Dear Tom and Ray:

I have a question about the advice you gave a few weeks ago. When changing the oil, you suggested filling the new oil filter with oil before putting it back on. How do you keep the oil in the filter if the filter is mounted horizontally, which mine is? The old oil runs down your arm and drips off your elbow. -- Dooley

Tom: We recommend that you roll up your sleeves first, Dooley. Actually, horizontally mounted filters are a challenge. Filters mounted upside down are even more so.

Ray: In those cases, you're really not going to have much luck filling up the filters in advance. So what you want to do is minimize the damage you do during that first start after the oil change -- before the oil filter is full and the oil pressure is built back up.

Tom: The best thing you can do is to ask a mechanic to show you how to disable the ignition system (depending on the car, it's a fuse, a relay or a wire). That way, your engine will "crank," but won't actually start. Then you can crank it for 10 or 15 seconds, which runs the oil pump and fills up the filter, but doesn't start the car. That way, the engine is running at 100 rpm during that period of low oil pressure instead of 1000 rpm or more.

Ray: If that's too much trouble, at the very least, don't rev the engine when you restart it -- revving it when the oil pressure is low will certainly cause unnecessary wear and tear.

Tom: Or, although we don't recommend it, if you're game you can try another reader's "creative" suggestion.

Ray: A guy wrote to us and said that he has little kids at home. He says he buys lots of disposable diapers and that every once in awhile, he comes across a defective one -- one that's missing a stick-on tab, for instance. He takes those diapers and puts them aside for his oil changes.

Tom: He holds the filter inside the disposable diaper, fills it with oil, and then turns it sideways and screws it in. And any spilled oil is absorbed by the diaper, which he then throws out. Pretty cute, huh?

Ray: I just hope he's not a practical joker, or he could get the kids' pediatrician completely worked up.

Changing your oil regularly is the cheapest insurance you can buy for your car, but how often should you change it? Find out by ordering Tom and Ray's pamphlet "Ten Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car Without Even Knowing It!" To order, send (check or money order) to Ruin, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. You can also order online.

© 1999 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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