jwstewar
Active member
The oil change light has been on Mom's car for awhile, she finally brought it down last night and I was dirty, so I thought I would take 10 minutes and get it out of the way as I already had the oil and filter here at the house. Silly me.
I have my sister pull the car up on the ramps roll under the car see the drain plug and drain the oil and immediately notice a strange smell. Didn't think much of it. I then find the oil filter, thinking to myself, man for such a small engine, it is pretty far away. But then I realize this car has a tiny oil filter, my wrenches won't fit it. Luckily I was able to unscrew it by hand. All is going well. I put the drain plug back in, wipe around the filter off and install the new filter. Not know how much oil the car takes, I put 4 quarts in it and back it off the ramps. It is WAY, WAY overfull. Started searching and found that it took 3.7 quarts. Thought, man 4 really put it up high on the dipstick. I have my sister pull it back up. I pull the drain plug again. Let some drain out. Man, is still full and oil looks funny. It is redish and still stinks. She backs it back down, I check it again. Still too full and about that time she said, it looks like blood.....SHIT, it hit me what I had done. I drained the transmission fluid - on a car that doesn't need the transmission fluid changed.
Then I look, I have some Dexcon III on hand, but decided to look to see what this car needed. Turns out it needs a Synthetic Toyota T IV type fluid. Crap.... Then I also realize that I now have 8 quarts of oil in the engine. So I decide to drain the oil and drive to town to find the right transmission fluid. I needed to go to Kroger to get some SILK Milk for my daughter so I go to Advance across the street. They don't have any and don't carry it.
Hoping that AutoZone/O'Reilly's would, I go to Kroger get the milk and head across town. Fortunately AutoZone had some Castrol T IV fluid and I bought a filter wrench. Head home, walk in the barn. There is a huge puddle of oil under the car about the size of the Valdez oil spill. When I drained the oil into the pain, I didn't think that I would now be dumping 2 gallons of oil in the pan. So I roll under the car and remove the new oil filter, dump the oil out of it, wipe it off and reinstall it. I then start pouring new oil into the engine again. Then I start pouring the transmission fluid in. Back the car off the ramps and see another puddle of new red transmission fluid. SHIT, now what? Turns out the funnel would let the oil through faster than it would run down the dipstick tube and it was coming out of the tube and running down on the ground. What was to be a 10 minute job turned into 2 hours and now I have half a bag of oil dry on my barn floor to go out there and sweep up this afternoon.
Overall, the mistake itself wasn't terrible. It isn't going to hurt anything to change the oil, the car has 103k on it, but I would have rather had the fluid here where I started and I also lost 4 quarts of new motor oil, at least it was dino instead of synthetic. Oh, and the mess on the floor.....
I have my sister pull the car up on the ramps roll under the car see the drain plug and drain the oil and immediately notice a strange smell. Didn't think much of it. I then find the oil filter, thinking to myself, man for such a small engine, it is pretty far away. But then I realize this car has a tiny oil filter, my wrenches won't fit it. Luckily I was able to unscrew it by hand. All is going well. I put the drain plug back in, wipe around the filter off and install the new filter. Not know how much oil the car takes, I put 4 quarts in it and back it off the ramps. It is WAY, WAY overfull. Started searching and found that it took 3.7 quarts. Thought, man 4 really put it up high on the dipstick. I have my sister pull it back up. I pull the drain plug again. Let some drain out. Man, is still full and oil looks funny. It is redish and still stinks. She backs it back down, I check it again. Still too full and about that time she said, it looks like blood.....SHIT, it hit me what I had done. I drained the transmission fluid - on a car that doesn't need the transmission fluid changed.
Then I look, I have some Dexcon III on hand, but decided to look to see what this car needed. Turns out it needs a Synthetic Toyota T IV type fluid. Crap.... Then I also realize that I now have 8 quarts of oil in the engine. So I decide to drain the oil and drive to town to find the right transmission fluid. I needed to go to Kroger to get some SILK Milk for my daughter so I go to Advance across the street. They don't have any and don't carry it.
Hoping that AutoZone/O'Reilly's would, I go to Kroger get the milk and head across town. Fortunately AutoZone had some Castrol T IV fluid and I bought a filter wrench. Head home, walk in the barn. There is a huge puddle of oil under the car about the size of the Valdez oil spill. When I drained the oil into the pain, I didn't think that I would now be dumping 2 gallons of oil in the pan. So I roll under the car and remove the new oil filter, dump the oil out of it, wipe it off and reinstall it. I then start pouring new oil into the engine again. Then I start pouring the transmission fluid in. Back the car off the ramps and see another puddle of new red transmission fluid. SHIT, now what? Turns out the funnel would let the oil through faster than it would run down the dipstick tube and it was coming out of the tube and running down on the ground. What was to be a 10 minute job turned into 2 hours and now I have half a bag of oil dry on my barn floor to go out there and sweep up this afternoon.Overall, the mistake itself wasn't terrible. It isn't going to hurt anything to change the oil, the car has 103k on it, but I would have rather had the fluid here where I started and I also lost 4 quarts of new motor oil, at least it was dino instead of synthetic. Oh, and the mess on the floor.....
