Feeling old? Someone isn’t, apparently. Margaret Dunning bought this superb 1930 Packard 740 in 1949, and not only does she still drive it a few times a year, including to car shows, but she says she does her own oil changes on its big straight eight engine. She has a few other vintage cars in her garage, but the Packard has its special place, both in the garage and her heart.
But she is considering buying a new car, and is amazed at how much easier they are to drive, with power steering and all. “With the older cars you have to use what I call arm-strong steering. But cars like the Packard make it all worthwhile. I love that car a great deal. I mean, I honestly do love it.”
Do you still change your oil yourself? I do, in the summer.
Good timing, I’m about to change mine now.
What a spectacular automobile. Not to mention a pretty cool lady! I’d love to see the other cars she has in the stable.
Yup. All 3 are due for a change this weekend.
Yes. I change my own oil, and will happily trade any of my “new” cars for this lady’s Packard!
Wow, what a beautiful car! Reminds me of visiting the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum in Indiana, where they have many brands of expensive cars of bygone days.
Yes, I do change my own oil, on all 3 vehicles in my fleet.
I did change my own oil,and did many of my own repairs. But not anymore. I spent 36 years working in a car factory. I don’t turn anymore wrenches.
I really enjoy detailing, it makes me feel good,and my hands don’t get dirty.
BTW…. Very interesting story, and what a wonderfull lady.
I’ve changed my own oil enough to learn to hate the task. Nothing difficult; just tedium mixed in with Murphy on a hot engine. First, find the drainpan; and hopefully find that crack in it before you pull the drainplug, not after. The lidded pan/buckets are a great idea…more on that later.
Pull the drainplug. Feel that hot engine oil wash down your forearm….onto your elbow. You’ll be reminded of that later, as you see all the smudges you leave around shop and kitchen.
Start on the filter. Damn…why is it that almost every design, makes it IMPOSSIBLE to get a band filter wrench around it? Struggle for ten minutes, then get the old long screwdriver and a hammer. Put the drainpan under it; skewer it; twist…and find the oil gusher took a wonderful cirticious route, completely missing the drain pan but getting the starter, the ground strap, a junction box and half the frame.
Take fifteen minutes for cathartic cursing.
Install filter. HERE’s where some thinking actually pays…I pour fresh oil into the filter BEFORE installation, as well as around the gasket. Goes on smoothly, albeit with some spillage. Does it matter at this point?
Get the torque wrench out to reinstall the drain plug. I use a torque wrench because when you strip an oil-pan thread once, you won’t want to do it again. Mercy sakes and damn it all, why is it nobody’s figured out a way to put a neat FAUCET on the bottom of the drain pan?
Fish the drain plug out of the bottom of the pan where it fell when your forearm was cooking in hot oil. Screw it in, the oil down your arm again but this time not so hot. You’ve already ruined your shirt…why worry now?
Pour the oil in…TRYING to remember to PULL THE DIPSTICK BEFOREHAND. Put in one LESS than the called-for amount…and insert the dipstick.
Pull the dipstick out. Wipe it…the tube somehow got filled with oil. Insert it again, and curse. Can’t see the fresh oil on the stick.
Using dirty hands, fumble for a flashlight. The one in the toolbox has dead batteries; go through the car, leaving smudges everywhere…pull out flashlight. Hold light and dipstick right up against face to see where the clean oil level is at. Add appropriately.
Level’s good. Phone ringing! Go answer it…you’re called to work on short notice! Some more creative cursing; sling the tools and box into a corner. Slam hood and lope to the utility sink in a dead run.
Throw work gear into car…start it…back up…CRUNCH! Stop car and get out, to inspect plastic oil recovery tray you just ran over. Start frantically fishing for rags and cotton waste to sop up five quarts of black oil.
Clean up again, while thinking what you’ll tell the boss when you get in twenty minutes later than he and you expected.
No…at my age, and with my patience, the best deal on the PLANET is the $30 oil-change special at Quicklube.
*looks for a LIKE THIS POST button*
Yes, that was good. Fortunately, after experiencing all of the above (except running over the pan), I’ve got it down pretty well.
I have four vehicles and several mowers; I do them all at once, which really makes more sense (and substantial savings) than for just one car.
Two cars; down to one cycle. The new car and cycle are under warranty; I wouldn’t deign to try changing oil on a new BMW R1200. Too much other work has to be done the same time on that one…
Likewise the new car. Gotta keep the paper trail good just in case.
The “old” rig, an ’03 Dodge full-size van (I can’t get used to calling something made after Y2K “old” but it is) I run syn-oil in; and do a twice-yearly oil change. Spring and fall. With $4/gallon gas, I can’t afford to drive it much anyway. It’s a utility standby.
But I have to marvel at that old gal, if she really does do her own oil changes. One lady in particular I knew; she was a worker and a country gal; didn’t mind getting dirty down on the farm. And she kept her kitchen humming…but somehow I couldn’t interest her in learning auto maintenance. Tried to teach her, but it always devolved into her handing me wrenches and beers…she was a good girl, very domesticated. Makes me wonder if there’s something sex-related in women’s aversion to mechanical work.
Marvelous writing JPT. It’s the truth. You mentioned Murphy too, oil’s one of his favorites. Someone I know very well once had a two-year-old 4V DOHC Celica with a sideways oil filter way up underneath where it could not be seen, only felt. A month after it was changed, winding out up a freeway ramp, an odd sound quickly brought his eyes to an oil pressure gauge showing zero. Instantly hit the clutch and key, not in time. The oil filter came loose at full power and the engine dumped its guts fast. Total head rebuild, and the engine was never quite the same. Turned out the old filter’s gasket had stayed stuck to the block, and the new filter spun down on top of it. Took a month to work loose. The old filter was so oily after coming out sideways, I hadn’t noticed the empty gasket slot. I mean that person hadn’t noticed. The shame of it.
As for me…my Prius came with Mobil 1 synthetic, with a 10K change interval, done by the dealer. Hybrids put so little strain on the engine the oil’s still honey-colored after 10K. My wife takes her Subie down to the local Subie guy to be changed.
Soon I hope, I’ll be driving an electric car. No crankcase, no oil.
Love it. About 90% of these headaches depend on the car…I had a Pathfinder where the filter screws on sideways underneath the exhaust manifold and no matter what you do, oil is going to drip all over the place. It meant that a simple 15-minute oil change procedure had to take an entire day because, well, the car has to cool.
Luckily on my new Civic, the filter goes on in the proper upward direction, though I wish I didn’t have to waste time jacking it up in order to get down there.
I had a well trained Toyota Corona diesel it changed its own oil after 25litres between changes I sold it but it always had cleanish oil.
I think it’s terrific that she takes care of that Packard and does her own oil changes.
However, the quick lube costs $22 with a coupon. Oil and a filter at Walmart costs $15. I’m not doing all that filthy back-busting labor and then having to drive around with a bottle of dirty oil looking for a place to recycle it just to save $7. Forget that noise.
AMEN!
I forgot the fun of getting rid of the old oil…assuming you hadn’t spilled it all in any earlier accident. Back before the government strong-armed retailers to take old oil; but after they started getting ugly about “midnight disposals”…I started leaving jugs of the stuff on the back doors of local repair facilities.
They didn’t like it, I’m sure. I didn’t, either – but going to gaol over a gallon of oil I couldn’t dump or burn or pass off, wasn’t a winning plan, either.
No, the fast-oil-change places are really the best way to go. The extra cost, all told, is under $15…for, what? Six times a year? Hundred bucks per annum. About as much today, as two tanks of gas.
Now go price a replacement oil pan, after the quickie-lube guy cross-threads and strips out the drain plug…
changed my own oil on various vehicles for years.. not only did it save me money but I always welcomed the opportunity to inspect things under the hood while doing it. Like the time I noticed a battery cable on my old Datsun/Nissan (it was the year of the transition and both names were on the tailgate) was literally hanging on by a thread.
The PELA 6000 vacuum pump sure made it easy to change the oil on my beloved passat. Warm up the engine, stick the hose down the dipstick tube and suck it out. Since I could get to the filter without getting under the car, no ramps were required.
Now I own a BMW 1-series. I guess I could change the oil.. I’d have to look into it. This car has no dipstick and I have no idea where the filter is. And I’m sure some german wonder tool would be required ($$$) for the job.
I change my own oil. I’d never trust some Monkey Lube place with my vehicles. It’s not worth it.
If you owned a 1930 Packard, who would YOU trust to change the oil in it?
I changed the oil in my 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and with the 307V8 it was fairly easy and straight forward. My then wife’s 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera soured me on DIY oil changes. It had the V6 and the filter was located in a way that made it mandatory to get waste oil all over the CV joints on one side of the car. I still change the oil in my scooter myself but I’m gonna make a point of changing the oil myself in my next ride, that’s one of the reasons that I desire something old, simple, and non-computer controlled.
Yes I do, I mostly gave up on having others do it for several reasons:
1) It takes less time. I can get the oil and filter on my way home from work, and do it in the driveway while doing something else during the waiting parts. Overall it’s less time than going to the lube place, waiting around, then coming back.
2) Nobody takes my car apart. I really hate it when they come in with parts of my car and say “you should really get a new gas cap/air filter/wiper blade etc. etc.” My Windstar van had a really fiddly air filter box and they could never get the filter back in properly and the clamps latched.
3) It gets me out of the house for a half hour and changing oil is more enjoyable than changing the dishes in the dishwasher or any number of indoor tasks.
Loved all the oil changing stories, but what I really wound love to know is what other classic cars does this great lady have in her garage?