We highly recommend using experts when doing oil and filter change to ensure everything goes smoothly. These folks know your car, know your engine and have been trained extensively in the right procedures to handle just about anything that can come their way. Anyone who thinks it’s a great way to save money only needs to calculate the man hours, spent prepping your vehicle, ensuring safety standards are met, not to mention having all the right tools for the job. That said if you do want to do it yourself here is some information. This is not an all-encompassing advice rather common steps.
Changing your oil & filter
- Find a safe way to jack your vehicle up and place it on safety stands. This must be done in a manner that is 100% safe.
- Place the drain pain under the oil-drain plug. Loosen the plug with a proper fitting wrench.
- A repair kit will be needed if the plug is damaged.
- Unthread the cap and thread on a fitting with a drain hose, which you will aim directly towards the pan.
- When the pan is completely drained unthread the hose fitting, reinstall the finger tight cap.
- If the drain plug is in fine shape and you want to reuse it replace the washer and then tighten the plug.
- Dispose of the drained oil into a suitable container, bring to a store where you bought the new oil and have them empty it into a recycling tank
- When removing an oil filter, you need to have the right wrench.
- There are many sizes and perhaps the most common is the cap wrench which fits on the end of the filter.
- Make sure you have the right internal shape to fit the flutes
- If you cant find the right size and shape cap wrench, try one of the following: Nylon band wrench, coil spring wrench or a spring-band wrench.
- When refilling new oil apply a film of clean engine oil to the gasket of the new filter, then thread the filter on by hand. Some filters have a rubber surface to make it easy to turn. Any good oil filter is designed to seal for tens of thousands of miles.
- Make sure you use the right oil for your engine. Consult with an expert if you are not sure.