Oil Changes: Our Road Trip Near-Miss
Australia, Car, Lost Girls RTW Adventure — By Amanda P on June 21, 2007 at 4:02 am
I should probably be more embarrassed to admit this, but during the six years I held both a valid driver’s licences and a working vehicle (affectionately named White Fire, in case you care), I never actually checked, changed or gave more than a passing thought to the oil. I had some vague awareness that a dipstick was involved and my engine could potentially explode if I ran low on the stuff, but I always counted on the fact that if anything truly devastating was about to occur, a light on my instrument panel would flash and I could hasten to the nearest service station to rectify the problem.
Fast forward from my teens to circa right now, trade my trusty Chrysler La Baron for the van we scored from World Nomads (our travel insurance company) and switch the location from sprawling suburban America to the pleasant but rather unpopulated stretch of rolling woodland known as Barrington Tops National Park (about four hours Northwest of Sydney).
That’s where Holly, Jen and I were the first time a little red oil lamp on our dash started lighting up, flickering at first, then glowing steadily and rather ominously.
“Um, maybe we really should have been checking the oil and water every day like the book said,” Holly reflected, referring to the small bound pamphlet of instructions we’d been given when we picked up the van at Autobarn a few weeks prior. The guys who’d explained the features of the vehicle had take the time to show us how to lift the seat and check the oil and coolant, and we’d taken it all in as if we were watching a cooking demonstration rather than serious instructions for the care and feeding of our only method of transport.
“Of course not,” I said with conviction, certain that something must be wrong with the light rather than with our oil levels. “In my whole life, I’ve never added oil to the car so we’ll just take care of this after we get back from camping.”
We all fell into a rare silence, contemplating the wisdom of my statement, and proceed deeper into the woods. A few minutes passed as we bumped along and splashed through ford after ford which separated us from primary civilization.
In the end, we decided to risk the consequences (can an engine really blow up if there’s not enough lubricant? what incredibly an incredibly poor design feature) and continue with our planned weekend camping trip.
The gripping narrative detailing our outdoor adventures is still to come, but I’ll fast forward to Monday morning when we coaxed our van out of Barrington Tops and back down the hill toward the Pacific Highway.
Finally rolling into a 7-11 with a few gas pumps out front, we figured out how pop up the passenger’s seat and open the hatch that exposed the inner workings of our engine.
We all stared at the twisted metal guts and waited expectantly for one of us to the lead. When it became apparent that neither Holly nor I were exactly leaping to the task, Jen volunteered to check the oil. As I watched her burning her fingers trying to open up the wrong valve, I gingerly pointed out the dipstick and suggested that she give it a tug instead.
Merging what all three of knew about engine maintenance-which you may have gathered at this point is about nil-we managed to clean the dipstick, lower it again and determine….that we had no idea what we were looking at.
In the end, we ended up enlisting the help of a very kindly Indian man who managed the 7-11 and thankfully, he wasn’t too harsh when he informed us that we’d basically run out of the slick stuff that prevented our car from grinding to halt.
Together, we grabbed a nice bottle of GRX from the back of the store and took turns pouring it into our very thirsty engine. Not a drop was left when we were finished.
All topped off and ready to go, we thanked yet another great Australian who helped save us from almost certain catastrophe and got on the road again.
More soon about the actual camping part of the adventure!
Tags: barrington tops, Cabins & Camping, new south wales, road trip, safety, transportation, world nomads
22 Comments
TAKE ME WITH YOU! ahah..kiss*
Your story sounds all too familiar…
http://timelinejourney.blogspot.com/2005/01/aha-606.html
How much oil did you put in? That small bottle might not be enough for the engine…
I hope you’ve got some spare onboard now !
Happy travels…
Great blog! Car trouble can happen anytime, sometimes it comes when you least expected it. Glad that you’re able to change oil it yourself and someone help you (he’s kind). Anyways, I do some basic stuffs – like change oil, tires, and washing my car. When it comes to complicated job like replacing mazda valve cover – I entrust my car to my mechanic. lol I don’t want to mess things up so I leave it all up to him.. Anyways, hope to see some pics of your camp.. Have fun..
memory foam mattress zellers memory foam mattress yeovil memory
foam mattress made in usa memory foam mattress hard memory foam mattress consumer
reports memory foam mattress and box spring
Also visit my page :: memory foam mattress topper los angeles
Hello, Neat post. There’s a problem along with your site in web explorer, would test this? IE nonetheless is the market leader and a huge element of people will omit your magnificent writing because of this problem.
Visit my homepage; lose weight quickly while breastfeeding
Hello there, I believe your web site might be having browser compatibility problems.
When I take a look at your website in Safari, it looks fine
however, if opening in Internet Explorer, it’s got some overlapping issues. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Aside from that, fantastic blog!
Review my web page: Gas Grill Outlet
memory foam mattress and box spring memory foam mattress sale costco memory foam mattress good or bad memory
foam mattress on platform bed memory foam mattress king size price memory foam
mattress sleepys
Stop by my homepage :: memory foam mattress topper good or bad
(Camilla)
Please let me know if you’re looking for a article writer for your site. You have some really great posts and I believe I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d
really like to write some articles for your blog in exchange
for a link back to mine. Please shoot me an email if interested.
Many thanks!
Check out my blog post: sleeping bag history
This website truly has all of the info I needed concerning
this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
My blog post: Sleeping bag temp ratings
レディース水着 + r
I’m not sure exactly why but this website is loading incredibly slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a problem on my end? I’ll
check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
Also visit my weblog; toothbrush keychain
Howdy! This blog post couldn’t be written any better! Going through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He continually kept talking about this. I’ll send this information to him.
Fairly certain he’ll have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
My page gas grill leak test
Simply wish to say your article is as surprising.
The clearness in your post is just nice and i could assume you’re an expert on this subject. Well with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the rewarding work.
Also visit my homepage :: camping stove fuel comparison
Hey very nice blog!! Guy .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your web site and take the feeds additionally? I’m glad to find a lot of helpful
info here in the put up, we’d like work out more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
my website; jack lalanne power juicer reviews amazon
Hi, after reading this remarkable post i am also happy to
share my familiarity here with colleagues.
Here is my blog post force factor or factor 2
Hello there! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick
shout out and say I really enjoy reading through your posts.
Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects?
Appreciate it!
Here is my blog sleeping bag grades
Excellent blog here! Also your web site loads up very fast!
What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to
your host? I wish my web site loaded up as fast
as yours lol
My webpage … tea party ideas for women
This article presents clear idea in support of the new users of blogging, that really how to do blogging and site-building.
Also visit my page coffee grinder and brewer combo
Thank you for any other fantastic article. Where else may anyone get that type of information in such an ideal approach of writing?
I have a presentation next week, and I am at the look for such info.
my blog post: sleeping bag carrier
Attractive part of content. I simply stumbled upon your website and
in accession capital to say that I acquire in fact loved account your weblog posts.
Any way I will be subscribing for your feeds or even I fulfillment you get admission to
consistently rapidly.
Also visit my web site: oil and gas
This website was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something which helped me. Thanks a lot!
Feel free to visit my blog post; pasta maker uses