You know, every time I think about an oil change for my car, I’m surprised more people don’t do some maintenance of their own cars themselves. An oil change is kinda messy sometimes, but its really quite simple. Having some space to do it is important though. I lived in downtown Montreal for a while and doing on oil change on De Lorimier Street during rush hour definitely doesn’t sound appealing. But now that I have the space and tools, there’s no reason I need to go to a garage and spend a fortune to change my air filter. The last oil change cost me damn well near a hundred bucks (synthetic of course).

So instead, I decided to find the parts I needed online for a fraction of the price, got free UPS shipping (one business day), and installed them the next. Did the air filter, cabin filter, spark plugs, and dip stick (the old one was cracking and i think a few plastic bits ended up in the oil pan. All for like 40 bucks.

People, do your own maintenance. That’s my rant.

Old Filters and Plugs

Clean 1.8T Engine

Now adding to all this, I had another problem. My reverse lights wouldn’t come on anymore, and after lots of searching online forums, I found that it was likely a switch that is connected to the transmission. It was a cheap part to buy, but seeing as how it was located on the transmission, it was a bit deep in the engine compartment. I had to take the battery out and move a bunch of stuff. After getting to it, I discovered that it was actually some stripped wires that caused the problem. Hooray for electrical tape!

Digging into the engine bay

Found the problem, and put it all back.

Success!