‘This hurts so much to watch’: Woman puts her own oil in her Chevy between changes. But should she?

A woman boasted that she topped off her car's oil, revealing in the process that there are still some stereotypes out there about women and car maintenance.

The video showing the car care attempt came from creator Elyse (@elysekingsley). It went up on Feb. 22 and pulled in nearly 780,000 views as of this writing.

In an Elyse-POV view, she opens the hood of her car, revealing that she's driving a Chevrolet with an Ecotec engine.

"I said, 'Well, how hard can it be? Boys do it," she observed, starting the video, which shows her pouring oil (albeit a bit shakily) into the chamber.

She also made a follow-up video, responding to a comment that read, "Dudes I have some INSANE information. She knows how to use a dipstick."

But nevertheless, the video sparked conversation about DIY car maintenance as well as pondering the health of the car.

More about the Ecotec

A Reddit post on the r/whatcarshouldibuy forum made it clear some are skeptical of the General Motors-made Ecotec engine, which, according to MotorTrend, is "a family of four-cyl engines that really pump out the horsepower and torque numbers."

"The 1.4L Ecotec is a terrible engine," observed one commenter. "It will leak oil and/or coolant every 20,000 miles (or less). Don't buy any car with one, unless you want to get really handy with your ratchet set."

"Any car that has these motors was an absolute piece of junk and has little to no endearing traits," opined another

"My personal rule of thumb is to not ever buy any American car that doesn't have a v8 in it," that commenter continued. "All American manufacturers care about is pickup trucks and muscle cars. Everything else is junk that will cause you incomprehensible pain."

But should you top off your oil?

Regardless of what car you have, needing to top off oil between changes could be an indication of a larger issue.

"As you check your own oil every other fill-up as recommended, the oil level shouldn’t be going down significantly. If it is, you may have an oil leak," advised Brakemax in an article about topping off oil vs. doing an oil change.

The article also cautions about topping off oil to avoid changing dirty oil. "The problem with this option is that the oil already in the car might be contaminated. It certainly isn’t as clean as the new oil being added. This new oil being used to top off will immediately become dirty, too. So, what has been gained? And the potential loss is an engine."

But the article also notes that if the oil is low and you're looking to get to a mechanic soon for an oil change or a check-in, topping off the oil to keep it at the recommended level is a good idea.

Commenters on the video couldn't resist criticizing her technique

"This hurts so much to watch," said one.

When challenged on that observation, the commenter noted, "She is spilling it. It's not hard to buy a simple funnel."

That led one to reply, "Close ur eyes then baby it’s okay," followed by, "she probably cleaned it up after."

Another warned, "Overfilling can crack just about any seal that holds oil."

But several admired her initiative

"I'd kill to date a woman like you who knows what they're doing, good job," one said.

That got Elyse to jump in with, "Thank you, Andy; this is the only appropriate response I should have gotten."

"Y'all acting like shes just doing this w/o checking it," another said optimistically. "Like obviously it was checked."

Watch on TikTok

What Elyse had to say

"I thought it was pretty funny that the video went viral," said Elyse to the Daily Dot via email. "This isn't the first time I've gone viral, and it's always the thoughtless videos that I just whip out my camera and film on the spot and they're not premeditated or planned out in any way. But of course, the videos that I spend hours editing only get around 500 views."

"My engine definitely has some issues," she added regarding the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu LT she's had since 2018. "I've seen several mechanics over the last few years. My engine burns oil very quickly. From what I gathered from everybody's comments on the video, Ecotec engines have this issue a lot.

"If you're not getting your oil changed regularly and really keeping up with it, the life of it deteriorates quickly," she added. "Unfortunately I didn't take the best care of it that I could the first few years that I had my car, so now I have to be extra meticulous with upkeep. I hope to get a new car within the next year or two."

The Daily Dot has reached out to Chevrolet via email.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post ‘This hurts so much to watch’: Woman puts her own oil in her Chevy between changes. But should she? appeared first on The Daily Dot.

dailynoti coindeskcrypto cryptonewscrypto bitcoinmymagazine mybitcoinist cryptowithpotato mycryptoslate fivenewscrypto findtechcrunch journalpayments nulltxcrypto newsbtcarea