Peter Vieira
Wow, you're reading this? Thanks! If you're into RC cars and I seem vaguely familiar, it's because I spent over 25 years writing and editing RC car news, reviews, and tech articles in print and online. What else, what else ... I have a degree in Film Studies (useless), most of a degree in Graphic Design (useful), and I'm married to a wonderful woman with horrible taste in men. Thanks to her, we have a terrific daughter who just earned her Journalism degree and is way, waaay more together that I was at her age. Or right now.
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On my 2019 Honda Odyssey the oil filter is mounted just above a subframe piece. To avoid making a mess when removing the filter, I jack up the front passenger side and remove the wheel, then put a piece of aluminum foil underneath to act as a shield and redirect the oil into my drain pan. It’s less time to do this than clean up the mess on the subframe.
I mentioned this on an article a while back too, but my two tricks are that I have a set of 3 inch ramps that get my car just far enough off the ground to do an oil change without messing with more elaborate lifting methods. I also always wipe off the mating surface for the oil filter, which both should keep debris from messing up the seal with the new filter and also ensure that the o ring from the old filter isn’t still there.
“What are your oil-change twists?”
Same use of gloves but I put a few drops of canola, vegetable or olive oil inside before I put them on. That keeps my hands moisturized and also helps with cleanup if the gloves tear and I get motor oil or grease on skin.
I also use the jug the new oil came in to hold the old oil. Its wider mouth is a lot easier to pour oil into than 2 liter bottles or even milk jugs, plus you are assured the plastic is motor oil compatible and you are not contaminating anything that wasn’t already contaminated with oil.
I also don’t bother jacking up the cars anymore despite them having typical car ground clearance. There is enough room to do what needs doing without using jack and stands.
All common plastic bottles are motor oil compatible. Milk jugs and soda bottles will hold oil, gasoline, or diesel for years with no ill effect.
Soda bottle are #1 PETE, not #2 HDPE as the milk and oil jugs are. Dunno if that matters but it is a difference.
Still the oil jug is already contaminated with oil and its right there and you know its totally good for oil, its easier to fill and it has a handle so why bother with another container?
Only did my first car.
I had worked at an old-timey (though at the time, it was timey) full-service gas station (SOHIO!) in my yoot, with a uniform just like the pic above, checking oil and washing front and back windows, and I had done my fair share of walking under a lifted car.
My first car was a 1983 Starion. Low to the ground, so had to be jacked up, PLUS it had a plastic guard which had to be taken off first, then put back on. The oil filter was no picnic, either. I think I did three or four of them before giving up.
After years of doing my own oil changes on my cars, I now take mine to a local indy who specialises in my car’s make. This is an annual thing and also allows me to check with him to make certain everything’s working well. The car is 23 years old, so age-related work is ongoing, and I bought it at 21, so I’m still learning what ‘normal’ is on that thing.
My motorcycle I change, myself, but that’s mostly because it’s every six months (or 3000 miles) and it’s easy enough to do. It’s a ’78 BMW, so there’s one component that has to be very exactly installed: the “$2,000 o-ring” which, if incorrectly seated, can lead to oil starvation in the engine and spun bearings. Having a regular rhythm for it also allows me to do the valve clearances and check my spark plugs, etc, so I have a nice couple of hours set aside in the garage. I rebuilt the bike mostly by myself, so I’m used to its noises and quirks and don’t particularly worry about a regular checkup.
My scooter only needs oil topped up as it’s an auto-mixed two-stroke; I have other annual or biennial jobs as a result of that, though (like decoking the cylinder heads, etc).
Not a twist, but am I the only one with a kegerator in the garage? My used oil currently goes into my surplus of coolant bottles acquired when I was too lazy to replace the auxillary coolant pump on my GTI. Oil just lives in a corner in the garage as I think I will someday use all of it as chainsaw bar oil.
“am I the only one with a kegerator in the garage?”
I contemplated a keezer (better energy efficency) but realized I don’t drink anywhere near enough to justify it.
Easiest change I’ve done was my wife’s first-gen CR-V. So much ground clearance, there’s no jack needed. I changed the left engine mount while I was in there, also downright trivial without a jack.
MY ’85 Subaru BRAT was one of the easiest oil changes ever. Drain plug and filter are right up front and plenty of space to access. I didn’t get a drop of oil on myself, which is pretty amazing for any older car.
If you’re changing the oil on a Toyota 3.5L V6 like the one in my wife’s Highlander, do yourself a favor and get a motivx mx2320 filter socket (available on Amazon). Precision-machined out of 6061 aluminum in the USA and doesn’t break off the filter housing tabs like those cheap stamped sockets. Even the packaging was beautiful. Every now and again I get a tool that is truly nice to use and this was one of those instances.
Easiest oil change I’ve done recently was my in-laws’ 2019 Pacifica. Man, that was easy! Canister filter accessible from the top and easily accessible plug. I think it took me 20 min total with clean-up. Of course my old F150 is great, too. No ramps needed and everything is right there.
When you’re changing the oil on an old 911, make sure you’ve got a *big* open catch pan, because ~10 quarts is gonna come out of that oil tank in a big hurry.
Sometimes it astounds me that Subaru only have ~5 L in their boxer engines when my 911 has twice that, and then I remember that Subarus have issues with oil starvation on-track.
Subarus aren’t air cooled! 🙂
Neither is my 911 (which I suppose in some eyes makes it not a 911 at all!)
That doesn’t explain why an air cooled Porsche holds literally 4x more oil than an air cooled VW.
I can only guess, but more power means more heat to manage, and all that oil does help cool the engine.
Sloped driveway, lay out ramps to level the car. Box that has all the rools and materials for the oil change. Fumoto valve to drain. Closed oil drain container/drip pan with filter drain spot. Place drain pan, open Fumoto valve. Proceed to lift one side of car to rotate wheels, then the other. This promotes oil drainage. After wheels rotated, remove oil filter, replace filter. Close up Fomoto, fill oil. Open up air filter housing, vacuum out area and along windscreen, replace air filter.
The box with all the tools and materials for the oil change makes it all very easy.
Changing my XJs oil is a snap. It’s tall enough that I can almost sit up underneath it.
If I put the suspension on off-road 2 on my WL Trailhawk I could probably do the job with no ramps but like hell I’m trusting my life to air suspension. So up on the ramps it goes.
My K5 seems to have been designed in such a way that making a massive mess is a given. That is until I designed and 3D printed a special funnel. No mess now!
I have pondered stealing boxes of gloves when I’m sitting there in the doctor’s exam room for 45 minutes. I never bring my backpack though…
If the oil filter is installed vertically does anyone fill it with oil before screwing it on?
I’ve only recently acquired a car where I can do that, and I do. Is it necessary? Probably not. But it makes me feel good.
I do. At least it’s easier than the horizontal one on my Mustang. I hate that one.
I think I am going to do an oil filter relocation soon on my Mach 1. But, mine is even more difficult to access due to my supercharger set up. I have only found 1 oil filter which fits in the space and it is an AC Delco. Blasphemy, I know.
In fairness, the original GT40s used Corvette taillights, so think of it as a tradition maybe.
I do. My wife’s minivan and my truck both have the Toyota 3.5 with the vertically installed canister filter. I like to fill that sucker up with oil before reinstalling it. Probably saves 0.5 seconds of minimal wear, but it makes me feel better.
Done this for years.
Agreed. Always have done this with my spin on oil filters that are vertical or slightly angled from vertical.
Always done this.
If angled or upside down, like wife’s Subaru, I partially fill and then roll it around till its absorbed by the media.
Yeah, probably makes no real difference, but do it anyway.
I don’t. It may be marginally superior, but realistically it is completely unnecessary.
I don’t have any real twists per se, but the three vehicles do require their own variations.
The truck I can do flat on the ground, though it’s more comfortable to put it up on the ramps and use a creeper. The SUV requires the ramps but has room for the creeper. The oddity here is the panel (for aerodynamics) that has to come off to get to the drain and filter. The Miata also requires ramps, but it’s still too low to use the creeper.
The Miata and the SUV both take the same “small” metal filter socket. The filter on the truck is awkward to get to, so that gets the auto-sizing strap wrench shown above with the thumbs down.
In all three cases, the oil goes into one of those hollow oil catch pans that doubles as a container, which gets hauled to the lock hazardous waste center along with the used filters.
I should use gloves, but I don’t. Just paper towels and soap.
I always mean to wear gloves, then remember I was going to put them on about five turns into removing the drain plug.
My “hack,” if I may use the expression, is that I have written the wrench size needed for the drain plug, the oil capacity, and the filter number in Sharpie on the radiator support of all our cars. Saves having to remember that stuff, or look it up, when the time comes.
I have that information recorded in Keep on my phone, along with the date and mileage of the last oil change. Also included is the oil weight required and how much I have on hand.
I use Keep too! Might be pretty rudimentary, but I like it for that – just pure information.
I have notes for consumables (filters, wipers, etc.), gas mileage for my motorcycle, and even instructions to remind me about things I know I’ll forget, like the order to replace the underbody guards on my Porsche as they’re still in a pile until I finish the shift linkage. It’s a great basic but useful app.
I do the same. Lots of notes on my GT6 build and such. I appreciate Keep’s basic, uncomplicated nature. Not cluttered up with a bunch of options and features I’ll never use.
Our cars have weird tire pressures on the door jamb sticker. They’re the pressures for fully laden. I wrote the “normal” pressures in sharpie. Kinda wish I had a Cricut so I could make a more professional looking sticker.
Same hack, except I write on underside of the hood. With driving kids, have multiple cars to keep up with. Some cars have odd capacities like 4.7qts or 5.7qts.
Our Advance Auto has a roll of those ‘service decals’ to tear off a few at the oil display.
Always remember the gloves 2 seconds after oil runs down my hand pullling plug.
My sense of self and personal worth is derived from my ability to loosen the oil filter with the only filter wrenches I need: my hands. Round, splined, nut-top-thing: my hands. I will use rubber bands wrapped around the filter and nitrile-dipped grippy gloves for the occasional assist, though.
I will offer that bike is exempt, as there’s only enough space to uselessly pinch a cross-section of the filter, not actually grab the thing and apply meaningful torque.
I can usually do that nicely on my Mustang, as I do all her oil changes myself; but my Focus does see a shop here and there, and of course they put it on way too tight. I’ve even take off one that had indents in it already.
I haven’t done my own oil changes lately. It has just been more convenient to have my mechanics do it since I was also having other things done when I brought in each vehicle.
Meanwhile, this past weekend I did have to tear apart the passenger side dash area on the Jag yet again (last time was for the aircon blower) to replace the fuse box in the footwell. I had a fuse actually melt and damage the box, and while the box itself is very accessible in the footwell it has a ground cable that reaches pretty far up in the dash. I am pretty sure the failure was caused by the power radio antenna so right now that fuse is pulled on the replacement box and I’ll have to replace the current unit with the replacement antenna and motor that I ordered.
Interestingly enough on the Jag I have a specialist handle the oily bits, but I’ve been doing much of the other work myself; particularly on the electricals and the aircon blower replacement. Even though I had some problems and originally ordered the wrong fuse box part I’m pretty sure I saved myself at least a couple hundred in mechanic bills for this job alone, with more savings to come on the antenna replacement. Unfortunately with Jag parts it’s not a matter of overnighting them from Japan, it’s slow boating them from the UK.
Fumoto valve on all my cars. Big piece of cardboard on the ground to catch drips and save my knees/clothes.
I add gloves, a couple beers, and a hand wash/wax and maybe a detail to this. Rotate the tires if it’s that time as well. I enjoy the maintenance so I make it a whole day.
I own most of the types, but only really use the exact fit end cap style, so my question is: what’s the worst kind of filter wrench? Or do they all have some redeeming feature?
I kinda think it’s the one that looks like a 3-armed radial pliers, but I dunno.
As long as King Kong didn’t install the filter last time, the three-jaw models should be fine.
However, I have used only the kind with the wide, flat jaws. There are a bunch on Amazon that have jaws that appear to be made of round rod stock, and it it seems like they would concentrate the squeezing force in too small of an area.
Pliers work with lots of different kinds of filters, and let you use lots of torque. BUT! The exact fit end cap style and a long socket extension can let you remove a filter from the infamous butthole of fire without burning your hand.
The worst kind of filter wrench is the non-exact fit end cap style, the ones that are supposed to fit about 3 different sizes but slip on all of them.
Harbor Freight had small three-jaw filter wrenches: when you turn the hex head the jaws come together and grip the filter, so the wrench fits a small range of filter sizes. They were on a closeout sale for $5 each 2-3 years ago so I grabbed a couple for the motorcycles. There may have been a larger one for cars at the time, but now they appear to have just one size.
I added Plasti-dip to the three jaws to enhance their gription. (It’s an industry term.)
I am 100% sold on oil extractors. I’ll never do a standard oil change again. It takes me 10 minutes, I don’t get dirty, I don’t have to transfer the oil to another container, and my filters are cartridges on top so I don’t have to lift or get under the car. It could not be any cleaner, easier, or faster. Bad oil goes straight to O’Reilly in the extractor, dumped out, I’m done.
Working on airplanes means gloves aren’t just a habit, they are a must. Everything is bad for you. Protect yourself and keep your fingernails clean (and trimmed). I literally will not turn a wrench on any machine without gloves.
And I have to point out that O’Reilly has perhaps an even better jingle, with that great little ’80s hard rock Yeow!! at the end.
My MityVac paid for itself many times over on my old car. It’s also made me a neighborhood hero regarding small engine oil changes. Slurp it out and dump in the new. Nothing easier.
I used a FloTool TopSider for the first time last oil change (recommended by the classic car lover co-worker), made it a breeze! 10-15 minutes, no crawling around on asphalt (I have to street park). I will have to crawl under next time to get the filter. And now our residential garbage/recycling/green bin pickup company will pick up jugs of used motor oil if you place it on the curb next to your rolling bins, so even easier!
Been using disposable gloves for car and cleaning stuff for a while, quite useful.
My Bimmers don’t have a physical dipstick, so can’t use the Topsider I have sitting lonely in the garage 🙁
Not even a tube? Most dealers are using extractors now too as far as I’ve seen on the internet. Ours have a dipstick tube but no dipstick. You could even buy an aftermarket dipstick for them if you were so inclined.