Gasoline and lavender

Today I finally changed my fuel filter. It was awesome. My identity has now stretched to include "Mechanical". (It's a big tent, here folks.) I was excited to have an old car that I could learn to take apart and put back together, and now I am ACTUALLY doing it. AND my car exhaust smells better to prove it.

I was a little worried at first because I've never changed a fuel filter, and whenever I imagine myself doing something new on my car, I imagine that it could probably make me explode. Once I'm done with that powerful visualization, I start reading in one of my four manuals that tell me dryly and in tiny print about a whole collection of models and years of cars, some of which match mine. So far I've used this method to change the wipers on two different cars, replace lightbulbs and sideview mirrors (guess who knocked them off!) and change the oil and filter.

The first thing I found out about the fuel filter was that SOME Subaru's have the filter right on top. Others have it behind a wheel, and are only accessible if you can stand the car up on jacks.

Since I DON'T have jacks, and I haven't made it through the "If I put my car up on jacks I might accidentally forget to unplug some wires and blow myself up" there's no way I was going to change the filter if I had one of THOSE cars. On the other hand, I had already made up my mind (weeks ago) that I would change this goddam filter, so I kept reading. That's right, I kept reading, and hoping that my filter happened to be the kind that sits right on top of the engine instead of walking outside opening the hood and actually looking at MY engine. I read all about it, and then started to look up pictures online so that I could imagine doing the five steps that were in the book. Finally the part of me that gets fed up with all the less evolutionarily sound parts screamed "GO LOOK IN YOUR OWN CAR TO SEE IF YOU CAN FIND THE FILTER!" It was right there on top. Much smaller than the ones in all the pictures. I was nervous, because I had learned that I COULD in fact blow gasoline all over my face at high speed during this process, so I found a website to give me a new perspective.

This guy is really helpful, and all about "mechanical empowerment". Also, unlike the guys at Schuck's I've never seen him make more than one expression, so I have a harder time imagining him patronizing me in any way. I'm going to change my air filter next, I think. Once I take care of the wierd shudder that's started.... ehem.

Anyway, I read all about how I might need a special Fuel line clamp wrench, because some cars have very special bolts holding the filter on. Since I was going to go have to go buy "open wrenches" anyway, I took another look at the filter to see if maybe I'd need a special wrench. Nope. My car is so old that the clamps are held on with phillips head screws. Yup.

So I removed a fuse, I took off the filter and got gas all over my hands. I enjoyed this immensely, and was glad again to be a nonsmoker. After I put the thing down I went to go wash my hands. Soon the kitchen smelled of gasoline and lavender which sounds like the name of a folk duo with a big bearded dude and his tiny barefoot wife. I think the smell woke up Z. Which is a cruel thing to do to someone really.

It's all put back together now, and I even drove her to work today. For some reason the small shudder that generally occurs in the first five minutes of driving now occurs over a longer period... yes, I know. Yikes. I am never afraid of blowing up while DRIVING, just repairing, so I'm perfectly confident gripping the wheel through the moment or two that the car bucks generally for no reason I can figure. So, I'll open a beer and my manual, and look through that website, and if none of that can help me, I'll have to ask my grease monkey friends about it.

I'll be at Breitenbush till Thursday, so till then...