Keep Your Car In Shape - Change Oil Regularly

Although I am female, my dad had the wisdom to teach me to change oil when I was a teenager.  He stressed how important this relatively easy thing to do is in maintaining a car.  It is amazing to me how many people do not get basic maintenance done on their vehicles.

The other day I went out to lunch with Georgia, a co-worker from our accounting department. She said that she would drive because she needed to fill her car with gas. While we were at the service station, I was alarmed to see that her red oil light was on. Georgia seemed nonchalant about it when I asked her if she had checked her oil. She said that the light had been on for a couple of days, but her husband was out of town on business so she was waiting until he came home. I asked if he normally would change oil in their garage at home, but she did not know. George said that if he did change oil for her car, she had never seen him do this but assumed that he did whatever was necessary to keep her auto running.

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She then asked if I had ever seen anyone change oil. I explained that although I knew how to do it, it was easier to have someone else do it and dispose of the old oil in accordance with our local hazardous waste regulations.  I explained to her that I regularly take my car to a speedy oil change place close to our office. I drop the car off before work and walk the 3 blocks to the office, and then I walk back during my coffee break and pick up the car. She was surprised that someone could change oil this quickly. I explained that there were times that I would wait for them to change oil and the process took less than 10 minutes.

Convinced, Georgia decided this would be a nice surprise for her husband so after lunch she left the car at the shop so they could change oil and we walked back to the office. Before she left for the day, she came and told me that she had received a call from the car shop. When they went to change oil there was very little left in the car. They asked her when the last oil change had occurred because they could not find a sticker on the car that would indicate this. Georgia told them that she would check with her husband.

When my Georgia came to work the next day she said that her husband was back in town. When she asked him about the car he said he would regularly change oil in his but he assumed she was taking care of her own car maintenance. Their lack of communication almost cost them a very expensive engine repair in a vehicle that was less than two years old. It turned out that when she left it at the car shop for them to change oil, it was the first oil change that had been done.

My co-worker now knows what a sticker indicating the need to change oil looks like. She had them place this in the upper part of the windshield on the driver’s side so she can watch the number of miles she is putting on between oil changes. She and her husband had never discussed car maintenance. Her dad had always taken care of the vehicles for her mother, so she just assumed her husband would do the same.

It's a good thing that Georgia and I went to lunch!  She now knows the most basic car maintenance function:  change oil!

"Keep Your Car In Shape - Change Oil Regularly," contributed by Mary Lou Andresson