How-To Change Your Oil

I have had numerous BMWs, both R and K bikes. New filters for those bikes often came with a new crush washer for the drain plug. If there was no washer in the filter box the parts guy would offer one for a nominal price. More recently I have been riding Japanese motorcycles and have yet to see a crush washer in the filter box nor has any Japanese dealer parts guy ever offered one. I did not see any reference to crush washers in your how to article. Do Japanese crush washers not need replacing? They do exist. My

DL 1000 has one, so did my VFR800, and my KLR 650.



Anyway I would recommend paying close attention to the crush washer when removing the oil drain plug. These little boogers tend to stick to the bottom of the crankcase and can then fall into the oil while the slippery stuff is draining out. If this happens and you don't notice the washer is gone you might install the drain plug sans crush washer which is not a good idea.

Chevy Van

Old full size Chevy vans have this long oil filler tube about 1 inch in diameter that snakes down from under the hood to the right valve cover. A very tight fitting rubber plug lives at the filling end of the tube. Ok, so I am changing the oil in the old guzzler, drain dirty oil, remove and replace filter, replace drain plug, pour dirty oil contents from pan into old cat litter container for disposal. Now I am ready to add 5 fresh quarts to aforementioned filler tube. I tug and tug on that damn tight rubber plug and finally is comes free. With the residue of last night's barley pop circulating in my brain I failed to notice that I the filler tube also came free of the valve cover. In go the first four quarts and then I check the dip stick to see where the level is. Hmmmmmm, no level, what the flubber? Picture a big dip stick holding a small dip stick. I slowly bend over to have a look under the van and my suspicions are confirmed. Good thing I have cats.