Did the 60,000-mile service in my driveway this morning starting at 6:15 am in an effort to beat yet another 100-degree day today. Always hate the mess pulling the oil filter on this car makes as old oil runs down and saturates the two shielded HVAC lines that stupidly run directly under the oil filter. Thought a little bit about the process this morning before crawling under there, and decided to drape those two shielded lines with a small scrap piece of plastic sheeting hanging down to about three inches above the rim of my oil catch basin. Don't wrap the lines with the plastic, just hang it like a towel on a towel rack. Worked like a charm - all the old oil runs down the plastic sheeting into the catch basin. Let the plastic hang there for five minutes or so until the dripping stops, then just slide it off the shielded lines into a couple of sheets of newspaper to catch any remaining mess on the plastic. Done. No need to mop those lines anymore because they stay dry as a bone. You're immediately ready to install your new oil filter....

I also checked the two 8mm bolts holding the ZF transmission cable in place while I was down there. I believe the last time I tightened them up was a little over six months ago at the previous oil-and-filter change. This time, they both snugged up by perhaps an eighth of a turn. Just goes to show you that these two bolts don't take long to start loosening up again. If you haven't checked yours lately with your 8mm box wrench, don't put it off too long....

Still no signs of oil pan gasket leakage, DCCV leakage, or ZF sleeve leakage at 60,000 miles. And the rear brake pads still have approximately three-sixteenths of an inch of pad left, probably another 3,000 to 4,000 miles' worth of the 50/50 mix of highway/city driving that our car typically does. My wife will be driving the S-Type on another solo trip to Tampa this Saturday to visit her parents. When she returns the following week, I'll start thinking about heading to Vance's house to change those rear pads....