Practically Classics Forum

One of the lads on the farm has just bought his first car, a Pug 306 Diesel. He is has been razzing about in it for the last week and somebody (not me) had asked him if he had checked his oil to see if it needed topping up.
So being the sort of lad to just jump in with both feet he went and bought 5 litres of the finest (cheapest) oil money can buy and poured it in to the engine. (Halfords 10w40 for petrol engines)
I encountered him in the farm yard wondering why his car wouldn't turn over. I asked him what the last thing he had done before it stopped working and he said he had topped the oil up "because it was empty" so i pulled out the dipstick to see the level, it was so full i'm surprised it didn't spill out the dipstick tube!
After 5 minutes of laughing and draining it out then puting some more new stuff in it still wouldn’t turn over. Leaving it to sit for the afternoon however it finally started and ran making a smoke screen. Aparantly no harm done other than to the environment.

Moral of the story, NEVER tell a 17 year old to top up his oil without explaining how you check the level!

Hehe,a mate did a similar thing with his Mums Nissan Sunny when I was about 17ish,boy that mutha smoked after I'd drained it back to it's correct level

Along similar lines, a customer of one of my mates, (a woman, not that we should be sexist about these things) had a slight coolant leak on a Cavalier, so he told her to top up the coolant and drive it down and he'd sort it. She removed the oil filler cap, and filled the engine right to the brim with water. It never made it as it siezed up on the way.......