That oil change got out of hand in a hurry. Also the stupidest thing I’ve done working on a car.

Today I did the first oil change on my wife’s new Telluride. Other than learning the requirements of a new vehicle, it was pretty ordinary. But two small differences conspired to lead me down a path to a screw up that I would have thought myself uncapeable of making.  

The first difference was that the Telluride has an automatic electronic parking brake. No physical handle or pedal. It felt a little weird not being able to visually verify the brake was on, so I chocked the wheels for some piece of mind after I put it on the ramps. The second difference is that I used the Mobil 1 12QT. box to add the oil, which I reviewed in a separate post. Since the box of oil didn’t allow me to know exactly how much oil I was adding, I had to take it off the ramps and check on flat ground. I Jumped in the driver’s seat, started to back down the ramps. Felt some resistance- “oh yea, the wheel chocks.” I pullback forward a bit, and put it in park with the engine still running. I go to kick the chocks out. Weird, there was more weight against them than I was expecting. That should have been my first clue. I free the last chock, and the car settles back. And keeps coming back. And back. Uh-oh. It seemed like an eternity, but I realized that it wasn’t stopping. My driveway is not too steep. But it didn’t take me long to figure out that pushing against the rear was just delaying the inevitable. So I got out of the way and made my way to the driver’s side.  Luckily, my driveway is off a large empty court that crowns in the middle, which kept the speed down. I was able to open the driver’s door and jump inside before anything bad happened. I know, not the smartest thing to do, and it was not as easy as it sounds. I found that it was in reverse, not park. No parking brake, because it’s automatic. My wife had left a bunch of crap on her center console. There was a stuffed animal sitting on top of a small inverter just in from to the shift lever. It looks like both shifted rearward and blocked/obscured the shift lever. That thunk that I thought was park was the inverter. My fault, I should have been more observant. A glance at the dash would have warned me, and I ignored the warning chimes. But it was a big “I told you so” to the wife about leaving crap on the console. I also dodged another bullet, in that the open driver’s door hit my truck on the way down. Lucky again, my truck was parked at just the right angle that the door didn’t catch on anything and simply closed without damage. Moral of the story- don’t get complacent. Stupid mistakes almost lead to damaging a new car or seriously hurting myself. 

Man, you are lucky! Glad you are okay.

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

My wife and I have had SERIOUS arguments about unnecessary crap in the car. I always win. 

The worst thing that ever happened to me not putting it in park was thinking that the starter went bad. Nope, just in reverse!

Glad youre ok!

Wow, scary

Oof, that could have gone poorly. Glad you're okay.

For reference, the Telluride/Palisade does have a physical switch to actuate the parking brake and it will indicate the traditional red "BRAKE" icon in the gauge cluster if it is set. The Telluride's parking brake switch is directly below the shift lever and drive mode knob.

Brake_L8 said:

For reference, the Telluride/Palisade does have a physical switch to actuate the parking brake and it will indicate the traditional red "BRAKE" icon in the gauge cluster if it is set. The Telluride's parking brake switch is directly below the shift lever and drive mode knob.

Yep.   FMVSS 135 requires every car sold in US have a discrete engage/disengage control for parking brake.

_ said:

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

My wife and I have had SERIOUS arguments about unnecessary crap in the car. I always win. 

You just think you win. We know otherwise...

Reason #20276 why physical connections to control are the best (see also: 737 Max, Air France crash).  Glad you're ok.

I've rolled one down off ramps before. Out my garage door and into the driveway but the drive is an upslope from there so it just stopped. Still terrifying.

A kid down the road from me managed to kill himself a few months back.    Drove the vehicle up on ramps, put it in park, and turned it off.  Then went underneath and disconnected the driveshaft.

Be safe out there.

I had a project car die on a test drive around the block.  Grabbed younger brother and put him in it so I could tow it home with the truck. 

He didn't get when I said the keys are in the ignition that he needed to turn them to unlock the steering wheel.  When right, right into a parked car.  Did you know it costs 2k to replace the drivers side of a rusty Aerostar van?

In reply to Purple Frog :

I had a close call doing something similar a few years back, as embarrassing as is to admit. 
 

I pulled my truck in my (steep) driveway to change the transmission (4L80e) filter. Rolled underneath and started removing brackets etc. to get access to all the bolts holding the pan up. One of the things I removed was the shifting mechanism where the shifter cable attaches. While removing something else I accidentally knocked the shifter mechanism (no cable attached) and knocked the truck into neutral. I instinctively rolled out from under the truck with catlike reflexes as soon as it started moving. The front wheel barely missed my head. Luckily I live in a cul-de-sac so there was running room before the truck hit anything. I proceeded to put everything back together and go inside for a stiff drink. The transmission filter is still in a box in the garage, 2 years later. 

My stepmom totaled a 99 grand am years ago from leaving E36 M3 on the console. Large coffee cup+ leaving the car run to go in a gas station. Shifter wasn't fully in park, slipped into reverse and backed across the parking lot with the auto locks engaged. Hit a pole doing about 5mph and totaled the car

I'm as annoyed with modern shifters and e brakes as the next guy, but I've also flipped a jeep due to a misadjusted shifter, and had a running bronco shift itself from park to reverse while i was laying underneath it. So even old school stuff that's misadjusted or otherwise in bad shape will try to kill you. Moral of the story is, when working on cars, assume everything is trying to berkeley you. 

wheelsmithy said:

Ouch. 

My wife's current car (2013 Nissan Pathfinder) came with 3 years of free oil changes when we bought it.  So in 2016 was the first time I needed to change the oil in the car.  The first time I went to do the oil change I pulled the car out of the garage and set the ramps in the parking spot.  As I was laying under the car my young nephew slid himself under the car to ask what I was doing, I showed him I was changing the oil and showed him how to do it.  The first thing to do is remove the oil cap and then I showed him, the next thing is to remove the drain plug.  Since I wasn't paying that close attention and I had never done it before, I was like weird this oil drain plug is much larger than the normal plug but what ever, I started to drain and noticed that it smelled funny.  The 2013 pathfinder is FWD based and the trains pan is right next to the oil pan.  

I quickly stopped the drain and inspected the transmission oil, it was drained into a pan that contained old engine oil.  Not wanting to reuse the fluid I decided that I better replace the fluid.  Except, my single car driveway was now blocking the other cars in the garage and the nearest nissan dealership (CVT fluid not available at local autoparts store) was too far away.  Additionally, Nissan doesn't provide a transmission dip stick.  

After getting a ride to the dealership and paying $20 a quart for transmission fluid; I managed to measure the fluid that I removed from the transmission and added the same amount back in.  A 30 minute oil change took a half a day.  

In reply to Vigo :

 

I'm as annoyed with modern shifters and e brakes as the next guy, but I've also flipped a jeep due to a misadjusted shifter, and had a running bronco shift itself from park to reverse while i was laying underneath it. So even old school stuff that's misadjusted or otherwise in bad shape will try to kill you. Moral of the story is, when working on cars, assume everything is trying to berkeley you. 

This is exactly why I posted this. This is how I think 99.99 percent of the time, hence chocking the wheels of a brand new vehicle. Never had an incident in 30 years of working on cars. That .01 percent lapse almost cost me. 

On the lighter side a friend had a similar steering lock issue to former520. His Pathfinder died in a snowy driveway and I offered to flat tow him the mile home to his house so he could work on it. Hitch up and start to pull him down the driveway and the truck keeps getting harder and harder to pull. Well I don't want to get stuck so I keep on it.  Look back and he is off the left side of the driveway firmly wedged through the snowplow bank.  It had died with the wheels turned and he didn't think to unlock the steering until I had firmly stuck him in the bank.