Tfw super paranoid to work under my car

get a oil/fluid extractor op

>jacks are infinitely more safe

Honestly after the cost of oil and a filter you're probably saving yourself $10 tops doing it yourself.

My grandfather has one in his garage and has for 40+ years, shits god tier but god damn I love how nervous my friends get when I take their shitboxes over it.

>save $10
>mouthbreathing not-mechanics don't touch your car and fuck something up, costing you so much more later on
>don't have to book appointments or wait for when someone gets around to the oil change
>it's a basic job to build confidence so you can work on other things by yourself

This guy gets it.

wrong reactionpic..

OP would then worry about the sides collapsing and burying him alive

You can cut some from solid logs. Have a set here that have been used for half a century.

instead of jack stands I usually just put my stamped steel ramps under the wheels of my car. I only use stands when the wheels have to come off.

I get that but OP's only reason for wanting to do an oil change is to save money.

Also
>not having a go-to, trusty shop with real mechanics who will easily be able to squeeze you in within a day or two

It's not like oil changes suddenly sneak up on you...

Park your car on ramps instead.

Or if you ever have to use Jack stands just put an extra set under it for backup in case the first fails

>user in charge of knowing jack shit

I have a trusty shop where the mechanic and I know each other by first name. We share a hobby - brewing. He makes mead and I make beer. We swap recipes and talk shop. Cars and booze. I basically get him to check up on my car every spring and fall, and when I do big stuff, I get him to see if I did it right. I would trust him to do something out of my scope, like a transmission. Or things I don't have tools for.
It's definitely a good feeling. Knowing someone's got my back and has my interest at heart, and also gets to line his pockets with his profession.

Don't forget you'be put on a quality filter and the right kind if oil and not Fram filter and mixed-every-weight sludge.

Get a bike op

You also save the 30 minutes it takes to drive to jiffy lube and back and don't have to worry about a zit-faced teen over-torquing your drain plug and ruining the threads. It is just less effort in the end to do it yourself.

But you need to drive to the store to get the oil and filter if you do it yourself.

Just don't take your car to a fucking jiffy lube. Take it to a legitimate place.

If you're not confident in your own abilities to jack a car up and put it on jack stands safely, then you shouldn't be working on your car either. Know your limitations.

You are more likely to be injured/die while driving the car than you are while being under it while secured by proper jackstands and on a good surface

just roll your car over

>don't trust jacks or jack stands

neither do I, but when I put a couple sturdy logs under it, that shit is going nowhere

Please explain your logic, I'm genuinely interested

man up

The fuck is with that board?

Ramps, then. Relies on the ramps and the car's suspension to hold it in place.

Because you don't have shit dropping on you from 6 feet up?
Because the car's not going to fall into the fucking pit?
Because you can get out from under a car should you need to, but can't climb out of a pit with a car on top?

Go use a suicide pit, user. Clear the genepool.

I had jack stands shift on me because I didn't use proper lift points. I almost had a goddamn heart attack

biggest reason is that exhaust gases can settle in the pit, asphyxiating you. in a workshop, the guy next to you can run his car and the carbon monoxide settles in your pit. problem is, once you notice it's a problem, you're already too tired to escape. then you cant crawl out. then you pass out and suffocate. also you cant be seen easily under the pit unlike a hoist so its easy to go unnoticed. always run ventilation to your pit when working in it.

in a workplace, people are also fuckwits, they tend to be full of grease, if there is a fire, you're basically in a box, coated with fuel and burn alive.

new construction of suicide pits are banned in australia, the EU, many places in the USA. basically the developed world realizes they are quite hazardous.

ramps are worse. especially this kind of mickey mouse shit. basically when you buy ramps or jacks, get the biggest thickest one they have. inspect welds. if it looks like it was welded by an autistic poo in loo, dont buy it. I just trust jack stands more than anything. seen cars fall off hoists. seen ramps fail. never seen a good jack stand fail.

dont buy anything with cast parts. cast jack stands will snap because they will be made in china. I use 8 ton jack stands made with solid bars of steel and 1/4" steel plate welded together.

Build your own wooden ramps.

Shouldn't cost you more than $30 and 1/2 hour of time

Cast parts will fail because they're cast parts, not because they're from China.

...

is this really safe? What is the E brake fails, you're done.

Leave it in 1st gear/park, then.

is this bait?

Tell me how a car is going to fall in the pit?

Leave it in gear and chalk the rear tires.

Even if it does fail, the car will most likely roll backwards. If it does roll forward, the frame will land on the ramps and you'll survive.

>not having amazon prime to get a 5qt jug and a wix filter with free 2 day shipping

>Woke up super early to do an oil change a few days ago
>Wasn't synced with reality yet
>Stripped my oil pan plug not thinking about what I was doing

brb helium

nice job retard

I know that feel bro
>put car in gear
>set hand brake
>eh.. better chock the rear wheels too
>jack up the front end
>put jack stands under
>lower jacks until they're just barely not touching the car anymore
>leave one on each side to try and catch the car just in case
>try to shake car side to side to make sure it's solid
>still sweat bullets the whole time I'm under there

I got used to working on my lifted Wrangler for years. No jacks or ramps necessary for anything. I pulled the transfer case and transmission with the tires on the ground. Working on something that just sites a few inches off the ground is a whole new ball game now.

If it rolls back there's no problem, if it rolls forward there's no problem. Are millennials really this devoid of common sense? Good thing schools got rid of teaching things that actually matter and replaced them with race and gender courses.

And then there's me.
>Poor, with ratty old jack and stands
>Ranger's 5th gear is nonexistent
>Gotta drop the bell housing and swap the clutch plates
>
>No tranny jack, fug
>Bolt some scrap 2x4 pieces together and bolt it to jack
>Lower it down, pray it doesn't roll off
>Swap plates for new set, put it all back together
GUD ENUF

Before trying to tap it or buying a new pan see if all the threads are stripped or just the first ones. I did the same thing but the replacement bolt for my car has longer threads than the stock one so it ended up being a very simple solution to just get the longer bolt

>Get brotuck with 10" lift.
>Practically walk under your truck

If you drive in wrong and drop a wheel into it, perhaps?

That's exactly the same set of ramps I own. No issues except with the paint rubbing off.

Also, what happens if someone pushes your car sideways while it's up on jack stands?

>dont buy anything with cast parts
Well, I guess that's you walking, then. Engine blocks are cast.

Chock the wheels like with regular ramps.
Main danger is the car's weight destroying the ramps and dropping it on you.

Just another failsafe if the jackstand would also fail for some ungodly reason, or it went through

I've changed oil on two lowered cars now without using a jack.
First one was just a bit of a squeeze to get under (old Charade) but recently I did it on a Mazda SP25 which is lower than a normal 3, but also with underbody plastic covers and shit.
So I couldn't squeeze under. Just used one piece of wood under each front tyre like old mate did to jack up his 86 on the outback drive.
Just keep the handbrake on and chock the rear wheels and it'll be sweet.

Them pits that people have seem nifty but a lot of oil drain plugs don't drain straight down... either it would take a bit of guesswork to figure out where the drain pan should go or you calculate that out using physics. Which is easier depends on whether you like getting dirty or doing maths I suppose.
It seems that people out of yurop don't seem to appreciate how strong wood can be in the right direction of applied stress.
Here in straya we have these "Mens sheds" and at the one my dad goes to he keeps his trailer (that he built out of wood and aluminium) level using like 50 different pieces of wood on each side. Cunts there freaked out and told him to get jack stands or something

My old family home had a large garage where my grand uncle would service and fix the bus he drove, where the ramp was just super thick, solid wood.

It would easily hold up one of these

>tfw i replaced my clutch without even jacking my truck up

carcucks triggered

yfw i never used jack stands only a shitty duralast 2 ton jack to lift my car

done all sorts of work while under it... just the jack and nothing else to hold it up

jack failures are uncommon take care of your shit a jack is 10 times more likely to have a slow leak and slowly go down then it is to just blow and drop the car instantly.

I can tell you've never actually been around carbon monoxide.
It's sort of like being drunk. You aren't that weak you're just sleepy and stagger if you walk.
You will notice long before it's a life or death problem.

>he thinks the pit used to hide a kidnapped child is the same as the service bays at a garage

WEW