The Wabe → The Roadtrip → The Roadtrip Reports → Year 3 → Roadtrip Report: 25 November 1998
Normally, the Roadtrip Report starts when Rob arrives in Los Alamitos; however, the events that occurred on his trip down are worth recording for posterity.
Richard Chio was to pick up Rob at 1:00 PM Wednesday. Around 1:30 Rob got a frantic call from Rich:
“Rob? I’m stuck here on the freeway. When I changed the oil in my car this morning, I forgot to put the oil drain plug back in. Don’t worry: I stopped before the engine went dry. I’m going to have the car towed to your house. Can you go over to Nissan and buy me a new drain plug?”
Rob was amused. It seemed that Rich had surpassed Paul in the Bonehead Car Repair Job department. Rob went out and bought the plug. When he returned, Rich and the car were there.
Plug in, oil added, and they were on their way. But when they stopped for gas...
...they noticed smoke coming out of the engine. Rich diagnosed a blown head gasket, a condition with which Rob was all too familiar.
The mechanic was quite amused with Rich’s oversight, but he dismissed the theory that the smoke was the result of a head gasket failure. He suspected spilled oil.
When the car went up on the rack, oil could be seen dripping from the bottom of the car. At first, the new oil plug was suspected; then it turned out that the oil filter Rich had chosen was of dubious quality. The filter replaced, they were on their way. It was now 8:00 PM.
So, the helpful automotive tip of the day is:
When draining the oil from your car, better performance can be achived by remembering to replace the drain plug when you finish. Also, avoid all oil filters from companies whose names rhyme with Spam.
The trip was uneventful, unless you count the detour that added two full hours to the normal six-hour trip.
Well, maybe not completely uneventful. About half-way down, Rob noticed a bright glow on the horizon. After travelling twenty miles, they found an incredibly bright fire. Was it a lightning strike? A plane crash? An out-of-control smudge pot? It looked like they would never ever find out....
Last Modified: 2003/12/08 09:02:06 GMT
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