Three Things To Check After Your Oil Change Service
Changing your engine oil on a regular basis is a fact of life. The convenience of a quick oil change service center is hard to beat. Just keep in mind that the service center makes its money on volume and may rush the repair in order to increase their profits. Making a few quick checks after the oil change service is completed, will assure that your service was done properly.
After your quick oil change service is completed, one of the first things that you want to check is that the oil is filled to its proper level. Each vehicle has a different oil capacity. Not all vehicles take 5 quarts of engine oil. For example, my 4.3 L engine in my blazer takes 4 1/2 quarts of oil. Any time I had my oil changed by somebody else, they have overfilled it by a half-quart or more.
Overfilling the engine oil is bad for the long-term health of your engine. If the engine oil is overfilled the oil may start to foam up. And this will diminish its lubricating properties. I have also seen the oil overfilled to the point where it starts to wash down the lower part of the cylinder walls.
The instructions for checking your oil level can be found in your owner s manual. Usually along with a picture of what the dipstick looks like. In most cases, the dipstick handle is yellow for engine oil. If you should find that the engine oil is overfilled return to the oil change service center and have them correct the condition.
The next thing you want to check after your quick oil change service has been completed. Is the tire pressure on all four tires? This again was supposed to be included in your oil change service. But it is important enough to double check to make sure that your tires are properly inflated. Under inflated tires can reduce fuel economy drastically and can be considered a safety concern.
The federal government has considered this so important that it has mandated that all new vehicles come with a tire pressure monitor system. Chances are your next vehicle will warn you when your tires are under inflated. But if your car does not have this system. It s a good idea to purchase a tire pressure gauge and keep an eye on your pressure. The tire specification can be found usually on the doorjamb of the vehicle on the driver side or also in the owner s manual. Under the tire section.
The next thing you should check after oil change service has been completed is to verify that the oil filter is not leaking. Sometimes when oil change mechanic is performing your oil change service. He may get distracted and forget to tighten the oil filter all the way.
Also a common mistake is for the oil change technician to forget to remove the old oil filter O-ring gasket that can sometimes get stuck to the oil filter housing. If this happens when he screws on the new oil filter there will be two O-ring gaskets. In between the oil filter and the housing sealing surface. In this scenario, the oil filter may not leak right away. But there is a good chance that it will start leaking soon. All you have to do is poke your head under the vehicle and visually inspect the oil filter and make sure that no oil is dripping off of it.
If you do not know the location of your oil filter, You can ask your quick oil change service mechanic to point the filter out to you. After you know where the filter is every once in a while, you can poke your head under and look for oil dripping off the filter. You can also keep an eye on the ground underneath your vehicle to see if any oil puddles occur.
Mark Gittelman is an automotive expert and an ASE certified master mechanic.
Mark supplies lots more free information on do-it-yourself auto repair at his website.
For answers to car questions of all kinds. you can visit his homepage at auto-facts.org
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admin on November 11th 2007 in automotive
