Part Of Maintaining Your Car Is To Change Oil, And It’s Real Easy Too!

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 a co-worker. She said that she would drive because she needed to fill her car with gas. While we were at the service station I noticed that her red oil light was on. When she got back in the car I asked her if she had checked her oil. She said no 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 they change oil in their garage, but she did not know. She said that if he did change oil himself she had never seen him do this.

She then asked if I had ever seen anyone change oil. I explained 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. She 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. She told them that she would check with her husband.

When my co-worker 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 did change oil in his but he assumed she was taking care of her own car maintenance. There 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 and her mother so she just assumed her husband would do the same.

Leave a Comment