It blows my mind that some car owners never change the oil in their cars

[XraytecH]

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[Rusty PW]

When I worked as a wrench spinner years ago. Used to see that crap all the time. Some people drive it until something either falls off or breaks.

 

[Lost1wing]

One one the guys I hunt with gets a new truck every year or two. He never opens the hood. When the check engine light comes on, that is his determining point that he gets a new truck. Sometimes less than a year but no more than 2 years.

He is an executive for a power company. He said the only way he could buy an electric truck would be to buy 2 electric trucks. He's not a fan of EV's.

 

[Hootbro]

Seems to be real prevalent with leased vehicles. Many who lease just will not put a dimes worth of maintenance towards it during the lease terms.

 

[Cburd61]

My daughter is like that. She bought an extra Crown Vic from me a few years ago, and I tried to emphasise the fact that, at least once a week, to check oil and fluids, and I would check out anything low or leaky. It was a low mileage car, about 90,000 miles on it. A few months later, she called wanting to know if she could have it towed to my house, so I could figure it out. First thing I did was check the fluids. Yep, no oil. Seems she had somehow hung an oil cooler line, and it was leaking it out every time she drove it. I asked her when the last time she checked the oil level was, it was when I had checked it when she was visiting us about a month before. This is why it stopped running:

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Seems to be real prevalent with leased vehicles. Many who lease just will not put a dimes worth of maintenance towards it during the lease terms.

In the 1990s I was, among other things, in charge of safety for On With Life.
I've have experts come in and speak on various things - fire, active shooter, storms and whatever.
I had a trooper from IHP come in and give a talk on various things like what to do approaching your car in a dark parking lot, what to do if stranded along the highway.......
He told of an incident where he came across a motorist sitting in his car, hood up, waiting for help.
Trooper asked what was up - driver said he was driving along, it made a sound, the engine ran rough and it just stopped.
So the trooper goes out under the hood and looks things over, belts, hoses, wires, obvious stuff.
He pulled the dipstick and wiped it off and put it back in and pulled it out again - nothing. He tried again, nothing, the dipstick was dry.
He goes back to the motorist and asked when he last had the oil changed -
Motorist says "oh, this is a lease car, I don't have to do that".
35,000 miles on the odometer.

In short, that Iowa Highway Patrol trooper would agree with your statement.

 

[Hootbro]

My daughter is like that. She bought an extra Crown Vic from me a few years ago, and I tried to emphasise the fact that, at least once a week, to check oil and fluids, and I would check out anything low or leaky. It was a low mileage car, about 90,000 miles on it. A few months later, she called wanting to know if she could have it towed to my house, so I could figure it out. First thing I did was check the fluids. Yep, no oil. Seems she had somehow hung an oil cooler line, and it was leaking it out every time she drove it. I asked her when the last time she checked the oil level was, it was when I had checked it when she was visiting us about a month before. This is why it stopped running:

That is a shame. Crown Vic's are easily 300K+ mile vehicles with basic maintenance.

My step daughter a few years back moved out to Arizona and bought herself a new to her Chevy Sonic. Flew out for a visit shortly after and walked her around it showing how to check her oil and other things under the hood. That was probably the last time the hood was open as two years later, she called home boo-hooing about it locking up. I had bought her a pre-paid oil change plan at her local Chevy dealership on my visit and constantly asked her when she called during the two years if she ever got the oil changed. Constant reply was she never had the time.

Some people are deserving of what they get for their own ignorance of consequences.

 

[Rusty PW]

I've changed oil on a few customers vehicles that when removing the drain plug. The oil came out like thick syrup. Makes you wonder how the oil pump was even able to pump that sludge. Fleet vehicles were the worst. When those came in. The mechanics would hide. Couldn't make money off of them because you were limited to what was in the contract.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I've changed oil on a few customers vehicles that when removing the drain plug. The oil came out like thick syrup. Makes you wonder how the oil pump was even able to pump that sludge. Fleet vehicles were the worst. When those came in. The mechanics would hide. Couldn't make money off of them because you were limited to what was in the contract.

The oil that came out of this 100,000 miles 1994 4.0 was like that - black sludge.
I thought maybe they goofed and put crude in it instead of refined oil.

It ran, but it wouldn't have for much longer.........
hard to tell from the pics but some of those teeth were missing roughly 1/4 of their thickness.

Sad because as a 4.0, it could have gone another 100,000 easily.
And it will, now in my car.

 

[Jefe1018]

Not me, they’ll teach you crap out mx+y=b in schools, but never how to change a tire, change your oil, calculate interest paid on a loan or credit card - or even how to get a mortgage.

 

[Rusty PW]

Not me, they’ll teach you crap out mx+y=b in schools, but never how to change a tire, change your oil, calculate interest paid on a loan or credit card - or even how to get a mortgage.

Because they don't know how to do it themselves.

 

[Rusty PW]

The oil that came out of this 100,000 miles 1994 4.0 was like that - black sludge.
I thought maybe they goofed and put crude in it instead of refined oil.

It ran, but it wouldn't have for much longer.........
hard to tell from the pics but some of those teeth were missing roughly 1/4 of their thickness.

Sad because as a 4.0, it could have gone another 100,000 easily.
And it will, now in my car.

When I worked for my brother. His neighbor had a 350 in a mid 80's Chevy. He brought it in for an oil change. Think it was the first, had 60,000 or so miles on it. Removed the drain plug and it looked like molasse coming out. We put a 50/50 mix of oil and kerosene in it. Ran it for a few minutes. Drained that out, and repeated again for 4 times total. The guy put over a 150,000 on that car. Think it might of had 4 oil changes in it's life.

 

[Rocksalt]

good thing the Gladiator is not a car

 

[ShadowsPapa]

But that Jeep 4.0 is in a car.

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