Scheduled Maintenance

Mountain driving causes the mystery machine to burn even more oil than usual. After getting to Reno I could smell the engine. I only had another 500 miles to go until my next scheduled oil change. So I stopped by the local Walmart for one and lube job.

I went for the high mileage oil change: $40. The fuel system cleaning sounded interesting so I went for that, too: $20. Man, the fuel cleaner made my exhaust smoke. I was assured it's supposed to do that...



I got chatting with the technician. He told me how to charge the air conditioning myself. He bled the line for me and it was pretty much empty of refrigerant. Then we went into Walmart and picked up the R134a conversion kit. (My van is the older R12 refrigerant type.)



It was pretty simple. I had to buy four extra cans of refrigerant. Since those cans didn't indicate whether the oil was combined, I also bought a few cans of compressor oil.



Putting in the last can of oil I got some smoke and loud sputtering. It seems to have worked itself out now. The Mystery Machine now blows crisp, cold air. Just in time for...winter?! LOL