I changed the oil in the old Ford yesterday, it hasn’t been done for at least four years so I thought it was about time, well I’ve been out the country for a while. I bought the car in 2002 and yesterday was the first time I have done an oil change by myself as it turns out.

It’s not that I don’t know how to do it but when I bought the car it was under warranty and so I used to get it serviced on a regular basis. After the warranty ran out I just could not be bothered getting my hands dirty and I would take it to my local mechanic who would not only change the oil but do all the other preventative maintenance. Time was short and I had more money then.

Now I have more time and not so much money and so I thought I would do it myself, I mean how hard can it be? I hate crawling under cars, I have never liked it. To reach the sump plug I had to jack the car up a little. I have a trolley jack so it’s quite easy.

I then went to remove the oil filter but as usual you have to be a cripple or contortionist to do so. I could not access it from the top so I jacked the car up a bit to try to access it from underneath. Easier said than done. I fought with the filter for quite some time before I decided to call a halt and have lunch.

Refreshed from lunch, left over stir fry, I preceded to tackle the problem at hand. If I could just get more purchase on the filter I would be ok. I decided to remove the air filter box which is on the nearside of the car which allowed me more access to the oil filter. I was able to reach the filter but could still not get a grip on it to turn it. I put on my fancy rubber coated gloves which have more friction than my hands and I was able to finally release the filter and I felt the strain through my arms and stomach when it finally gave way.

I was pretty chuffed that I had gotten it off, even although it put up quite a fight. I’ve been watching “Wheeler Dealers” on TV and this has given me the inspiration to tackle such jobs, next job will be to add an oil cooler to the gearbox but I will have to watch a few more YouTube videos before I tackle that.

The air filter was replaced, new engine oil and filter and when I went for a drive today the old girl seemed to rejoice.