I had an errand to run today and I opted to drive my truck. While sitting at a traffic light I looked at that small sticker they put in the corner of your windshield when you get an oil change. It is there as a reminder, but since it is always there I never really pay attention to it, and in many cases you can't even read what is written. But I could read it. It said that my next oil change should be at 43,000 miles. That meant that my truck's previous visit to the maintenance bay was at 38,000 miles. The fact that it is a five thousand mile span while some places put it at three thousand is not up for discussion in this posting. With the mileage on the small sticker it is sometimes accompanied by a date when you should bring it in, on the outside chance that the date should come before you drive the five thousand miles. After taking in all this information I looked down at my odometer. Not a true odometer, or at least in my mind, which is one that has numbers on a wheel and they roll over as your vehicle moves down the road. Today's vehicles have digital odometers. Mine said.... actually it didn't say anything ....... it read 40,298. Now that I had that information I could determine by simple subtraction, that I had driven 2,298 miles since my last oil change. BUT, I needed one more piece of information, and that was when did i get the last oil change. Then the light changed and I drove on. When i got to my destination I remained in the truck, opened the glove compartment (does anyone really keep gloves in there?) and pulled out the small pile of receipts from all my oil changes and vehicle services. The most recent one was dated 12/9/08. Again, simple calculations gave me the amount of time elapsed since then; seven months. I think it is time for another oil change because if I wait for the five thousand miles almost a year will have passed. But the gist of this entry is to state that in sieven months I drove my truck a mere 2,298 miles. Again, with some division, that is 328 miles a month, or extrapolated out, would be 3936 miles a year. Little old ladies don't drive that small amount of miles. So, I do need to get out more.
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5 comments:
I'm glad a lot of people don't read your blog because otherwise the world would then know how anally compulsive I am.
You already know that I have always changed my own oil since Dad showed me how to do it as a teenager. But I also keep a written log of the odometer readings so that I can remember to change it every 5000 miles.
But I also make an entry evrytime I get gas (always a fill) and then measure my miles per gallon.
And I also keep track (every two months) of how many miles I am averaging per year. Next month my Corolla will be 4 years old and the annual amount is 15,496 miles.
So I guess not only do I have to get out more, I also need to get a life!!!
Or do you get out lots in Pat's car, instead of yours?
How about some new cars like my 2008 Fit that now have a digital readout that tells how much life is left in your oil change - or something to that effect. It starts at 100% and goes down as time or mileage or some other factor increases. I guess the idea is to prevent us from thinking.
I think in some cars, perhaps not your Fit or our Accord, the computer factors in length of trips, speed, and how often the car is driven. If not, then it is just another gimmick we pay for.
well on my van I think it is set to just alert you every 3,000 miles regardless of when you actually had an oil change. I waited until around the 4,500 mile mark to get mine changed and now that I have hit 6,000 miles it is telling me I need to get it done again. Not a good system in my eyes.
Oh, and feel free to put more miles on your truck in the next few weeks by helping us bring stuff back over to the house :)
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