This Is What Happened When I Tried to Teach My Girlfriend How to Change Motor Oil

When I asked my girlfriend to go get motor oil for me, she likened the experience to when a girl asks a guy to get tampons. She knew nothing about cars, nor what motor oil to use, so she had no idea what motor oil standards or types or brands to look for. She had no idea about engine oil or about motor oil, and when she tried to pick what motor oil to use, I only had to take it back. It was sweet of her to try, but I was dumb for sending her.

Then she got mad and asked to learn so that way in the future she would know what motor oil to use on her car, and would not need to rely on me.

The first thing I explained to her was that motor oil does not wear out. It just gets dirty, which is why recycling it is so important, because it saves a valuable resource. The used motor oil from just one typical oil change, believe this or not, can actually ruin one million gallons of freshwater. That being said, unfortunately, the United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 200 million gallons (which is about 757,082 liters) of motor oil are dumped illegally each year.

Next, I taught her that putting too much oil in your car may cause part of the crankshaft to dip into the oil. This churns air into the oil and causes foaming, as well as fluctuations in oil pressure. She gave me a blank stare to which I simply told her how too much oil is just a bad thing, and then tried to answer her question about what motor oil to use.

I next taught her about how all the different specifics and jargon words, so that for future reference she knew what motor oil to use. I think it was about the time that I explained how the SAE viscosity gradings included 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 or 60, from low to high viscosity.

It was sweet of her to try, but all she took away from it was just exactly how devastating oil can impact our fresh water, which if there was only one thing you, reader, took from this should be as well.

What are your thoughts and opinions on changing motor oil? Do you what motor to use? Do you have any questions about what motor oil to use? Do you change your own or do you just know of different oil change places? Do you have any recommended motor oil? What do you think is the best motor oil? Leave what motor oil to use for the best results in the comments!