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self oil change
I own a 94QA, which I purchased used. I was wondering if any one has done a self-oil change, if so how? I haven't found any maintenance manuals showing how to do one. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Thanks.
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Comments
Disposing of the old oil afterwards, etc...what a PITA. And for what? Yes, you might "save" 15.00.
But, be careful of the "quickie lube" places as some are much better than others. Some use cheap oil filters and hire marginal help.
If this was a 1973 Ford Pickup I might feel differently but a Q-45 is a nice car that deserves the best.
1. Allow sufficient time to have even the small amount of oil (concentrated dirty oil) at the bottom of the pan to run out.
2. Inspect the filter and make absolutely sure no dirt gets into it when changing.
3. Carefully clean around oil filter housing and even inside of it to get rid of dirt/sludge.
4. Fill up the filter with oil before putting it on.
5. Clean around filler cap to avoid dirt.
6. Torque pan plug. Lots of cars running around with oversize plugs because of overtightening.
7. Hopefully he/she uses the right oil and the right amount, checks for leaks, and thououghly wipes the oil pan area and fill area and does not spill too much oil on the drive belts.
This is OK for 95% of the population, but it's not for me. Dirt is the #1 oil failure cause for all mechanical equipment. I don't want it in my engine, or the $7/hour man under my hood.
That's just me, but there are others.
Everything you mentioned makes sense I think filling the filter with oil isn't going to accomplish much, but, hey...go for it!
And, I know that there are people who actually enjoy the process of crawling under their car, etc.
And, yes, replace the crush washers. No torque wrench is needed.
But really, surely America is not so bad off that you can't find someone competent to do an oil change. This is hardly rocket science. And they dispose of the oil and filter safely. True enough, there are occasional bad scenes where some meat-fisted thug overtightens something or puts the filter on backwards or whatever, but there are plenty of owners who do far worse, even with the best intentions....like all the poor Saab owners who drain the transmission oil rather than the engine oil (the plugs are very close together), then over fill the engine to 8 quarts, and drive off on an empty transmission!
If you're going to do your own oil, you'd better know what you're doing these days. It's not like when Uncle Fred did it on his '65 Chevy.
Less Fun = 94 Towncar
Frustration = 95 Thunderbird. Very tight filter area and oil runs down the arm when removing the old filter. Have considered having the techs do this one.
Sorry, been burned too many times, even by competent mechanics etc. who need to do a job in too short of a time to make a buck. And always inspect the work after!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
newcar31. Many cars do not have the crushable gaskets. Bottom line [non-permissible content removed] car do American do not. There must be a lot of idiots out there: I have run into 2 or 3 out of a dozen cars (not mine) I have helped change oil on. Besides oversize plugs are readily available. That says something. Anyway, I can guarantee that the gasket is crushed before the torque wrench clicks off. My Sentra calls for 22-28 ft lbs. That's a fair amount of torque and more than American cars for the same size plug without crushable gaskets.. I rarely change the crushable ones. Never had a problem or a striped plug. Think the Jiffy guys ever change it????
Shiftright.. Good one. I liked it. Hate to admit it but one cold winter day I pulled the wrong one on my son-in-law's Nissan Quest. Talk about red faced like watching the red oil drain into the drainpan. Mercy, mercy, mercy.
1. Pull up to Jiffy Lube 3000 miles after the last oil change.
2. Drink a cup of coffee.
3. Fifteen minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly
maintained vehicle.
Men:
1. Go to O'Reilly auto parts and write a check for 50 dollars for oil,
filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and scented tree.
2. Discover that the used oil container is full. Instead of taking it
back to O'Reilly to recycle, dump in hole in back yard.
3. Open a beer and drink it.
4. Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5. Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7. Place drain pan under engine.
8. Look for 13mm box end wrench.
9. Give up and use crescent wrench.
10. Unscrew drain plug.
11. Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil; get hot oil on hand in the
process.
12. Clean up.
13. Have another beer while oil is draining.
14. Look for oil filter wrench.
15. Give up; poke oil filter with Phillips head screwdriver and twist it off.
16. Beer.
17. Buddy shows up. Finish case with him. Finish oil change tomorrow.
18. Next day, drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car, dump in hole in back yard.
19. Throw kitty litter on oil spilled during steps 11, 15, & 18.
20. Beer. No, drank it all yesterday.
21. Walk to 7-11 and buy beer.
22. Install new oil filter making sure to apply thin coat of clean oil
to gasket first.
23. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
24. Remember drain plug from step 11.
25. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan. Pan is empty. Find drain plug in back yard hole.
26. Hurry to replace drain plug as last drop of fresh oil drains onto
floor.
27. Slip with wrench and bang knuckles on frame.
28. Bang head on bumper in reaction.
29. Begin cussing fit.
30. Throw wrench.
31. Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit Miss December
(1982).
32. Clean up. Apply Band-Aid to knuckle.
33. Beer.
34. Beer.
35. Dump in additional 4 quarts of oil.
36. Beer.
37. Lower car from jack stands.
38. Accidentally crush one of the jack stands.
39. Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during step 26.
40. Drive car a quart low for 7000 miles when it'll be time for another oil change.
I have a whole bag of those little crush washers for my cars.
Ever changed a filter on a Mercedes diesel. What a ghastly, filthy slimey job! I would gladly pay someone $50 to do it for me.
Maybe this would be a common sense rule?======>
If you know what you're doing, and the oil filter and drain plug are accessible enough that you don't shred your flesh or need a jack, jackstands and a flashlight taped to your head. then change it yourself; otherwise, stop torturing yourself and/or avoid screwing something up, and have it done at a reliable shop.
So to the original Q45 owner, I'd say in your case, take it to the dealer or an independent shop familiar with the car.
Jiffy Lube may have its problems, but I don't think they could have remained in business so successfully if they were blowing up engines right and left.
1. Tried to find the filter and couldn't find it. Checked on the Internet.
2. Found it, but couldn't find a wrench that would fit. (The filter sits in a small cavity under the intake manifold. The OEM filter is completely smooth. Couldn't pierce it with a screwdriver, either.)
3. Went to the car parts store, but couldn't find anything that would fit. However, bought an aftermarket filter for the Miata that would fit my wrench.
4. Found a shop with an oil change special and asked them to install the filter.
I was promised to have the car back in 1/2 an hour.
5. Got the car back after three hours. They went through the same steps as I , called the car parts store but were informed that I had already checked out their inventory of wrenches. (I used to live in a small town.)
So they finally found somebody who was strong enough to wrestle the thing off by hand.
Mr. Shiftright, what makes the MB Diesel so bad ? My E320 is the easiest to change out of all the cars I've owned ?
But yes, you surely didn't want to overtighten that one.
I discovered the hard way that the Mack ESI+ engine of the late 70s held 60 qts of oil.
I spent quite a while getting the overflow off the shop floor.
At least Mack engineers designed the 3 huge spin on filters to hang vertically on the side of the engine. Detroits had the dreaded canister filters. Some were even mounted horizontally for added inconvenience.
Prided myself on doing it faster and cheaper than a mechanic.
As I blindly reached up under the car's midsection behind the engine block
to put the new filter on, the O ring fell off with out my knowing it.
I guess I was really lucky to be behind her car when she started the engine.
4 quarts of oil were discharged on the driveway faster than I could say #%@1 me.
lots of kitty litter used that day.
Now days I just follow step 16 "beer"
I used to do it myself but something ALWAYS happened. I would drop the drain plug into the oil pan, or I would miscalculate where the stream of oil would go and make a mess, etc...
What a royal PITA !!
In general, I would think those who like to baby their cars...like wax every month or so, would want to do their own oil changes to guarantee themselves that only the best stuff goes into the car and that they are draining out the maximum amount of oil (I would think most synthetic oil users would change their own oil).
A large part of how easy an oil change would be is the location of the oil filter...my first car, I would literally scrap my arms to pieces removing and putting in the new filter (no lift like shops of course). My new car now, the filter is very easy to change, but I've always changed my own oil because I like the satisfaction of knowing exactly what goes inside....not so much about cost really.
And not so much the time factor either, cuz even when I work my 110-120 hour weeks, I still have some time to change my oil.
For those who have other priorities, kudos to you for supporting the economy. *grin*
I did my own changes until I bought my 2001 GMC sierra.
My dealer charges me 10 bucks to do an oil and lube if I suplly my own oil and filter. I go buy Mobil 1 and AC Delco Duraguard GOLD (the 8 - 9 dollar filter) and let them do it.
No there is an official record of the oil being changed, I don't have to mess with old oil, and I get it lubed also.
I am a little envious, because it is soo easy to change the filter!
The hardest part for me was getting the car on the ramp.
I got suckered into taking my car to Firestone, tempted by their $10.00 oil changes. The thing that sold me was that the car I was driving at the time was a 1989 Gran Fury, which still needed periodic suspension lubrication. Well, before long, the price went up, and the real kicker was when the manager informed me "Look, we don't have the time to memorize the oil requirements for every car out there!" That just screams quality, doesn't it? This little argument came about because my Gran Fury requires 15W-40, which I told them the first time I took it in. Turns out they just dump 10W-30 in everything, whether it needs it or not. So, I have no way of knowing if they ever put the right stuff in my car at all, or just lied to me all along. I yeah, anyone want to lay odds on whether they were actually lubricating the chassis, either?
Oh yeah, here's another classic. Back when I was in college, my late grandfather's '85 Silverado mostly sat around, so I'd drive it to school like once every two weeks or so. Well, my uncle had been taking it in to get the oil changed. One day, I went to start it up to go to school, and the dang thing sounded like a diesel! The oil light came on, like it's supposed to, but never went off. And the thing never did register any oil pressure. I shut it off after about 10 seconds or so. Checked the dipstick...bone dry. I filled it up myself, and then drove it into our garage to look under it. Yup, the drain plug was loose. There was also a nice slick spot on the grass where the truck had been parked. I'm sure the EPA loves me!
Anyway, I could take it to my dealership, but why? It's 20 minutes down there, 20 minutes back, and I spill a lot less of it than they do. They also charge $27.00 to spill, -er, I mean, change the oil. Remember how just about every old RWD V-8 Mopar product would dump oil on the exhaust pipe when you changed the filter, and the car would smoke up until it burned off? My DeSoto does it, my Dart does it, and my Gran Fury does it. Well, that's how my Intrepid smelled the one time I let them change my oil (it was in for other work, as well).
Anyway, it takes like 15-20 minutes to change my oil, and costs about $10.00. There's a recycling station less than 2 miles away. Maybe for some people, it's more worthwhile to have a professional change their oil. But in my case, it's proven for the most part to be a waste of time, money, and a potential threat to the well-being of my vehicles.
And the idiotic thing about it is, I'm sorry, but an oil change is an oil change. You either do it right or you don't...there's no in between. So I don't buy the line about "you get what you pay for" by taking it to Firestone/All Tune and Lube/Jiffy Lube/etc versus the dealer.
-Andre
--- Bror Jace
Andre...how to you like changing the filter on that De Soto? Didn't we talk about that before?
I think it's in a cannister mounted on the side of the engine, isn't it? those were a NIGHTMARE to change. They had an o ring that slipped out of place along with a couple of fiber washers that had to be just right or they would leak and you would have to start the whole miserable process all over again.
The drain plug isn't too bad...in fact, I can actually slide under the car without even jacking it up to get to it!
But that oil cannister...what a pain! Come to think of it, the last time I changed it, I had one of those rubber washers in the wrong place, and sure enough, it leaked, and I had to do it all over again!
At least DeSoto went to a spin-on cannister type for 1958 when they phased out the Hemi. Didn't Chevy hang on to the drop-in type until '67 or so?
And trust me, changing my oil is not something I look forward to. It's still a PITA, but it's just proven to be more of a PITA to have someone else do it!
-Andre
Thankfully, when I was a kid working in a gas station there were few of these and I had my boss to bail me out.
Jim
I wonder if those cars had a tendency for that particular suspension fitting to deteriorate prematurely? Or, I guess if nothing else, at least that was one fitting that was guaranteed to be lubed!
I guess it's a whole different story on a transversely mounted 3.8, though!
-Andre
1. Whether or not the car needs to be level depends on where the drain plug is. If the drain plug is in the rear corner of the pan, you can jack up just the front wheels. If it's in the middle or towards the front, then you need the car to be level. The only thing to pay attention to is: try and make sure all of the oil drains out of the car. If this can happen with just the front wheels jacked, you're set.
2. I use whatever I have as a drain pan. Not a styrofoam cup.
Do yourself a huge-huge favor and go to K-Mart/Pep Boys, etc and buy a pan made by "Blitz" I got the 15qt one. It's nice and big and low. After you drain the oil this container has a pour spout to pour old oil in gallon jugs or take it directly to recycle place(Pep Boys, Autozone, Advance Auto Parts.)