Oakie
12th June 2010, 19:24
We have a car. It is a Toyota Corsa (1300cc shopping basket type). I guess when I first opened the lid on it to look at the engine I noticed the dip-stick on the right hand side of the engine. I probably pulled it out, checked the oil level, found it good and put it back in it's hole.
I have continued to do this for the 7 years and 60,000k we've had the vehicle. Always found the oil level full and a nice clean reddy colour (Castol oil). Always got the garage to do the oil change at warrant or service time thru sheer laziness.
Have had the oil light come on once so limped to a garage in that block and recitified the situation. A litre bought it back up to full on the dipstick.
Today with a case of the guilts I decided I would change the oil myself as it was a few thou overdue. Checked oil level before starting and it was full and nice reddy colour. Imagine my surprise then as I removed the sump plug to be met with a brief torrent of thick dirty black oil ... and probably not even two litres when it holds 2.7 litres. After a few minutes of puzzling and noticing a couple of odd things (like seeing on the dip-stick an instruction on checking the diff oil level), a lightbulb flickered over my head. I got the torch and had a look around the rest of the engine where lo and behold tucked away in the darkness at the back I found what appeared to be another dip-stick. Turns out that what I thought was the oil dip-stick and had been checking religiously every month was actually the dip-stick for the transmission fluid. So had the car 7 years and never checked the oil. Poor car! No risk of ever running low on transmission fluid tho I guess. Yup. Finished up with three dip-sticks in the garage this afternoon.
I have continued to do this for the 7 years and 60,000k we've had the vehicle. Always found the oil level full and a nice clean reddy colour (Castol oil). Always got the garage to do the oil change at warrant or service time thru sheer laziness.
Have had the oil light come on once so limped to a garage in that block and recitified the situation. A litre bought it back up to full on the dipstick.
Today with a case of the guilts I decided I would change the oil myself as it was a few thou overdue. Checked oil level before starting and it was full and nice reddy colour. Imagine my surprise then as I removed the sump plug to be met with a brief torrent of thick dirty black oil ... and probably not even two litres when it holds 2.7 litres. After a few minutes of puzzling and noticing a couple of odd things (like seeing on the dip-stick an instruction on checking the diff oil level), a lightbulb flickered over my head. I got the torch and had a look around the rest of the engine where lo and behold tucked away in the darkness at the back I found what appeared to be another dip-stick. Turns out that what I thought was the oil dip-stick and had been checking religiously every month was actually the dip-stick for the transmission fluid. So had the car 7 years and never checked the oil. Poor car! No risk of ever running low on transmission fluid tho I guess. Yup. Finished up with three dip-sticks in the garage this afternoon.