Auto Maintenance and the Dipstick Disaster

Auto maintenance. Wow, now this is a subject that is totally out of my league.  In my marriage, the vehicles were men’s work, that being Art.  I never even put gas into my car, washed it, detailed it, or did whatever needed to be done to keep it functioning (most of the time).

The last time I thought I knew what I was doing with my car, I decided to check—and possibly add—oil. We were heading up to the cottage, and I wanted to make sure the car was in good working order. I remembered that it had needed oil before, so I figured I should check to make sure it wasn’t a problem again.

I popped the hood (check), found the hood prop (check), and located the dipstick (check). So far, so good.

Now comes the interesting part. I clearly remembered watching Art pull out the dipstick, wipe it off, put it back in, pull it out again, and hold it up to the light to check the oil level. Somewhere along the way, my brain decided that the oil was supposed to go all the way up the stick.

Wrong.

As I later learned, the oil level is measured at the bottom of the dipstick and should only reach a specific mark. But at the time, I didn’t know that. So off I went to Kwik Trip and bought oil. Unfortunately, I later discovered that I had purchased lawn mower oil. It had the same number—so obviously, that made sense to me.

I poured it in, put the dipstick back in, pulled it out again, and stared at it. No change. No oil showing up at all.

And that’s when I realized… something was definitely not right.

Well, when you realize that you are out of your league and don’t obviously know what you are doing, what do you do?  Call one of your kids, ‘Chelle, being the lucky one.  But, because she was 2.5 hours away, she told me to call her sons, Brad and Nate, which I did.  They came through immediately and rescued me.  

After hearing my story (and fully acknowledging my stupidity while questioning how I managed this at all), Nate and Brad drained the oil. Then they went and bought the correct oil and put that in instead.

The moral of the story? Before you act—especially when you think you know what you’re doing but have never done it before—call in the experts. Lesson learned. And I have to love my grandsons, who once again came to the rescue and are always there for me.

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