It was time for an oil change on these two, so I thought yesterday was the perfect opportunity to bang out that task with the usual ease. Had I known what was in store for me, I would have grabbed beer and stayed in.
First thing’s first: I’ve been changing the oil on my wife’s car since we bought it five years ago. I always use a WIX filter and Castrol GTX 5w-30 conventional. Apparently I’m behind the times, because it appears 5w-30 conventional is being phased out? O’Reilly’s had none — in any brand, let alone Castrol. Just synthetic blend. They said they don’t have any and won’t have more.
Go to AutoZone, same story. They have none and they don’t have any on order.
Go to a different and bigger O’Reilly’s... They were carrying 5w-30 in their generic brand, but it was sold out. All the quarts were picked clean. The manager interrupted the friendly clerk and told me, “no, there’s right there.” “It says in big letters ‘synthetic blend.’ “ “Well they’re all going that way. It’s the same oil, it just has better additives.” “It’s not the same oil I’ve been using for five years.” “But it’s the same.” “Notice how you have 10w-30 synthetic blend next next to that 10w-30 conventional. Those are not the same.” “Well, well, additives blah blah blah—” Dude I’m halfway out the door and you’re trying to sell me oil I don’t want...
Call NAPA. “Do you have 5w-30 conventional?” “Let me look — yeah, plenty.” “Castrol?” “Yep, Castrol 5w-30!” “... Conventional?” “Yeah, synthetic blend.” [Facepalm] “No, I need conventional... Like how your 10w-30 Castrol just says ‘motor oil’ in the bottom right, no ‘synthetic blend.’ “ “Ohhhhhhh! Oh we got ahhhhh.... ... Wow, apparently we don’t carry anymore. At all. Of any brand.” “Dang, thanks anyway.”
Call Advanced Auto. Good news. “Sure do!” “I’m on my way.” Get there. All 5w-30 conventional cleaned out. When did this become a hot commodity? Even the quarts are cleaned out. Sigh... Wait! One jug of tucked in the wrong isle, can it be?
Actual dino juice for my car! I check out. “Got any more in the back?” “A few.” “I’ll take them, too!”
Okay that was a 2 hour adventure for what is usually 10 minutes... drive around the two vehicles, get them warmed up and complete the oil change. All good — except the longboi springs a coolant leak, as I posted yesterday.
The leak is coming from the lower hose. Unfortunately, it’s completely inaccessible from the top and bottom. The head for the clamp is *under* the clamp for the line going to heater core! Completely blocked. There’s very little working room around the fan. Lordy. So I detached and inspect the radiator while I’m in there. Looks good. Detached the shroud for more working room, which you can’t remove with the fan in place but you can kind of slide it over.
Time to inspect the hose. Separate from the block Coolant everywhere. Raining down like an environmental disaster. Left shoe soaked through entirely. Take a break to wash my foot. Go back to work barefoot. I gotta get the damn hose off where it connects to the radiator. But of course, each clamp (10mm with Philips head) is rusted AND stripped! They won’t budge. Bleeping bleeping bleeping bleeders! Also the shroud is basically a giant razorblade 1/8" from my hand as I try to get any amount of leverage on these ruined clamps.
Three hours later, the hose is off. Passes my so-called inspection. Clean up the clamps and reset so they’re angled to where you can actually access them next time. And there will be a next time.
Next inconvenience: I tested the coolant last winter and it was good. But it is some years old. More concerning is that my pickup is caked with oil, dirt, grease, etc. underneath. So all the coolant that poured everywhere seemed to drag in quite the collection of debris:
I don’t know how much that photo shows, but there was some seriously chunks of whatever in there. I don’t consider myself mechanically inclined, but I think I remember something like how small things can block and ruin the small paths of the radiator or something like that. Anyway, I didn’t wanna risk putting it back in, or try to strain it. So back to the auto parts store. At this point, it’s past 8pm. Also, it’s almost 15 bucks a gallon for the generic green (non-Dexcool) premix, so that was neat. I seem to remember coolant being much cheaper? Maybe I’m just getting old.
Also add more time for cleaning up the splattered coolant, putting away tools, and going on another test drive to see whether or not the leak has stopped, and if we’re overheating or not. I drove my wife to the beach, and we watched the sunset while waited for the engine to cool off so I could add more coolant (thermostat was getting a litttttle high... Like really). So much air in the system I could barely add half a gallon to the radiator the first time...
So that was my boring, frustrating Saturday. Seems like every weekend I’m stuck under the hood of something. But for some reason I kind of enjoy it.
Thanks for reading.