Changed my girly's oil and filter the other day..

[Major_Tom]

..and no that's not a euphermism you filthy dogs.

Anyway it was on her Ford Ka.. an Endura engined one. We went straight to the shop for an oil and filter after discovering the sump was literally almost empty.. a few millimeters on the dipstick. Stuck in some my 20/50 to make do for the trip to the stop.

Well after jacking it up and finding out I couldn't find any axle stands, I undid a wheel, put that on top of a transit van wheel, and used that and the jack as makeshift stands... then snapped my strap wrench on the oil filter trying to take it off from underneath. It had either never been oiled when it was put on or not changed in years.. or both.. then I tried Rich's three-clawed oil filter removal tool, much more effective, but it still took absolutely ages. I;ve never encountered such a stiff bastard of a one.

Then the sump bolt, which again had clearly not been taken off in a thousand moons, predictably wouldn't shift, even when coated in Plusgas and left for ten minutes I couldn't shift it with my extra long ratchet.. had to smack the thing, really smack it with the wheelbrace to even begin to shift it.

And the oil.. eugh, I've not even seen used Transit diesel oil so black. There was still quite a lot in it still though surprisiingly.

Felt good to get some fresh oil in it and do everything right.

And they don't half rust those Kas do they.. think I'll be doing more work to that this year than the Capri. Dread to think how stiff those spark plugs are going to be.

At least it's a Ford I suppose.. and a black one.

[Ghia15]

She is lucky to have a guy like you to help her out by the sounds of it Tom.

And that TDCI oil does get very black.

[Major_Tom]

Sure.. but the Endura is a petrol!

[Craigorypeck]

how much did you charge her tom!!??

[dan the capri fan]

when i first read the topic name i thought you were reffering to your capri as girly tom and them endura engines allways sound like the tappets need to be done because they rattle more than them HCS engines do that were in the mk4 escort 1.3 and the mk3 fiestas. how rusty is her KA on a scale of 1 to 10 tom as well as craig i dont think she paid tom with money

[Major_Tom]

Not as rusty as some I've seen.. wouldn't fail its test yet.. not good though for a modern car.

[dan the capri fan]

no its not good for a modern car but thats why we all love the old fords because they were built when cars were made by hand and used thicker steal in there construction. i recently replaced the exhaust rubbers on my capri i borrowed some ramps off a friend and when i was doing the work i got a good look underneath the car the main parts of rust were on the axle and prop shaft. the whole underneath of the car was rust free solid as a rock i want to thank the guy who put the under seal on my car because he/she done a fantastic job considering its nearly 30 years old

[renaulthater]

Ka ahh, disposable arnt they

[andrewg1323]

Leave the plugs!
1300's rarely die anyway, tbh oil and water are optional extras in these engines

I drove my old escort 4 miles with no oil or water due to a major overheat and didnt break anything!

Cock of a job when you snap a plug in one though, know several people who have

[Major_Tom]

I'll defer to your judgement Andrew.. ahhhhhh, that's one less job then.

You can see how enthusiastic I was about it can't you

[340truck]

Easiest way to remove an oil filter is bang an old. long screwdriver through it.

[Terra-Kotta]

Easiest way to remove an oil filter is bang an old. long screwdriver through it.

That's best. Untill you get left with a mangled stubb. (Best talk to Tom about that one)

[Major_Tom]

Tell about it.. there wasn't enough clearance to get barely a click more on the ratchet so the screwdriver would have just left me with... ahem... a mangled stub.

[pbar]

Those KA's rust like mad, the worst car I've ever seen for it. I looked at a lot of them recently for a young driver, and they had all rusted, to varying degrees. It's the cheapest car to insure for a new driver, so it was the only viable option. One of the sales guys gave me the blurb that, in the country where these are primarily sold, the rainfall is minimal, so very little rust protection went into the car during manufacture. Whether that's true or not I don't know, but I do know that you're lucky to see one that's a few years old without rust on it.