my oil change story with a twist

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Storytime:
Today was a great day, but ended with a twist. I had Lunch with an old friend, then met up with a Facebook garage-saler at the Goodwill store to sell him an item I had listed on FB, then while waiting for him, I spent some time at the Goodwill and scored a high end stainless european pressure cooker for pocket change!

OK, This is gonna be a long story, so buckle up ;-)

When I get home from all that fun, I decide to change oil on the car, it is hot out (about 90º and humid and chance of storms), but I'm feelin' good, so what the heck, I'm up for crawling on the ground :lol: My car is in the driveway ...sidenote: there is a utility pole about 1 foot off my driveway, I park my woodsplitter next to the pole, and chain/lock it up.

Anyway, changing oil on the toyota went well. For 30+ years, I've always changed my own oil. But, one time, many years ago, while changing oil on my 68 chev van, the oil filter didn't get put on correctly, when I started the van and drove it down the block...oil squirted everywhere, what a mess.

So, because of that, I always double check the oil filter and drain plug by starting the car, running it for 10 seconds or so, then shut it off and check under the car for leaking...again, that only happened to me one time, many years, but that mess made an impression, so I always check.

Now the oil has been changed, so I start my car, then shut it off, check for leaks, check the oil level, document the oil change in my log book, It's all good. Then I start the car again and proceed to go to the gas station to top off the gas tank. As I back out of the driveway, I see oil sprayed all over the street and on the utility pole and all over my woodsplitter! That startled the heck out of me! :shock::shock::shock: :veryconfu

I quickly pull the car back into the driveway and shut it off. I look under the car...no oil on the driveway? I feel some oily mist in the air? I look up, and a transformer on the utility pole was leaking oil and at stupid crazy rate, the breeze turning the leaking oil into a mist as it fell to the street and on my woodsplitter.

I move my car, so it doesn't get sprayed with oil. I move my woodsplitter, and I go in to call the municipal electric company. They come out, and say, yup it's the transformer. They leave and come back with a replacement transformer. They cut the power and started to replace it, just as a big storm rolled in...thunder and lightening...they said this won't take long.

Then wind picked up and then a downpour rain, they had to quit, they weren't finished, they left and said they'd be back after the storm passed. The power was cut to my house and the neighbors business. No big deal for me, but I suspect my neighbor wasn't happy. An hour and a half later they came back, which was about 45 minutes after the storm ended. They said we had some 60 MPH winds and one tree fell in town and took out a powerline...They told me they had to fix that first, that's why it took them so long to come back to my neighborhood.

Anyway, that was a heck of a twist, eh?

[Tracy]

Sounds like a typical day around here.[smilie=1:

I'm joking, but not by much!

[Wayne Smith]

Good on you to notice it and get it fixed. What would happen if one of those runs dry? I have no idea, but I'll bet its not good!

[Bulldogger]

Good on you to notice it and get it fixed. What would happen if one of those runs dry? I have no idea, but I'll bet its not good!

The oil is an insulator and heat dissipation resource. A pole transformer like that would continue to operate but would die young from overheating with a winding eventually burning/opening. Sorry that it took so long to replace, it should have been a quick job but Mother Nature doesn't always agree.
BDGR

[Hickory]

That transformer is filled with PCB oil. It you get any of it on you it could be far more hazardous to your health than eating prepared meats and drinking beer.

[KenH]

That transformer is filled with PCB oil. It you get any of it on you it could be far more hazardous to your health than eating prepared meats and drinking beer.

PCB oil has NOT been used in transformers since 1979. "IF" that oil was PCB they would have had all kinds of EPA issues. The whole PCB thing was overblown a good bit - Seems like the reason it got banned wasn't incidental contact. Perhaps in 1950's? Don't remember just went, but some Japanese families found a good cheap source of oil to cook with - turned out it was oil that had PCB, and after using for cooking a few yr the families developed a high rate of cancer.

That's as I remember reading in an engineering book, but that was many years ago and my memory never has been all that good...... and it has gotten worse over the years.

Ken H>

[lightman]

As a retired serviceman (electric not military) I've changed out hundreds of transformers. Its just another day at the office if you live in farming country and have thousands of electric irrigation wells in your territory. Older transformers may or may not have had PCB's in their oil. New ones, probably for the last 30+ years, did not have PCB's. The danger in very minimal, the PCB level is minor and measured in parts per million. Like KenH said, PCB contamination was way overblown. Sure, you don't want to eat it, cook with it or bathe in it! Many things have PCBs including used motor oil. My company did take oil spills very seriously and would have sent an environmental crew out to dig up your yard, replace the dirt and sod and clean up the driveway and even your truck. Bulldogger is correct, the oil is an insulator and a coolant. The transformer will overheat and fail without it. If I could have gotten my truck to that pole and had a transformer with me that would have been about a 30 to 60 minute job, depending on if I needed to upgrade the switch and animal protection or not. I probably would have just gotten wet and finished the job, or sat in the truck until the rain passed on through.

As to oil changes, I've always changed my own up until the last few years. Truck, car, ATV, tractor, mower, everything. I used to buy oil by the barrel and bought a years worth of filters when the parts stores had their spring sales. I always start the engine and check for leaks, then shut it off and check the level. The first time I changed the oil in my current tractor I was not sure exactly how much it held so I put 10 qts in and started it up. I left the filler cap off expecting to have to add a little more. Well, I guess diesels have more crankcase pressure than gas engines and I blew oil all over everything! What a mess, lesson learned!

By the way, that was a cool story!

[WILCO]

Great story Jon!

[OldBearHair]

Heard of people using grain from a spill on the highway to eat. It was seed grain treated with something to keep the bugs away. Bad results occurred. Another time 1960s in Harlingen Texas the newspaper had a story about a tank car side-tracked full of Methyl Ethyl Keytone discovered by a group of Mexican people who thought it was good to drink, and did, and died. Don't remember the exact number. Very tragic indeed! The Japanese family mentioned above is what sparked my memory about this.

[Hardcast416taylor]

The way your story was going I expected you to say you found some errant wheel weights on the driveway slab?Robert

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

That transformer is filled with PCB oil. It you get any of it on you it could be far more hazardous to your health than eating prepared meats and drinking beer.

To Hickory (and others commenting on PCBs)
That was my first question when I called the Electric Co. They said every transformer in our system (Glencoe Municipal) has been updated with PCB-free oil...he said it's 'like' vegetable oil as far as being dangerous...I'm thinking it's a grade of mineral oil?

[Hickory]

My mistake, I thought that PCB's were still used in transformers.

[popper]

I missed getting the gasket out of the old cartridge units (MGB), messed up budy's garage big time. Worst was a Toyota with a pinhole in the filter. They mount upside down on the top of the engine and I got everything under the hood soaked. Didn't see any drips till I was leaving work.

[MT Gianni]

My mistake, I thought that PCB's were still used in transformers.
When they were used it was mainly commercial loads and less than 4% in use in the 50's to 70's. Scare was accurate just not a large application.

[Lloyd Smale]

theres mineral oil in a transformer to cool it. When the boil like that there shorted out internaly. Little story from an ex lineman. My partner and I had a trouble call one summer day. I was just an apprentice at the time. We got there and you could even hear that transformer it sounded like a growl. It was still on and hadn't blown the fuse. The paint was all burned off of it and we swore we could see it expanding and contracting. I went up in the bucket with a hot stick to open the fuse. I actually had two extensions on it to keep me far enough away. Just about the time I got up to where I could use the stick the lid blew off of it. At that time the fuse blew too. Scared the **** out of me. Oil went everywhere but luckily my parterner and I didn't get any of the hot oil on us. I wasn't watching like my the transformer at the time I was more conserned with the fuse. My partner was though and he said that lid blew way up in the air out of sight. We looked around for about an hour and never did find the lid or pieces of the bushings anywhere. that was just a small 15kva transformer. We also had one of our substation (very large 69000 volt) transformers blow. Our substation is about a 1/4 of a mile from the office and we felt the building shake at the same time the lights went out. As to pcb's like gianna said there rare. Every transformer we took down newer or older had to be tested. In 30 years I saw two come back positive for pcb's. Most of it was used in older (pre 60s) substation transformers.

[jimlj]

I wonder what size cast boolit hole was in the transformer to cause the leak??

[lightman]

I wonder what size cast boolit hole was in the transformer to cause the leak??

I've actually replaced a few transformers and reclosers that had been shot. Capacitors too. Redneck will be Rednecks! Not sure if they were shot with cast or not!:D

[jimlj]

I was just kind of jabbing JonB.
I too have replaced many transformers that had been shot in the oil fields of Wyoming. Usually the first few days of hunting season each year. I guess with enough adult beverages the bushings might look like antlers.

[jonp]

That transformer is filled with PCB oil. It you get any of it on you it could be far more hazardous to your health than eating prepared meats and drinking beer.

Apparently not more hazardous than eating bacon or sausage

[Lloyd Smale]

the real stupid ones shoot the insulators our on a 69000 or 138000 volt transmission pole. Ive seen the power in one of them and sure wouldn't want to be within a 1/4 mile of one of those lines hitting the ground. Every year we had a 4 man crew replacing shot insulators for a month or two.

[jonp]

Lloyd, did the transformer blow due to the pressure of boiling oil inside of it? Without getting too technical, was it a short causing and arc inside or something like that you think?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I wonder what size cast boolit hole was in the transformer to cause the leak??

I'm pretty sure it wasn't .177 ...LOL

[Petrol & Powder]

I was just kind of jabbing JonB.
I too have replaced many transformers that had been shot in the oil fields of Wyoming. Usually the first few days of hunting season each year. I guess with enough adult beverages the bushings might look like antlers.


Shooting electrical equipment ! Talk about irresponsible. It threatens the power supply to people that depend on that electricity, it's downright dangerous, it damages the power company's property and it diverts crews from other repairs.

I'm sure it happens but anyone that intentionally shoots electrical equipment should be castrated with a dull chain saw!

[john.k]

Commonest source of PCB oil nowdays is old electric fans,especially overhead and the big standing fan units......the big capacitor that controlls motor speed swims in the stuff......In Germany after PCBs were banned ,a company cleaning casings and emptying banned oil sold a tanker load to a Spanish company.....the oil was used in Spain to dilute olive oil for cooking......In my scrappie days,we used to upend big transformers and let the oil run out on the ground....it often ran into the footpath and gutters in the street outside......incidentally,linesmen are sometimes killed in pole transformer and voltage regulator explosions....A young guy died in the next street.

[azrednek]

Back in the 70's the overhead transformers in my area were screwing up TV signals. Power co would do a fix and a few weeks later the interference started again. The SHTF when the CB radio fad started. As soon as a transformer caused problems a bullet hole would appear in it in a day or two. Neighborhood gossip had two retired FBI agents working for the power co trying to find the marksman.

Maybe I'm dense but what the heck is PCB oil???

[Lloyd Smale]

ya it shorted out internally but didn't blow the fuse for some reason. Just sat there cooking the oil. Ive only seen one other tub blow the lid and that one was hit by lightning. Same thing there though. We never did find the lid. Just oil all over everywhere. It shows you how powerful electricity is. We have a small 20 megawatt power plant in Escanaba MI. I used to work there. The main transformer leaving the plant to step up voltage to 69kv blew a few years ago and it made national news. Seems some strange light was seen going strait off of it up into the sky and some conspiracy theorists thought it was a beam from a space ship or a satellite attack from Russia or china. . When that tub blew it shook the ground so hard that the people in town thought it was an earth quake.
Lloyd, did the transformer blow due to the pressure of boiling oil inside of it? Without getting too technical, was it a short causing and arc inside or something like that you think?

[lightman]

Shooting electrical equipment ! Talk about irresponsible. It threatens the power supply to people that depend on that electricity, it's downright dangerous, it damages the power company's property and it diverts crews from other repairs.

I'm sure it happens but anyone that intentionally shoots electrical equipment should be castrated with a dull chain saw!

You are absolutely correct on all accounts. The last recloser that I had to replace because of being shot took out the whole circuit that was feeding it. It took hours to find it. We had the whole Police and Fire Department out looking. Luckily one of the Firemen saw a flash when we tried the circuit. By the time I got home that night I would have gladly used a dull chainsaw on the shooter!

PCB stands for Polychlorinated Biphenyl. It was used to enhance the heat dissipating ability of the oil in transformers, capacitors and compressors, among other things. PCB's have been proven to cause cancer but the amounts in transformers was measured in ppm or parts per million.

I've seen many transformers with the lids blown off, split open, and even blown off of the pole. Most of them were in the rural and on irrigation wells and caused by lightning. My company had strict rules about switching oil filled equipment from the ground or as far away from it as possible. That was in another life! Biggin now has that job!

[Lloyd Smale]

the joys of outages!! Lightning used to make my skin crawl knowing it was about for sure id be out on an outage. It sure is nice today. I can go out on the deck and watch it today its almost relaxing!! Did I tell you I LOVE RETIREMENT!!
You are absolutely correct on all accounts. The last recloser that I had to replace because of being shot took out the whole circuit that was feeding it. It took hours to find it. We had the whole Police and Fire Department out looking. Luckily one of the Firemen saw a flash when we tried the circuit. By the time I got home that night I would have gladly used a dull chainsaw on the shooter!

PCB stands for Polychlorinated Biphenyl. It was used to enhance the heat dissipating ability of the oil in transformers, capacitors and compressors, among other things. PCB's have been proven to cause cancer but the amounts in transformers was measured in ppm or parts per million.

I've seen many transformers with the lids blown off, split open, and even blown off of the pole. Most of them were in the rural and on irrigation wells and caused by lightning. My company had strict rules about switching oil filled equipment from the ground or as far away from it as possible. That was in another life! Biggin now has that job!

[Silver Eagle]

Years ago my my Dad was just getting home at night from something or another and we saw a huge flash in the sky. Suburban Chicago area, so busy 4 lane road urban area. Anyways, we decided to go investigate. About a mile, mile and a half away we saw a long line of damaged cars including a few police cars. Eventually came upon a lot more lights and emergency vehicles. All surrounding a power pole that was hanging with the bottom missing. Found out that someone decided to try and get away from the police (reason unknown.) After crashing into all of the cars beforehand, lost control and hit the pole. This caused the wires to short and the flash we saw was the transformer (pole pig) on top shorting out.
Not sure what happened to driver or how long it took to clean up the mess. Was a strange sight seeing a power pole just hanging there with nothing underneath it. Also, not sure how fast the car was going to completely shear through one. Very sure the electric company people were not pleased!

[TXGunNut]

About ten years ago I was working for a company that had a car "damaged" by transformer oil. You'd think it was a highly toxic substance from all the haz-mat activity. I guess some towns would send out a haz-mat crew if someone saw me take a whiz off the back porch.
I've seen a couple of transformers blow up in electrical storms. Closest was over a mile and that's as close as I ever want to be when that happens. Quite a show but I sure wouldn't want to be working on one when that happens.

[justashooter]

if that oil had all leaked out teh transformer would have overheated and exploded. it sounds like TNT when they go off.

[respiegel]

A desolved gas analysis will tell you if a transformer is starting to arc internally, unfortunately they don't bother to test the pole top transformers due to cost and ease of replacement.

I was driving down the road during a thunderstorm and a pole top next to me got hit by lightning. The flash blinded me for a few seconds and all I could hear was ringing, my first thought was "oh man, did I just die?" when my hearing and vision returned I was in the middle of the road with a state trooper tapping on my window and the fire department putting out the burning pole. That's why I always double check my timecard before I leave work, you might die on the way home!

[Tom W.]

I saw one explode one day while I was sitting in my truck, It was across the 4 lane and parking lot, almost in front of the "New" southside fire department in Eufaula. To say it was a loud blast would be an understatement.

[lightman]

They can be loud, but if you really want to hear loud blow a SMD fuse on an underground dip pole! I carried a set of shooters ear muffs in my company truck, clamped on top of the radio speaker.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup is funny how some fuses blow and shake the ground and others just kind of pop or fizzle.
They can be loud, but if you really want to hear loud blow a SMD fuse on an underground dip pole! I carried a set of shooters ear muffs in my company truck, clamped on top of the radio speaker.

[DLCTEX]

A children’s home I worked for received a donation of a cow herd after PBC contaminated oil was used on an asphalt highway adjacent to the pasture. The insurance company paid for the cattle after being sued for contamination caused by runoff and donated the cattle. They raised good calves for us. This was in 1979.

[john.k]

Where I worked had big compressors,one was ocassionally blowing a 600 amp fuse on one circuit.....I looked in my box of bits,cause the owners didnt buy anything new,or even second hand,but salvaged scrap for electrics.I fiound a matched set of 1000amp fuses and put them in......pressed the button for start,there was a massive explosion,the motor switchgear blew apart,door went across the yard.It seems the motor starting contacts welded together,and then recontacted for run and kaboom.The motor insulation was crisp.....Anyhoo,a couple of bucks extra,and the contract electrician wrote a report saying lightning had blown up the gear and motor,and fitted all new parts.......the owners claimed the lot on the "motor fusion "clause in the plant insurance....It was all Atlas Copco stuff,very costly.