I’m going through a slight conundrum with my car. See, I just took it in for it’s 90K checkup, and spent a buttload of dollars getting it fixed up. Which I’d expected. The thing is, I really liked the shop I went to. It’s an oil change and car repair shop that also has a coffee house attached. While I sat and waited for my car, I down two different types of chai tea, one of them on the house due to my really long wait. The one I actually paid for was some of the best chai tea I’ve ever had. So, this shop has an oil change deal where, for $99 you can buy 4 oil changes + 4 drinks. The problem is, I’ve got my own ramps, and my own pan. I’ve been changing my own oil for several years now. It saves me money. But then again, it’s not like it saves me a huge amount of money. And it was also a huge pain to change oil in the winter, given that the parking lot was perpetually covered in wet slush most of the time. And I live in an apartment, so it’s also a pain just storing the oil changing materials (especially since I lack a balcony or backyard). In any case, I’m currently debating selling my oil changing stuff and just going to this shop. If I do this, I might hold off until the weather gets crappy again, since changing your oil in the summer is no biggie. That slush last winter sure was awful to lie in, though!

Drew starts the car, and there’s a “bloop” noise and gushing…then dripping. A bunch of oil slowly oozed out of the car. As it was getting on towards dusk and we had no idea what was going on, we stopped for the night. The internet mentioned a few possibilities, with a few curses thrown in the direction of Jiffy Lube and their ilk. I was able to snake my hand in from the top and grab the oil filter, and it seemed tight enough. Today, I peered under the car and tried to make out where the oil plug was. I couldn’t see it, and, reaching around amongst the oily patches, I thought I felt a hole with oil around it (neglecting to realize that the entire freaking underside of the car had oil on it at this point).

So we headed over to Advance Auto, where, along with dumping the old oil, we pick up some new oil plus an oil plug. In this fabulous overcast 30some degree weather with the parking lot still partially covered in snow (and the remainder now covered in motor oil, unfortunately), we rolled the car back onto the ramps. I get underneath, and the plug’s still there. Looking up, I can also see that the oil definitely came from the filter. However, I can’t seem to tighten it any more with my hand. So Drew gets under the car, and can’t tighten it any further, either. So then we switch tactics, and he removes the oil filter altogether. Oil filter looks fine. Then I decide to stick my hand down where the oil filter used to be, and poke around to look for any funny business. After I’d grown a few new joints in my forearm, I manage to get my hand into where the filter goes…and pull out a twisted little rubber ring, left behind from the last filter. Hooray!

Drew screws the oil filter back in, saying that it screwed in both tighter and easier then the last time. And the car is fine, now. Which is good, as that would have put a serious damper in our upcoming trip otherwise. Now all we have to go is go get a bunch of kitty litter and some newspapers to take care of the mess we left in the parking lot!

So I drive a Kia Rio, and it has a 96 hp and a 28.1 LB / HP ratio. While I am not fully sure what these figures mean, I know for a fact that my car was much happier driving around Richmond then it is driving around in the foothills of the Rockies It struggles up hills and it’s often really hard to make it to the speed limit (albeit, the speed limit out here is often 75, but still). I’m thinking that for my next car, I’ll probably want to get something with a better engine. And then Drew and I were trying to figure out fuel efficiency for such things, and Google proved no help. So here’s a question for anyone that knows about cars: would having a car with a higher horsepower give me better fuel efficiency for driving on hills? I’m sure that, if nothing else, it would make going up the hills more pleasant. However, I’m not really sure of the connection between higher horsepower (or a higher ratio, for that matter) and if you use less gas because of that (or more gas, for that matter). Or if the change in gas usage would be negligible. Any advice is appreciated!