I’ve been pretty lax in checking the oil level in the car recently, despite the humungous amount of money such slackness cost me a couple of years ago when it directly led to the whole engine needing replacing, which cost $3000.

But as I had noticed one of the tyres needed inflating, I decided to take a look at the oil.

It was my sister who showed me how to check the oil. See, when I was growing up, we never had a car. My parents didn’t (and still don’t) drive. So my dad never explained the vagaries of the clutch, the art of changing a tyre, why Melburnians drive outside the lane on tram roads, or the ritual of regularly checking the oil. My sister got her car first, and attempted to explain these things to me when I got mine.

So I checked the oil. There certainly seemed to be some there, but it was below the notches signifying normality. Question was, what should I do? I had no idea if I should attempt to change the oil completely (and if so, how?), or just top it up with oil from the supermarket. Thankfully since my sister married Adrian, there is someone who knows a bit more about cars in the family, and he recommended the latter, preferably as soon as possible.

The supermarket had a one litre bottle of oil for $6.87. This seems to have done the trick. And much cheaper than $3000.