CLICK & CLACK’S CAR TALK

Saturday, May 4, 2013

DEAR TOM AND RAY: Back in the ’80s, when there wasn’t anywhere he knew of to take used oil for recycling, my dad started pouring it into a 55-gallon drum in the garage. Not just oil, but anything sort of like it: transmission fluid, brake fluid, you name it. That drum filled up long ago, and it’s still there! Other than leaving it in place for eternity, what’s the best thing to do with it?

TOM: Wow. Your dad left you a 55-gallon drum of waste oil. I’m going to tell my ex-wife never to complain again about that lousy, chipped tea set her mother left her.

RAY: Do you live anywhere near that big nuclear waste facility in the Rocky Mountains, Dottie?

TOM: Actually, it shouldn’t be very hard to dispose of. But it’s not easy, either.

RAY: Most states have strict regulations about how you can transport and dispose of waste oil. And they’ll only license certain companies that meet the qualifications, to handle waste oil properly.

TOM: “Properly” means, first, not spilling it, because a single gallon of spilled oil can contaminate a lot of ground water. And second, safely delivering it to someplace where it can be recycled - most often burned as heating fuel in a waste-oil furnace.

RAY: So, first you’re going to have to check with your state’s department of environmental affairs and find out what the rules are.

TOM: Based on what you learn, you’ll probably have to call a licensed waste-removal company to handle this.

RAY: If what’s in the drum is just waste oil (like motor oil and transmission fluid), they’ll come and pump it out of your drum and cart it away for, most likely, between $100 and $200. Not too bad, right?

TOM: But here’s the bad news: If there’s brake fluid in there - you say there is - it’s no longer considered just “waste oil.” It’s considered a “federal hazardous waste,” and, by federal law, it has to be handled much more carefully.

RAY: If the waste oil is mixed with brake fluid, the stuff can no longer be burned as heating fuel. There are chlorines in brake fluid that are poisonous to humans when burned, and a small amount of brake fluid can contaminate an entire barrel of otherwise reusable oil.

TOM: For that reason, it has to be handled differently - usually shipped somewhere for safe processing - and that increases the cost to you.

RAY: And here’s the other bad news: You can’t just lie about it and say there’s no brake fluid in there. Licensed carriers will test a sample on the spot, to figure out if they have to treat it as waste oil or hazardous waste. If it’s hazardous waste, you’re probably looking at more like $300-$500 to have it taken away.

TOM: But you really should get it done, Dottie. And the sooner, the better. Because if that barrel ever rusts out and starts to leak, then you’ve got your own little EPA super fund site, and the costs of cleanup only go up from there - sometimes exponentially.

RAY: Start by going to the website of whatever department in your state deals with environmental protection. Or call. If you’re prohibited from transporting it yourself, they should be able to give you a list of companies that are licensed to cart away waste oil and hazardous waste.

TOM: Call a few of them and shop around for a good price. Let them know over the phone that there may be brake fluid in the oil so you can get an accurate price quote.

RAY: Then bite the bullet and get rid of the stuff. And don’t forget to say, “Thanks, Dad” as you write the check.

DEAR TOM AND RAY: My wife has a 1999 Subaru Forester with low mileage (85,000), but the interior is not so good.She lets the kids eat in her car, and, as such, the seats are getting ruined, the floor mats are gone, the cup holders are broken and the list goes on. I’d like to replace the broken items in her car and replace the seats and the carpet, but I don’t know where to get those items at reasonable prices. Of course, the local dealer can get some of those parts, but at a nice premium, which I’d like to avoid. Any ideas where I can find replacement interior parts at reasonable prices?

RAY: Sure. At a junkyard. Also known these days by its society name, the “automotive recycling center.”

TOM: There are situations where a car will get in an accident of some kind, and the car is totaled but the interior is still fine.

RAY: Or the car is sent to the junkyard for some kind of catastrophic engine failure, even though the cup holders are still working like they’re brand new.

TOM: In fact, you even can buy an entire interior for your car at a junkyard if you want to. Or, if you’re looking for a hobby, take the engine out of yours and put it into one of those junkers!

RAY: Most junkyards are connected electronically these days, so if one doesn’t have what you’re looking for, they can see if another one has it.

TOM: Another option is to find a body shop that’s willing to do the work for you and source the stuff “used,” from a junkyard. They do this a lot more frequently than you do.

RAY: But if you do decide to do it yourself, ask if you can check out the interior “in situ” first - that is, when it’s still in the donor car, if that’s possible. Then get in, and take a deep breath. Because you don’t want to install seats and carpet in your wife’s car only to find out that they were in the car of an old lady who drove around all day with her eight male cats, while chain smoking Cuban cigars.

Click & Clack (Tom and Ray Magliozzi) dispense advice about cars in Car Talk every Saturday. E-mail them by visiting cartalk.com

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