Changing the Car Oil, Er... Transmision Fluid?

My husband the electrician (a very good one actually) has only minimal experience working on cars. He's eager to learn though and hopefully save a few dollars in the long-run as a result. The first task to learn of course is changing the oil. Easy, right?

First was my aging, quickly disintegrating Saturn. Oil changed - no problem. Then enters my relatively new (to me), beloved Passat. This is its first oil change since we purchased it this summer. My husband crawled under the carriage and drained a plug he was sure was the oil. Changed the oil, changed the filter, and put it all back together. Done. Right? Sure...

As I took the car out to run errands, I quickly noticed that the gears weren't quite engaging. You know, like when you first learn to drive a stick shift car and don't quite get it into first or second gear? It would rev up but not move forward. Then it would engage and be fine for a bit before repeating. Baffled, my husband thought maybe we were using the wrong type oil. We checked the manual and online forums and decided that we needed to be using a synthetic oil. So this morning, he purchased some of that (more expensive of course) along with a new oil filter, just in case that contributed to the cause.

This time, after the oil change, the car was even worse - it wouldn't go into any gear at all. Really baffled. He tried to drain the oil a third time and noticed that hardly any came out, even when he added more up top. Online forums were talking about sludge problems resulting in replacement of the oil pump and even the engine. Scared of impending repair bills (and grateful we had bought an extended warranty from the used car dealer) we decided a call to a friend who works as a mechanic was in order.

Thank goodness for Max! He came over on his day off, crawled under the car and promptly announced that we had drained the transmission fluid NOT the oil! OMG. On one hand, I'm a bit frustrated that we now have to tow the car to the dealership tomorrow to get new transmision fluid pumped in (you can't do it yourself on these newer cars). On the other hand, I'm relieved that it won't be the huge repair bill I was afraid of.

And, on the bright side - I have something new to hold over my husband's head and tease him about. This will buy me a get-out-of-jail-free card for at least a month or so. :)

Lesson learned. Weekend and car saved. A few laughs had. Thanks Max for saving our day!



Have you checked out my Business blog? I post there more often and talk about the latest trends in technology and online business. Check it out at http://creativeassistants.blogspot.com/!