So I gotta clean oil off of the concrete slab in front of the garage.
See, MC’s car was due for an oil change.
No big deal, right?
I had her drive over (10 minutes), put out the Rhino Ramps (highly recommended), put the oil drain pan under the car, (making sure to pull the plug in the center of the drain area) and pulled the drain plug from the oil pan…which was, of course, hot after 10 minutes of driving. (I could have waited 15 minutes, but why?). Dropped the plug into the oil catch pan, and damned if it didn’t go DIRECTLY into the hole that drains the oil from the catch area to the inside…and fit tightly enough that the hole was essentially plugged. . Now, the car holds 4.7(ish) quarts and the oil catch area in the pan holds maybe 2.5……and the level of the catchment area was rising fast. Tried stirring the hot pool of oil with the wrench to dislodge the plug, but no joy.
FuckIt. Put my hand into the 200 degree oil and pulled the bolt out of the drain hole in the pan. Damn, that is hot. Not burnt skin, , but scorched. Like putting your hand into boiling water that sticks…..
I’ve done hundred of oil changes over the years. Never had a drain plug from the car hit the hole in the pan dead center and essentially plug it up perfectly like that. But some oil did escape from the catch pan as it tried to overflow.
The rest of the oil change went as expected. (I expect that Imp that is designated to screw with me got bored at that point, and left to make other mayhem elsewhere) Simple and clean. Quality oil and a quality filter. Checked the air filter and logged the date. Simple.
Of course, now I gotta get out the Dawn and scrub the concrete.
At least I know that the oil change is done right, not half-assed by some untrained minimum wage shop monkey who doesn’t care and who may or may not have used an impact to overtighten the drain plug or the (cheap) oil filter and may or may not have put the right amount of the correct oil in.
But damn, that oil is hot.
And I was at O’reilley’s auto and they had THIS oil drain pan on sale. The drain bolt won’t be an issue with this pan. and it will hold enogh to let me change the 3 gallon oil pan in my 6.7 cummins.
You NEVER HAD THAT HAPPEN BEFORE??? You live charmed life!
I use an old, galvanized steel oil drain pan that came over on the Mayflower; no chance of that “nut in the butt” scenario. My issues are with the placement of the oil filters on late model cars. You loosen the filter. Oil starts running out, lands on this, dribbles across that, and drops to the pavement about a foot from the drain pan!
Simple Green is my driveway redeemer of choice… Cheaper than Sawn. Works better than Dawn for that job.
I don’t even bother changing the oil on my F-250 turbodiesel. I take it to the dealer. I know, there’s a monkey with a wrench there, but four gallons is a lot of oil to deal with, and then there are those two oil filters. By the time I buy the oil and the filters, I’ve pretty much paid the same as having it changed at the dealer… And the dealer is two blocks from my job…
I’ve dropped the drain plugs into the oil pan before, but never had one fully fill the center hole such that it would not drain and thus overflowed.
Jumping in with further explanation. When we bought the car, I stupidly put on prepaid oil changes for up to 25,000 miles as part of the purchase price since it seemed like a good deal. Not so much (B warned me). The last oil change under the plan, some shop monkey (apparently) used an oversized impact to put the drain plug back in. Not only was it in so tight that B started to distort the pan trying to get it out, but the edges were chewed off. And the dealership tried to tell me the edges were chewed off due to “salt corrosion”. I told them I’d eat my left shoe if an impact didn’t cause that problem and some dude standing behind the manager agreed with me.
Needless to say I got that oil change for free and never went back. Now, it’s done right every time!
+1 on Tom… sigh
Did you check out the reviews? Seems that you may have to make some field modifications to get it to work. Someone else notes that all the raised “stuff” causes splash problems.
Sticking with my old Rubbermaid oil drain pan. Bought it back in the 80s and it’s still getting the job done.
Drilling out the drain hole is no big deal (they are 2 quarter inch inch holes that will soon be much larger). And it is as deep a splash pan as my other oil pan.
Worst case I am out less than $20 and can still use my old oil pan.
+1 on the Rubbermaid pan.
But….I use an old 5-gallon AFFF concentrate container to hold the oil from several changes until I can get to a recycling tank for it.
I thought I was being really, really, clever having a spare oil pan drain plug and some gaskets for each vehicle – just let the drain plug fall into the Rubbermaid pan with the hot old oil, when the oil pan is done dripping put the replacement plug and new gasket in place, torque it, put a large funnel in the opening of the AFFF can, pour the used oil into it and remove the drain plug when the Rubbermaid pan is almosty empty.
Assuming one remembers the drain plug is in the pan. I now have a nearly full 5-gallon AFFF can with 2 drain plugs in it and need a magnet on a long stick……
The good news is that your concrete is now rust-proofed