Think with your dipstick

It’s been a year since I’ve bought my 2019 Volkswagen Golf GTI from Carvana. (Here’s everything that was wrong with it.) That means the car is due for its annual oil change. In the last calendar year, the GTI got driven only about 3,300 miles. A surprisingly paltry amount, though granted I do not have a car commute. On mileage alone an oil service is premature, but for cars that don’t get driven much, fluids are changed according to a time schedule. As it is specified in the maintenance manual.

Great news for me, the Golf’s EA888 engine has a top side mounted oil filter, and an oil dipstick. This means I do not have to get under the car to perform the oil service. To get the oil out, I used a fluid extractor: the legendary Mityvac 7201. By shoving a tube down the dipstick channel into the sump, the oil gets pumped up and out with zero spills. The Mityvac can also reverse direction, so filling the used jugs with old oil cannot be any simpler.

Here’s a YouTube video showing the process.

I think every internal combustion car should be like this: top side oil filter and an oil dipstick. It makes changing the oil with an extractor a 10 minute procedure. The fact that not all engines are designed this way is a crime against humanity. (Plenty of new cars don’t even come with a dip stick.) I don’t care how secure the pair of jack stands are, and that a wheel has been shoved under a frame rail: getting underneath a car carries some risk. Especially for peasants like me lacking in garage or driveway. Public streets are often uneven and unmaintained.

But perhaps it’s all a moot point because of electric vehicles. Would our children even know about changing oil and getting gas when they grow to be adults? It’ll be a thing lost to the history books, like rewinding VHS tapes, and printing out MapQuest directions. Wrenching on cars will be reserved for old curmudgeons like me who can’t seem to let go of our gross polluters.

Hopefully the Mityvac that I bought will still be going strong. Because it was not cheap! Cheers to the spirits of buy once, cry once.

View fullsize

Meanwhile, the MX-5 has a dipstick, but bottom side oil filter. Going to have to get under it when the time comes.

A productive weekend

I'm proud to say this past weekend was much more productive than the one before. I somewhat successfully avoided the Youtube blackhole and got some proper work done. There were two specific moments where I was at the crossroad of action or inaction and happily I chose the former. 

First of those tasks was putting together a new photowalk article on the Presidio Main Parade Grounds. I'd already edit the photographs a few weeks back but have been procrastinating on posting up the content. Saturday afternoon rolled around and I was desperately close to forsaking it to yet another week. Just as I was ready to watch more Youtube video, I opened the folder containing the pictures for a bit slight peek and then momentum surprisingly took over. Next thing I knew I was hours deep into composition and editing the article.  

The forward progress and dopamine hit of accomplishment must have spilled over to the next day because on the agenda was changing the oil on my father's car. Once again I was dangerously close to letting it slide to the following week until I thought about how awesome it felt to finish the photowalk post on Saturday and it'd be lovely to experience it again when I'm done with the oil service. The sun was beating down (one of the rare sunny Summer days in San Francisco) but out came the tools and half an hour later dad's Toyota Corolla is filled with fresh golden-colored motor oil. 

It's interesting indeed how completing a task begets positive momentum for the next. Just as laziness tends to breed further lethargy, I want to constantly feel good and productive so I keep on executing tasks one after the other. It's a continuous game of "what's next?" One thing I'm super proud of this summer is the consistency in writing my daily blog posts Monday through Friday every week. 

I've had a incredibly busy day at work today yet here I am at home spending the half hour or so typing out these words. I could easily not do that and watch videos on Youtube, but I mustn't break the streak; because I'm done writing this post now and it feels wonderful. 

Freshly buffed and squeeky clean. 

Veterans Day weekend

The wonders of having a three day weekend (Veterans Day) is whatever I had planned to do, instead of having two days to execute, I get three. The leisure time afforded in between was quite welcomed and made this past weekend a refreshing one indeed.

On Friday while performing oil change on the car - $35 total for 5 quarts of synthetic and filter, the heavens decided to open up and it rained biblically for a good half hour. To avoid getting soaked the easy thing would be to stay under the car for the duration, but I believe too much in superstition to be beneath a vehicle supported by jack-stands for any longer than necessary.

At least the rain washed away the oil puddle that invariably forms due to the stream missing the catch-can. No matter how good I think I've positioned the reservoir, the first unleashing of oil from the engine pan will always find the ground. For sure it isn't the most environment friendly thing to do, but I'm not paying the $80 or so the dealership charges for a simple oil change - the Miata needs one every six months. 

On Saturday I went over to my sole house-owning friend's place. He's in the middle of having solar panels installed on his roof. The reality of having a climate-controlled house year-round is extremely nice indeed, and because the friend doesn't live in San Francisco - no fog, the place will get plenty of sun. To achieve the same level of pampering I'd have to live in my car. 

Sunday was the first opportunity to try out intensively the iPhone X's camera. Perhaps I'm spoiled by my Sony A7R2's 42 megapixel images, the X's camera isn't completely wowing me, save one feature: portrait mode. It's been one year since Apple introduced the feature, and it's gotten spectacularly good. The boundary between what's in focused and blurred is executed so well now that it's often difficult to tell the difference from a proper DSLR. Check out these flowers I took yesterday, unedited: