It was spring 1964 and I was riding my bicycle up and down Camden street, in Richland Washington. It was a care free existence for an 8 year old. The trees were back to green the lilacs in bloom but what caught my eye and stopped me in my tracks was a beautiful silver 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. It was sitting curbside in front of the next door neighbors house. I looked into what I thought of as the cockpit of a fighter jet. There was that distinctive round dash, bucket seats and the gear shift with its white knob splitting the seats. The one year only split rear window graced the distinctive rear end, a tapered front end with hide away lights. The car was perfect, the coolest thing I had ever seen! I remarked to the lady standing next to it, “That’s the car I am gong to have when grow up!” Here reply was, “This car won’t even be popular or even be around when you grow up!” Boy was she wrong, that car, that day has been permanently etched in my mind!
Now 56 years later, at 66, I started looking through ads for Corvettes for sale. I never lost the desire to own a Corvette, I was on a mission. I hooked my Eagle flat bed trailer to my Duramax Chevy Diesel and made my way over the pass to Western Washington. My theory was simple, it rains a lot on the west side, most Corvettes on that side of the mountains see more garage time than drive time. Armed with my trusty Carfax and Google Maps I started looking at Corvettes from Tacoma to Bellingham. I kept coming back to a White Base 3LT 2005 Corvette in Mt. Vernon. The Arctic White paint was flawless, the Cashmere and black interior perfect, as it should be for a 17 year old car with only 42,000 miles. The Carfax showed it hd been properly maintained and periodically checked into the dealership for recalls and oil changes. It was sporting new Michelin super sports on all four corners and a new battery. A deal was made and that white beauty was driven onto the tilt bed Eagle trailer for the ride back over the mountain.
I don’t by any means claim to be a mechanic, but I do take pride in maintaining my car. I have always changed my own fluids and rotated my own tires. I have found that if I do those little things the big expensive repairs are less likely to happen. The first thing was to get the Corvette up in the air for an inspection. Using my Quick Jack lift and the proper lifting pucks, I raised the car and rolled under with my creeper. I just could not believe how clean the bottom of this car was. The completely flat race engineered under side was perfect. I located all of my drain plugs, oil pan , rear diff and the fill for the rear diff. I like to use AMSOIL parts and brake cleaner on those and the brake bleeders before I start. I gave them a little spray to remove the little road grime that there was. It is just good to start clean.
If I could point out one thing that I find awesome about AMSOIL besides it being the number one synthetic. It is the My Garage feature on the site as a Preferred Customer you not only get 25% off on all the products and free shipping on orders of 100 dollars or more. You can enter your vehicles into your own My Garage. Once set up with your vehicles make and model, with a click you have access to all the fluids, filters and torque values for all your drain and fill plugs. You can store your maintenance records in My Garage the milage, the products used, and the total cost of each maintenance that you preformed. It doesn’t get any cooler than that!
So below You can see all the products that I choose for my 2005 C6 Corvette. I started with removing the brake fluid from the master cylinder with a syringe. I then filled the master cylinder with fresh AMSOIL Dot 3&4 brake fluid. Using a power bleeder I started on the right rear, then left rear, right front, and finished bleeding on the left front as per the manual. I kept filling the master cylinder as I went.
With the Brakes complete I moved on to the rear Diff. Now one thing I have learned about the rear diff loosen the fill plug first. You do not want to drain the diff fluid and not be able to put fluid back in. Just a helpful tip. With the Corvette it has a limited slip differential so I had to add AMSOIL Slip Lock with the AMSOIL Severe Gear 75W-90. I put the AMSOIL Slip Lock in first then filled with Amsoil Sever Gear 75W-90 until it dripped from the fill hole. Torqued both plugs to specs, which I found in My Garage. Once I put the car back on the road I went to a parking lot to do some figure eights. This helped to mix the Sever Gear with the Slip Lock.
Oil change came next and AMSOIL gives you some choices. At the top you have extended life which allows you to go longer between changes. In the middle AMSOIL Boosted 5W-30 a little added protection which I prefer and change my oil at the manufacturers recommendation. There is also OE which is their basic synthetic also recommended to change at the manufacturers set milage or time. The oil filter is another option AMSOIL has their own line of Oil filters pictured below, or you can also purchase Wix filters, Oil, Air and Cabin. That 25% saving for Preferred Customers also extends to the Wix line of filters.
Next up a coolant change using the AMSOIl Antifreeze & coolant below.
Maintaining your car is a little work, but by getting under your car and taking care of the little things, you get to know your car and have the confidence that it is done right. With AMSOIL, you know that the products that you are placing back into your car are top shelf for sure! Keep checking back in at Ted”s Garage for more product tips and consider becoming a Preferred Customer.
Remember Save Time, Save Money with AMSOIL.
