( I sure hope Mr.Carlton doesnt delete this.)

I am living in an apartment now vice a home with a garage and last night at 1 am I thought i could get out and surreptitiously change my oil w/o any of my fellow tenants or the manager noticing.

So I got it drained neatly by shoving a huge piece of cardboard I found in the trash under the car--i found the cardboard in the dumpster...
And I thought " whew that was easy " and so I go and pick up the drain pan with hot oil and start walking up the stairs to my 2 nd floor apartment.

My plan is to take it on the apartment balcony and pour it into a huge bucket I have there...so I go up the stairs and reach my apartment-and suddenly i trip and slip and and about a quart of hot oil spills out and spreads it self over the pressure treated wood stairway and vinyl siding of the apartment stairwell.
The worst thing is the walkway/ landing is made of 2x6's with cracks between each plank in it and the oil starts dripping down to the 1st floor and even the basement apartments through the cracks.
It coats the siding walls.
Now a quart of hot oil has about the coverage of 30 gallons of black paint, and the result is GASP it looks like someone has thrown gallons of black paint everywhere!!!
DONT PANIC RICH IT WILL ONLY TAKE ME 1 HOUR To CLEAN IT UP STAY CALM BOY YOUVE BEEN THROUGH WORSE!

Next I get the great idea to use that NEW Super Hi Tech Cat Litter to soak up the mess. I use my strong KERO Degreaser and then I flush it with--no dont say so--HOT WATER--

I find out that the only problem is when you get that stuff wet, it turns into a plaster or clay like material. That plus a mixture of motor oil and kerosene to thin the oil--so now I have a plaster coating of cat litter, oil and keresone degreaser all over the place--some 30 sq feet of it!! And its slippery and I roll and slip and fall in it twice

So I had to get 5 rolls of Tissue Paper and literally scoop the vomit like material up --it filled a huge box.

By now it is like 3:30 AM. This is really crazy and I am getting tired..
However, I know if I dont do a good job, at least 9 tenants will wake up and slip and slide and track this stuff to their cars and i will get charghed MEGABUCKS---
TO BE CONTINUED---

I too live in an apartment but right after I change the oil I seal up the container well, wipe it clean, and take it to the nearby Autozone (open 24 hours) and dump it in there. If it's closed, I just go back and leave it in the garage, somewhere hidden, even if the manager doesn't mind (quite lenient, her husband also works on his toys, so it works both ways).

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

Why does this sound like the story of crawling beneath the Volvo at 2:00 am in the middle of Manhattan............to disconnect the plugged cat...........

Whats up with working on cars during the wee hours of the morning? I love your stories they never start, well it was 10am Sunday morning. Its always it was 2am tuesday!

I give you credit, if I lived in an apartment I'd pay someone else to do it.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

With stuff under the hood, I usually don't mind working late into the night.. INTERIOR work late at night really is hell, especially on the eyes.. No 500 watt shop light can be safely put inside..

My dad lives in an apartment, my mom in a house, the apartment manager got a ton of complaints when my dad changed a CV axle on his car... WHY? Someone works on their car in the corner, not making a mess, not bothering anyone, GET OVER IT.. I do all my work at my moms place, where noone really cares anymore about the driveway being permanently stained black..

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Ich liebe meine Autos!

1991 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL | Megasquirt MS3-Pro | 722.6 transmission w/ AMG paddles | Feind Motorsports Sway Bar | Stinger VIP Radar | AntiLaser Priority | PLX Wideband O2 | 150A Alternator | Cat Delete
1981 Mercedes-Benz 300SD | Blown engine, rebuilding someday...
1981 Mercedes-Benz 300SD | Rear ended, retired in garage.
2009 Yamaha AR230HO | Das Boot

Excessive speeding? It ain't excessive till I redline!

I just sneek off to the back lot to change mine. There are some grease stains in the second bedroom, or workshop as I like to call it. D

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

I have to park my car on the street. Once I left the rear left side of my car on a jackstand while I went with my roomate to replace the tire (no good spare). It must have been left there one hour....that was all it took for some terrible old lady with nothing else to do to call the cops. I get back just in time to see the policeman putting the citation on my car for an "unsafe vehicle." I explained the situation to him and he was terribly sorry, but because he had already written it up there was nothing I could do except go to court.

Whats wrong with people....

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1983 300SD White with Grey interior

I change my oil in the street in front of my apartment complex. The apartment manager has nothing to say about it because its public property. I even rebuilt my front end out in front of our apartments.

This weekend I plan to install a thermostat. You guessed it, its going to be done out in the street in front of our apartments

Its great you can take a break and go have a beer or two, or three, or four

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green 85 300SD 200K miles "Das Schlepper Frog" With a OM603 TBO360 turbo ( To be intercooled someday )( Kalifornistani emissons )
white 79 300SD 200K'ish miles "Farfegnugen" (RIP - cracked crank)
desert storm primer 63 T-bird "The Undead" (long term hibernation)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/sig692a.png

When I had my 307d in the UK, I changed the oil in my cousin's condo's parking lot. First time I'd ever changed the oil with the filter housing lid pointed down and back. Misjudged the proper location of the pan and dumped a quart or so on the ground. Cleaned it up but it still left a black spot in the parking lot. Really pissed off my cousin's neighbors. The fact that I was from the US, really seemed to crank up the outrage.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

People can get funny, their is always a bored old fart looking to complain about something.

I can see the point of the view from the complex owner, they don't want their lot covered in grease and crap. Or a bunch of old cars in various states of repair sitting out front.

Most condo's around here are very strict, like you cannot have a vehical with sign's on it parked out front. In certain complex's you can probably get away with it, but with others not a chance.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

That kitty litter is made primary of bentonite clay probably from Wyoming. They are slowly stripping Wyoming for the benefit of cats all over the country. As you discovered it gets really slippery and messy when more than a little wet.

I would think that if you lived in an apartment the $50 for a vacuum oil extractor would be well worth it. No jacking, no spills, everything goes right into a sealed container...

What part of Washington did you move to, by the way?

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1987 300TD 231,000
#22, afterglow, plastic fan, euro lights, alternator upgrade, cluster housing update

He's Back!!

Good to have you back. You have been missed.......
You always seem to have stories that none of us ever come close to. Uh, like above....

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Rich-

I guess you won't be doing any painting/repainting while you are living at these apartments....or will you? Hope the paint job is holding up.

Rick

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

Apartments suck for a reason

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

When I moved in I crushed the steel parking awning with a tall U HAUL, so i am a know entity here. A local contractor wanted to charge the Apartment Complex $450 --which they in turn billed me-- for the damage.
So surreptiously i went out and got a ladder and climbed up there one Saturday night and disassembled the thing and took it into my apartment and banged the pieces flat. (HEY I GOT AUTOBODY EXPERIENCE!!) I even used some BONDO to make it look Professional. I was going to take the metal channel to the machine shop but as i was leaving I discovered that the shape was the exact same as the railing on the stairway so I used the railing and a hammer to flatten the mangled piece and with some bondo it looks great.
I wrote a nice letter to the manager and told them I fixed it myself.

ANWAY I got the OILLY mess cleaned up by 4:30 am, at least the oilly residue part of it and then I went straight into work in a zombified state. Needless to say, sleep deprivation makes you very reticent and suddenly you cant even talk to people you talk to daily and find yourself chugging like 20x cups of coffee.

I got home in the afternoon to find the area oil free but covered with a clay like stain for about 100 square feet. I know management is going to catch on and its only a short time before I get a nasty letter or bill.