cars with "funny noise" questions.

Well lets look, pop the hood, "how do i do that", or "where is the latch?"

You mean to tell me you have had the car for x yrs and never opened the hood?
 
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