What happened to me last night.

[prigo]

Every night I do a set of deliveries for work, that takes me from El Monte, to Redondo Beach, to Burbank. Its pretty fun work, and interesting things happen at night. Last night...

So everythings going average, I'm on my way home, and "pop, clank". I check my rearview, and theres smoke.

I'm like, "oh [censored]".

So I immediately clutch in, and coast to the shoulder, and kill the motor.

I hop out, and check under teh hood. Greyish white smoke. Oil

Oil is pouring out of the bottem of my car, and I'm like "sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet".

Then I realize what happened.

When I had done my oil change 3 hours earlier, while I DID tighten the drain plug, I didn't get it tight enough. (My old man, and grandfather always said "Don't overtighten the frickin thing" so, as a large guy, I'm careful not to, but I guess I was too careful).

So yea, my car's spewing its lifeblood all over the freeway, its 2 am, and I'm at a call box (luckily).

So I call CHP, and the dispatcher was TOTALLY inept. They ask me for the callbox number, and he says "So you're south of Wilshire Blvd?"

I'm like "Um, no, Im 100 yards NORTH of it." You'd think the fact that they have the locations of those damn call boxes marked on a map that they could get locations right

So the tow truck guy shows up 30 min later, and we're rappin, and he's all like "Its gonna cost $124 for me to get it off the freeway" I'm sure my jaw hit the pavement...

So I call my old man (who I unfortunately for him, had to wake up, and he has to be up for work at 5:20 am ) and let him know. He says to just do it. Then Scott (the tow truck guy) was like "oh shoot, thats AWD huh? that'll be $160."

If my jaw hadn't hit the pavement before, it sure as hell did now. I told him "Dude, I can't frickin afford that."

He replied after thinking for a moment "Alright, I'll do it for $124 for ya, and get ya off the freeway, cuz if I hook you up, the sensor will relay that I have a tow on, and I'll have to charge you."

I was still like "Dude... I cant afford it." After thinking a moment, I was like "Alright, do me a favor, drive in front of me, I'll push the damn thing off the freeway." After all, it was only like 100 yards.

So I start pushing, and I get it up to speed (about 6-8 mph) then I hop in. Luckily I was on a slight downhill, so I could coast the car. I rolled it down the Westbound Wilshire Blvd exit, and into an area that looked like there'd be a parking lot. I had to try to push the car up a hill to the parking lot. I couldn't manage. Scott was still there the whole time, he gave me a hand, but even with two of us we only managed to move it about 20 feet.

We tried to hook up a tow chain, but the hooks wouldnt fit my tie down loops.

My old man shows up a few min later, and we realize theres another parking lot, slightly down the hill we just pushed up, then up a lesser hill. So we turned the car, and got a rolling start (with me inside, steering), and got the car most of the way up the little hill before the car lost momentum. As it slowed down, I jumped out, and kept it rolling. They got in their vehicles (my old man his camery, and Scott his tow truck) and came over as quick as they could. I pushed it a good 50 feet before they got back on it. We eventually rolled it into a spot, where we left it for the night. We threw a $50 Scotts way for all the help he gave us.

Tomorrow I have to go get a drain plug from the dealer (if they have any), and then go add 4.2 quarts of oil to my car. Hopefully there was no engine damage, but who knows. Most of the oil didn't drain out until the car was on the shoulder, and the oil light didnt come on until after the car was stopped and it drained oil for a good 7-8 seconds.

Lesson learned:

Torque specifications, thats what they're there for.

[krazy skwerel]

No we can't start losing cars. Get it back on the road. Which one was it? 240 r Subbie?

[Mr1der]

reminds me of stupid oil filter problems with the t bird...

[prigo]

It was the Scoobie, its back on the road tho, and runnin strong

[prigo]

Update: Its fine, everythings AOK, in fact, I made my first of many car payments on it today