Awkward oil changes

[Bren]

Going to change the oil on my vectra C this weekend.

 

A pig of a job last time - loads of screws holding the undertray on, then the sump plug rounded off ( a common problem on this engine I am led to believe, along with many other common problems).

 

I had to invest in a pela pump to suck the oil out as I had put in engine flush.

 

The oil filter is a PITA to remove, very little access - last time I had to use an adjustable spanner ( paper element in plastic housing), it is low down at the rear of the engine on the oil cooler.

 

This is not progress - it is a pain in the arse.

[spike60]

Might be worth buying a cheap single hexagon socket for the filter, most of the ones I've come across are 36mm. My personal related gripe is horizontal drain plugs, a horizontal stream of hot and piss thin oil is not what I want.

[r.welfare]

Both my departed Accord and my current Mazda tucked the filter at the back of the engine so you had to thread your arm between a driveshaft and hot exhaust downpipe to inch the damn thing off the threads.

 

The Avensis was fine once the blasted undertray was removed. Not tried the Qashqai yet.

 

Another modern that proper pissed me off is my uncle's 2002 Fiesta 1.4 - couldn't use one of those metal cup things with a socket hole, nor my usual Halfords filter wrench. Had to scrabble about for a big enough set of Stilsons.

 

I made the mistake, years ago, putting a screwdriver through the filter of a mate's Nova - we had to call the AA out in the end. Very embarrassing.

 

I can't recall owning a car where the filter could be reached from above.

 

The only car I can recall owning where the sump plug beat me was a '78 Fiesta which I think hadn't had an oil change since Callaghan was in power.

[lisbon_road]

I lay underneath a friends A class Merc for quite a while looking for the drain plug.  He went off to look on the internet for advice and came back very amused.

 

Ages ago, he still hasn't changed the oil.

 

(There is no drain plug).

[HH-R]

Moderns are a total pain in the arse to do anything with, that's b0ll0x all room to do anything.

 

Quickest and easiest oil change I did was at 60 MPH where the car did some self rustproofing and the extra went up the back window. Waiting for the AA to turn up took a while though.

[Junkman]

[Bobthebeard]

I must admit that as I have got older I tend to let the local garage bear the pain.... I supply the oil, filter etc and he does it for £10. Sorry!

[Rusty_Rocket]

I dislike the oil filter canister on the 206 HDis. It's buried under stuff so you can't get a hand near it and so close to the radiator, you always burn yourself/ bend the rad fins!!

[320touring]

What you need is an m30. Filter (paper element) helpfully located in a metal holder at top front of engine, accessed with a 13mm spanner.

 

My dads e60 is a bugger. Naewhere to jack the fooker, undertray and oil that is about 80 quid!

 

I like engines you can fist the tolerances on-15w40 ftw

[mercrocker]

190E has its oil filter mounted helpfully facing upwards at the rear of the engine although the T25 wears its underneath.  Both cars can be done without lifting either end and as they park nose to tail I often do them together.    However, what really shits me about the Volkswagen is its practically horizontal oil filler tube.  The only thing that can get any fluid in there is a piss-hard stallion.   

[Forty-two]

I have memories of changing the oil on my classic rangie, easy access, no jacking required, just a big bucket as there is close to 6 litres of oil in there.

 

When changing the oil in a the Volvo 340, being only a 1.7 I naturally assumed I could use a smaller bucket. There was more oil in the bugger than I was expecting. Oil change complete and trip out to buy a pressure washer to clean up the mess.

[Taff]

seem to recall the cologne motor in my Mk2 Granny was nice and easy. I haven't looked at the Scort yet but will do next week, I've no idea when the oil got changed last & I'm a big fan of new oil every 5000 miles.

 

Auto trans usually catch me out, certainly the big yank stuff hold millions of litres* of ATF and I forget every time.

 

Changing the oil on a Chieftain tank wasn't much fun. You usually got about 20 litres dumped all over you

[Honey Badger]

The oil filter on the Accord V6 is in the drivers side front wheel well, just stick the car on full lock and you can get at it dead easy, simplest oil change I've ever done.

 

[danthecapriman]

I hate stuff with the oil filter mounted upright, under the car. You undo it and as soon as the seal breaks hot, dirty oil pisses all over your hand and down your arm!

 

I don't have any awkward cars of my own, Capri and Transit are Pintos and therefore the easiest thing ever to do oil & filters on. Granada is a Cologne V6 and a piece of piss. The Pinto and Cologne use the same oil filter too for added bonus.

The Mercury is equally easy to do but takes a fair amount of oil!

 

I've had a few 'f**k up's doing oil & filters in the past though. One was a Ford Ranger where the filter seal ring got pinched and when I ran it after the oil change, oil pissed out everywhere!

I've also serviced a car, then forgot to put the oil cap back on afterwards! That makes a right mess.

And drained dirty oil into my oil drain tray, then dropped the trolley jack handle which smashed straight through the side of the tray resulting in about 5 litres of black oil all over the drive!

 

Funniest ever though was my mate changing oil on a VW T4 diesel van. He undid the sump plug, but dropped the plug by accident as soon as it came loose so the old oil came shooting straight out the hole. Unfortunately he was directly in front of it talking to me so ended up with a face and mouth full of rank dirty Diesel engine oil!! Probably not funny for him though.

[hairnet]

civic has it buried at the back of the block and you need a ramp and a 6 ft arm to reach

 

no getting from the side or the top

 

20 quid to garage and done

 

cba anymore

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I'm lucky that my Jag is a very easy car to work on.

[lisbon_road]

I remember a friend saying he was changing the oil on an old Morris Minor when a Ford Prefect (this was a while back) came past in a massive cloud of smoke.  It stopped suggenly and the driver jumped out and asked 'do you want that old oil?'  When he said that he didn't want it, the driver poured it into the Prefect engine without bothering with so much as a glance at the dipstick, thanked him and drove off. 

 

Which is slightly off the topic sorry!

[dave21478]

Use a hole saw to cut a hole in the undertray so you dont have to remove it for an oil change. 

Depends on the car, but some might need two holes slightly overlapping to allow for the oil spurting out of the horizontal hole if its on the back edge of the sump.

[Negative Creep]

I must admit that as I have got older I tend to let the local garage bear the pain.... I supply the oil, filter etc and he does it for £10. Sorry!

 

 

I have to admit I took mine to National Tyres because with the voucher I had it worked out just as cheap as doing it myself. Except I then found the price online only counts if you book it online, but never mind.

[Stanky]

The Nissan is really easy to do oil changes on, up on ramps, undo the 45 degree angled sump plug, drain it, whip the filter off, replace. dead easy.

 

I have to admit several times I've resorted to hammering a screwdriver through an oil filter to get it off, luckily the replacements have always fitted correctly afterwards!

[Dax]

I made ca 25k miles without oil change in my polonez 1.4 (rover k16 engine) - it just needed extra liter of oil every 3k miles. Engine was in very good condition when polonez went to scrapyard 'cos of general rust problem.

 

If it is hard to change oil - why bother?  

 

Now seriously: I made this "no oil change experiment" after some just retiered Castrol Europe top CEO published an article where he claimed that all this "must change oil regularly" stuff is a marketing babble and that he had never change oil in his or his wife car.

The experiment finished a little bit earlier that I have expected but not because of engine problem... so with old, petrol, non-turbo engines I do change oil, but not as often as oil companies would like to. Modern turbodiesels are differnet story - I hate them, so don't use them, but I recommend to firends and family to even cut oil change intervals is such motors.

[320touring]

I remember doing an oil change on a mates mk 3 golf 1.4 4 speed...

 

Sump plug was stuck so we took the filter off(on the front of the block) and cranked it over until we had 4l in the drain tray.

 

Bashed the fresh stuff in, filter on and off he went.

 

Car lasted another 2 years and 20k miles sans sevice before rust hastened its demise

[Junkman]

The RoD puked its engine pretty immediately after I changed the oil...

 

I certainly have a very lax attitude towards oil change intervals. This must be genetic, since my father already pioneered the 50k mile service interval back in the Seventies.

French and yank chod seems to be quite impervious to such negligence, I must say.

[Negative Creep]

I made ca 25k miles without oil change in my polonez 1.4 (rover k16 engine) - it just needed extra liter of oil every 3k miles.

 

 

Well surely you were getting a full oil change every 12k anyway?

[Dax]

Well surely you were getting a full oil change every 12k anyway?

 

as far as I know it doesn't count 

[alf892]

I went out to mk2 astra a few years ago for a non start.

 

It would turn over and try to fire at first and then whizz over like it had a snapped cam belt.

 

Wait 10 mins and try again.....same.

 

Owner confessed to never changing oil as it used 'a bit'

 

This meant the real thick shit stayed in circulation and pumped the lifters up..... and the thick oil could not run out quick enough resulting in open valves and no compression. If it started the oil quickly warmed up and got thinner so symptom disappeared till the next cold morning....

[sierraman]

Easiest was the 02 onwards megane/Clio 1.4 dohc. Filter litterally at the front of the engine plenty space. PITA was vauxhall 1.7td, oil filter was tucked away underneath injection equipment - needed childlike hands to retrieve it, inevitable spill oil all the way down back of engine. Zetec engine a swine as well, drivers side wheel needed to come off to get filter out.

[cort16]

The smart cars need to have their oil sooked out the top with a vacuum pump, which is annoying if you buy all the stuff then turn up and spend 2 hours looking for the sump plug.

Do you think sooking it all out like that de-gunges the sump in the same way actually draining all the shite out does?

[alf892]

The smart cars need to have their oil sooked out the top with a vacuum pump, which is annoying if you buy all the stuff then turn up and spend 2 hours looking for the sump plug.

Do you think sooking it all out like that de-gunges the sump in the same way actually draining all the shite out does?

Can't you just push it over and take the filler cap off? That is what I do with my lawnmower

[Vince70]

I always use my trusty pela pump theses days as I find it works a treat and because it's so easy I don't mind giving the car a few more oil changes along the way.

 

The worst I've found for doing an oil filter on recently (I don't have a ramp and my bottle goes when getting under the car with my rusty knackered jack) was my parents V5 golf as the engine is shoehorned into the bay so tight.

 

But ive found an easy knack on my Audi A4s as it looks like the oil filter isn't accesible from the top but if you unbolt the expansion tank the oil filter is directly underneath so is quite easy to do on the 1.6 and 1.8 engines once you know where it is.

 

The best I've found recently is my brothers 06 petrol corsa and my mates 07 diesel Astra as the filter is placed upside down in the engine compartment and is within really easy reach on both (so it must be a Vauxhall thing) and you can change the filter without loosing a drop of oil.