The Professional Expert

How to Change the Oil Yourself…

Changing the oil yourself is not that difficult. It just takes about 45 minutes and a willingness to crawl under the car and get dirty.

If you want give it a try, you will need:

Parts List:

• Oil – Find the specifications and quantity you will need for your vehicle in the owner’s manual. We usually use 4 or 5 quarts.
  
• Filter – Filters are pretty much all the same. You can spend anywhere from $2 to $15 on an oil filter. Some will say the more expensive one is the best. I use something that is mid-range. There are really only three different places that make filters, despite all of the different brands out there. When you change the oil you must change the filter.
  
• Pan to catch the oil – It needs to hold that 4 or 5 quarts that will drain out. Auto parts stores carry a container that is made specifically for this purpose that can be closed up so you don’t spill any oil. Trying to use old oil containers would get really messy really fast.
  
• Wrench to fit the oil plug – The owners manual will tell you where to look, and may tell you the size. (I think they know so why don’t they put it in there?) 
  
• Oil filter wrench – The wrench is for taking off the old filter, not putting on the new one.
  
• Ramps – Many cars are so low that you cannot fit underneath (or I have just gotten bigger), so it is good to have ramps to raise the car.
  
• Rags – You will get oil on your hands.
  
• Kitty Litter – It soaks up spills.
  
• Funnel – for pouring in new oil

It is best to wait an hour or so after you have last driven the car so that things can cool off a bit – but you want to make sure it is “warm.”  The engine should still be somewhat hot to the touch.  I go to the parts store and get my oil and filter, come home and eat lunch before I start working on it. That seems to work pretty well.

Instructions:

Drive the car up on the ramps, shut off the engine, and set the parking brake.

Place the drain pan under the oil plug and remove the plug.

After the oil has slowed to a drip, replace the plug and tighten firmly.

Place the pan under the filter and unscrew the filter a little bit; be careful, oil will drain around the filter as soon as it becomes unseated. 

Once the oil stops coming out around the filter, remove the filter completely.  Make sure the rubber seal comes off with it. The old filter should look just like the new one, so you can compare and see where the seal is.

Now you are ready to install the new filter. 

First, put a little oil on the seal. You can use the dirty oil in the pan or, if you got oil on your fingers, just wipe a bit on the seal.

Now screw the new filter on until it touches, then turn it ¾ of a turn further. That is as tight as it needs to be.

Check that you tightened the drain plug. I forgot this step once and put 5 quarts of new oil in my drain pan!

You are now ready to go up top and put in the new oil.  I find it best to use a funnel to prevent spills.

After you have put the new oil in, replace the cap and use the dipstick to check the oil level.  The level should be well over the “add” mark. The oil has not made it through all of the passages and through the oil filter yet, so it will read high.
 
Now clean off your hands and start the engine. The oil light may take a couple seconds to go out, but it should go out. 

Check under the car to see if there are any leaks around the plug or the filter.  If so, shut off the engine and tighten them ¼ turn.  This should stop the leaks.

Now you just have to clean up and dispose of the old oil!

What do I do with the old oil? 

Please don’t pour the oil on the ground, in a hole, or down the storm drain!  At best this can be a slick, dirty mess and at worst, the oil could end up in your drinking water.

So, where do you take it?

The most likely candidate is the auto parts store where you bought the new oil. The parts store usually has a recycle tank.  When you buy the oil, even if it is from a big-box store like Wal-Mart, ask if they will take the old oil. Sometimes they will take the old oil if you buy your new oil there, but they don’t advertise it or make it obvious since taking old oil is probably a pain for them.

The local dump may also have a recycling or waste disposal center that accepts oil. You can also check the local “quicky-lube” place. They already have lots of oil to get rid of!

Depending on your drain pan, you may be able to take in the whole pan and dump it. This is where the sealable pan from the auto parts store comes in handy. You can also carefully pour the oil into the bottles the new stuff came in and take them in.

Changing the oil yourself not only saves a couple of bucks, but also gives you the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself.

Brands of Oil, Synthetic Oil, and Additives

Brands of oil

If you go looking for advice, it seems that everyone has a favorite brand of oil, and everyone has a horror story about another brand. What this guy hates is that guy’s favorite. There are a lot of stories out there. 

In the end, there are only a few oil refineries, so the oil itself is pretty much the same. There are really only a few subtle differences in what kinds of additives the different companies use.

The guys who run the racing cars do not use the same oil you do. They spend a lot more money and change the whole engine every race. So I don’t think you can draw any conclusions from the logo on the racecar because that’s just about who paid the racecar owner. They are not doing the same kind of driving you are, anyway.

So for every day driving, brand doesn’t really matter. It is just a matter of personal preference.

Synthetic oil

Synthetic oil is not supposed to break down as fast as regular oil and is supposed to have better properties than regular oil. 

Any time a group of mechanics get together you can get a good argument going by asking which is better. 

The truth is, both kinds of oil (regular and synthetic) must pass the same series of tests to meet the American Petroleum Institute (API) specifications.  The API specifications meet all of the requirements for auto manufacturers.  One type may be “better,” but they are all good enough for your car.

It is more expensive than regular petroleum oil, but you might want to consider synthetic oil if you plan on keeping your car forever or at least 200,000 to 300,000 miles. Just make sure the oil meets the specifications listed in your owner’s manual.

Additives

If you go into an auto parts store (or the automotive department at your local big box store) you will see a variety of products to add to your engine oil.

There are the “oil treatments” like “STP Oil Treatment,” “Motor Honey” or “Rislone.”  These are essentially thickeners that will help reduce some of the noises an older, worn out, engine can make.  These also will reduce oil burning.  You can recognize oil burning by clouds of bluish smoke billowing out of your tailpipe every time you drive. 

The other type of treatment is a mixture of ground up Teflon suspended in oil.  “Slick 50” and some other brands mention either Teflon or PTFE to reduce friction.  Teflon is really good on cookware, but, in my opinion, has no place in your engine.  The oil filter will filter it out of the oil.  There is no reason to buy this.   

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss how you can do an oil change yourself…

Decoding the Oil Bottle

The numbers and letters on the oil bottle refer to how thick the oil is, the higher the number, the thicker oil.  For example “SAE 30” is referred to as “30 weight” and is thinner than “SAE 50” or 50 weight oil. Where SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers.

Most cars today use “multi grade” oil.  These have numbers like “5W30” or “20W50.”  The oil behaves like the first number when it is cold and like the second number when it is hot.  Pretty nifty, huh?

When you look in the owner’s manual under the “Service Specifications” section you will find the recommended oil for your vehicle.  They may recommend different weight oils based on the temperature outside, and therefore they may want you to use a different oil in the winter than in the summer.

This is the table from our owner’s manual. As you can see, we use 5W30 during all seasons. In the text it tells us that we can use 10W40 in an emergency, but we should replace it with the 5W30 as soon as we can.

Above is the circle seal you will find on a bottle of oil. In the middle, you find the weight of the oil. In the outer circle you see “API Service SM/CF.” And below the circle, you see “API Service SM, SL, SJ, CF.”

API stands for American Petroleum Institute. The other letters refer to the properties and additives that are in the oil.  The specifications with an “S” are for gasoline engines, and the “C” refers to specifications for diesel engines. 

As they come out with new specifications, they move the second letter to one later in the alphabet. For example, SJ is an older standard than SM. Your owner’s manual will tell you what specifications your oil needs to meet. 

You can use oils with a more recent specification. For example, if the manual calls for “SJ or better” then you can use any oil with a specification later than SJ such as SL or SM.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about different brands and synthetic oil…

Where Should I Get My Oil Changed?

Changing the oil on your car is pretty important if you plan on keeping your car for any length of time.

You can take it to a “Quicky-Lube” place, your regular service station, or the dealer. They will all pretty much do the job for you and take care of it for probably $20 or $30.

You can also do it yourself for a little less. But we’ll talk about that on Friday.

When you go in to get your oil changed, they may recommend various other flushes and replacements that they can “take care of while you are there.”  When you are standing in the lobby and you hear the news that “the fluids are low” or “that part needs to be replaced” it can be hard to keep a clear head. Even if you actually need the work done, you can still feel like you are being ripped-off.

So before you go anywhere to have your oil changed, do your homework.  Check the Maintenance Schedule in your owner’s manual for other items that may need to be checked or replaced.  If you are feeling bold, you can also check some of the fluids, like the transmission fluid, washer fluid, brake fluid, and your air filter ahead of time.

Some of the more popular services they recommend would include changing transmission or differential fluid and replacing belts or the air filter.  They could probably even show you how “dirty” the air filter looks, but be aware that they start to look “dirty” after only a few hundred miles. 

For instance, in my owner’s manual, they recommend changing the air filter every 30,000 miles unless I have been driving in dusty, desert conditions. They recommend flushing the transmission fluid every 60,000 if I have been towing something, but they don’t have a scheduled flush under normal use.

These recommendations may not be true for your vehicle, but it gives you a ballpark figure to work with when finding out what is recommended for your vehicle.

If you have done your homework you can confidently say “no thanks” and just have them do what you came in for.  If they seem really pushy, just tell them to write down what you need and that you will have your usual service station or dealer look at it.

Let’s take a look at our different options:

A “Quicky-Lube” type place can do it for you faster than most others – but they will be the most likely to “upsell” you additional services or repairs you don’t need.

If you have a relationship with a local mechanic, this is a good place to go. He can do any other stuff that is needed and will be less likely to do unnecessary work.

The dealer is probably the most expensive and least convenient place to have you oil changed. But they usually go the extra mile, so you will think well of them when you want to buy another car. 

Dealers usually have a “20 point” checklist of stuff they will check as part of the oil change and will just do the scheduled maintenance.  My experience has been that the dealership service department (in contrast to the used car salesman) is the least likely to try to sell unnecessary services.

Regardless of who changed your oil, the most important step is the post-oil-change check.  This is where you start the engine, make sure the oil light is out, and look underneath for leaks.

A “bad” oil change will be apparent once you turn on the car. Check under the car before you leave the parking lot.  If you see a leak or a “gusher,” turn the car off right away and have them fix it. They will immediately recognize their mistake.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about all the letters and numbers on the oil container…

How often should I change my oil?

Changing the oil in your car every 3,000 is pretty important…or is it? There have been studies that have shown that you can go as far as 20,000 miles before the oil breaks down. However, there is something that does need to be changed much sooner than 20,000 miles.

Let’s take a look at what really needs to be changed and an easy method for remembering when it is time to change it…

The thing that actually needs to be changed on a regular basis is the oil filter. The oil filter starts to get clogged up after a few thousand miles and can affect the longevity of your car.

While you’re there, you might as well change the oil, since you will lose some oil while changing the filter. But they still call it an oil change instead of an oil filter change.

How often should you change your oil?

You can look in your owner’s manual and find how often an oil change is recommended in the Maintenance Schedule. They usually have a schedule for heavy use and one for regular use. Unless you are doing heavy duty hauling on dirt roads or have lots of stops and starts, like a taxi cab, you can follow the regular use schedule.

These intervals are still pretty conservative. I change the oil on a 5,000 mile schedule and change the filter every time I change the oil. And that makes oil change time really easy to remember.

I can look down at the odometer and know that every 5,000 miles it is time for an oil change. That way I am not guessing or writing down mileage. Easy.

I know some people like the oil to look new when it comes out and want to change it every 2500 miles. They aren’t doing anything bad for their car. They are just spending more money than they have to. The same goes for those who are spending money on synthetic oils.

But we’ll cover that when we talk about the different types of oil.

Tomorrow…Where should I get my oil changed?