...and of course I am not entirely serious. I should have changed the oil before now, and would have if I'd had the money to do it; but until I got my job in October I simply wasn't driving the Jeep all that much. I was riding the motorcycle almost everywhere, or staying home, and it's hard to justify spending $25 on oil and a filter when you're not using the vehicle very much and you have to scrounge for gas money.
That's changed; and I had occasion to be at Walmart the other day and picked up a 5-quart jug of oil for $15, which is really hard to beat. Today I needed just one more quart (Jeep has a 6-qt sump) and an oil filter to do the job, all of which cost me about $9 from Advance Auto. The second-biggest pain in the ass was getting the oil filter off--after all, it's been on there for thirteen damned months--but I didn't need tools for it because I put my oil filters on the right damned way. I just had to squeeze both hands in there to break it loose, and once I'd turned it through about a revolution and a half I could unscrew it the rest of the way with one hand. (Yes, the gasket came off intact--because I always lube them before installation.)
First biggest: I had to take a leak, so I started the oil draining and went inside the house. When I came back out, there was a puddle next to the oil drain pan where the stream of oil had deflected, either because of wind or the flow properties of the drain in the oil pan. I don't know; it wasn't a lot but it was a mess I had to clean off the garage floor. Argh etc.
Evaluating the noise I hear when in 4WD was beyond the scope of today's project; I would have had to put the thing up on jack stands. But I can slide under the truck without jacking it up, so I was able to try wiggling the front driveshaft and checking how much play it has with the front wheels both engaged and disengaged. It didn't seem excessive either way, which doesn't really tell me anything useful.
Certainly I am not in Og's predicament. Chatting with him last night he told me that he and Partner had tore the front diff out of the Exploder again, because it was making an ungodly noise. I figured it must've been to make him do that job again.
The noise my truck's making might just be me being a big vagina, too. I hardly used 4WD at all last year (just that one March day when it snowed) and I'm using it a hell of a lot more this year. It may be a matter of my having forgotten what it sounds like when 4WD is engaged.
So once I was done with the maintenance, I got out my snow shovel and got rid of the stuff I couldn't blow yesterday because our vehicles were in the way. And as I finished that?
Snowflakes. *sigh*
How's the weather looking?
Tonight*heavy sigh*
Snow. Snow may be heavy at times. Snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches. Lows around 20. West winds around 10 mph in the evening shifting to the north after midnight. Chance of precipitation 100 percent.
Sunday
Windy...snow. Areas of blowing snow in the afternoon. Snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches. Total snow accumulation 5 to 9 inches. Highs around 20. Then temperatures falling into the lower teens by evening. Wind chills as low as 5 below to 15 below zero. North winds 10 to 20 mph increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph. Chance of precipitation 100 percent.
Sunday Night
Windy...cloudy. Areas of blowing snow. Bitterly cold. Lows 14 to 18 below. Lowest wind chill readings 30 below to 40 below zero after midnight. Northwest winds 20 to 30 mph early in the evening decreasing to 15 to 25 mph in the late evening and overnight. Gusts up to 35 mph.
Monday
Partly cloudy. Areas of blowing snow. Blustery. Very cold with record breaking temperatures likely. Highs 9 to 13 below. Wind chills as low as 35 below to 45 below zero. West winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 30 mph.
Monday Night
Partly cloudy in the evening then clearing. Bitterly cold. Lows 13 to 17 below. Wind chills as low as 30 below to 40 below zero. West winds 10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the evening.
Well, it's winter. WTF do I expect?