How to change your own oil?

[~4N~]

Hi. I'm going to have to get an oil change soon. I've had bad experience with oil changes at Walmart and other places, and I've always wanted to learn how to change my own oil. I've searched around and learned some basics. Here's what I know so far:1. Jack up car, put on stands.2. Put a pan under drain plug to catch the oil. I'm not too sure where the drain plug is, I've never been under my car.3. The oil filter needs to be changed, most people recommend a K&N filter. I don't know what the filter looks like, where it's located, or how to replace it.4. Pour in 4 quarts of 10W30 oil. I don't know where to pour the oil into.5. Discard the old oil. I know it doesn't just go in the trash, but I'm not sure what to do with it.

Could someone please give me a procedure to go by? It would be very appreciated, as well as any tips or hints. Thank you.

[Nick240sx]

u must be kidding me

[wild_maxx]

lol dont give him **** about it... at least he's smart enough to ask before doing it...

as for the oil change... its simple. there's a 14mm bolt on the bottom of the oil pan.. take it out and drain the oil

once all the old oil is out put the bolt back in and tighten it up... dont go too hard or you will mess it up

you will need a oil filter wrench.. you can get them at the parts store... just unscrew the old filter... put a coating of fresh oil around the new filter seal (black rubber seal that sits on the filter) and screw the new filter on hand tight.

DO NOT USE THE FILTER WRENCH TO TIGHTEN THE FILTER ON! the filter actually tightens itself on there after its run.

add 4 QTS of oil.. whatever you want to use (not penzoil) i use 10w30 in mine. fill thro the filler cap in valve cover.

You can get a k&n filter.... if you want.. just dont get FRAM! they are ****.

the old oil can be recycled at some parts store.. some cities even have oil recycling stations to dump at... or just dump it in the creek (J/K DO NOT DO THAT!)

[wild_maxx]

[KATwo40]

Not trying to threadjack, but what's the reasoning for "not Pennzoil"?

[wild_maxx]

penzoil tends to stick to internals. The oil builds up mainly in the head of motors and cakes onto everything. I have never heard anything good about penzoil.

Pezoil and Quaker state (from what I am told) are Perafin wax based oils (made from dead plants) These oils are notoriouse for building up perafin wax sludge.

[naed240sx]

Google search "Oil change"?

[mmm240]

even though i am thread jacking i beleive that that wild_maxx has answered your question as thouroghly as needed, but why not a fram filter? wild_maxx

[mmm240]

and also don't be an *** to him or her for not knowing, it's that kind of thing that will defer those to somewhere else. i'm a business man and customer loyalty is key

and don't forget the search button (top right)

[KATwo40]

Wild_Maxx: You're incorrect. No Pennzoil product has been paraphin based for the last 10 years or more. Quaker state USED to be, but Pennzoil bought the company, redefined the refinement process and such, and now it's the same as Pennzoil.

I know this because I used to work with the local oil companies and I've read STACKS of literature on the different brands, some from the brand makers themselves, some from independent studies. In one shop I was running, the owner had a PHD in Chemistry and had been a professional chemist for about 10 years. He phoned Pennzoil and discussed the chemical makeup and formulae of some of their products to make his decision as to who's product we carried. This was a week-long discussion with the Pennzoil chief chemistry staff.

Fact is, Pennzoil is one of the best oils out there. Currently, NASA uses Pennzoil synthetic (not what you or I could buy because it's so expensive) for machinery in the space programs. ALL of their oil begins at a level of refinement so high, it's clear based. I've run Pennzoil in my vehicles for years. It helped me put 100,000 miles on an '87 Pathfinder with no rebuild. Ending mileage when I sold the vehicle, still running, was 300,000.

To the poster of this thread:

You'll find the oil filter under the intake manifold (the big alluminum thing that looks like a bunch of large, curved tubes, attached to the passenger side of the engine). The oil filter is round, about the size of a can of beans, similar in shape. To loosen, turn counterclockwise. Make sure you have a drain pan under that area when you loosen the filter, as a small amount of oil will pour out. The filter can best be reached from the top. When you remove the filter, be sure the open end is pointed upward, so you don't pour lots of oil out into your engine bay. It makes a mess.

After you complete the oil change, be certain to start your car and watch the oil light on the gauge cluster. It should go off within a couple or three seconds after startup. If you start the engine and more than about 10 seconds go by with the oil light still on, something is wrong, shut off the engine and investigate.

Hope this is helpful, and sorry to jack your thread with a debate about oil quality.

[sunnys14]

haha! screw pennzoil, its all about CASTROL!

[TheOne]

pshhh, its all about mobil 1:), anywayz

here's why no fram. http://minimopar.knizefamily.n....html

[mmm240]

a lot of good stuff there, but i didn't see why all fram is bad. whoever wrote that said that the tuff guard isn't that bad.

i just don't want to go with the nissan filter again. for some reason it is incredibly hard to get off (had to stick a screwdriver threw it). i also tried one of those wrenches (both types actually) and the filter was right between the sizes (neither of them worked).

i just want a filter with a grip on it, i may just go to the auto store and open up every package and hope to find one with some grip. if not i will use the tuff guard from fram. i have used the extra guard in my other car for many years and had no problems. wouldn't hurt to pay 2 bucks more for the tuff guard since i use synthetic anyway (that's where the real price jump is)

thanks for the link though

[naed240sx]

a lot of good stuff there, but i didn't see why all fram is bad. whoever wrote that said that the tuff guard isn't that bad.

i just don't want to go with the nissan filter again. for some reason it is incredibly hard to get off (had to stick a screwdriver threw it). i also tried one of those wrenches (both types actually) and the filter was right between the sizes (neither of them worked).

i just want a filter with a grip on it, i may just go to the auto store and open up every package and hope to find one with some grip. if not i will use the tuff guard from fram. i have used the extra guard in my other car for many years and had no problems. wouldn't hurt to pay 2 bucks more for the tuff guard since i use synthetic anyway (that's where the real price jump is)

thanks for the link though

frams are terrible. They have caused engine failures, no joke. The oem filters are said to be pretty good, as well as mobil 1. The reason you are having difficulty getting your oil filters off is because you are overtorqing them. I have used oem, mobile 1, boshe, whatever, and never had problems. Don't overtighten your oil filters and you will be fine. All a grip will do is aid you in overtorquing.

[240crawler]

Bosch filter with Mobil 1 ftw!

[ddgsxr504]

frams are terrible. They have caused engine failures, no joke.

yada yada yada

Yea and the likelyhood of it happening to you are about as much as you dying in a plane crash.

Bottom line is no man made product is 100% reliable. I have been using Fram Double Guard Fiters on my Zenki for the past 7 years and have never had a problem what so ever.

Most people who say Fram sucks only know that from reading someones elses comments on a webpage/article/word of mouth ect.

Have Fram filters failed before... yes I am sure they have...probably along with many others brands.

So just because one comanies item goes bad then that means all their products are crap?

[s13rb25det]

I woudnt even put penzoil on a bike chain! I dont care what is in it, or who uses it! its trash! I can not even count how many times I have had to replace engines because the owners used penzoil and it gummed the engine up! spend the extra cash and go with mobil full synthetic

[KATwo40]

I woudnt even put penzoil on a bike chain! I dont care what is in it, or who uses it! its trash! I can not even count how many times I have had to replace engines because the owners used penzoil and it gummed the engine up! spend the extra cash and go with mobil full synthetic

This is quite possibly the funniest post I've ever read. Not that I disagree that Mobil 1 synthetic is superb, but c'mon, man. Are you for real?

Perhaps the engine owners didn't tell you that they were sure to change the oil every 10,000 miles, whether it needed it or not?

Absurd.

[naed240sx]

This is quite possibly the funniest post I've ever read. Not that I disagree that Mobil 1 synthetic is superb, but c'mon, man. Are you for real?

Perhaps the engine owners didn't tell you that they were sure to change the oil every 10,000 miles, whether it needed it or not?

Absurd.

werd. Can sombody please lock this thread now?

[TheOne]

fram is bad, maybe not the tuff guard, but the normal 1 is bad, why? cause i've tried it, and every time i started the car i would get valve tap or timing chain sound, changed to mobil 1 filter and it doesn't do that anymore.

[S13 240SX]

hahahaha werid thread. lol

well i just did my own oil change, k&n filter, castrol syntec oil. record time took me 8 minutes to do!! beat that!

[mmm240]

Don't overtighten your oil filters and you will be fine. All a grip will do is aid you in overtorquing.

i meant using the "grips" to get the filter loose, never to tighten

[fivetenguy]

i like royal purple, myself.

[BIGT94z]

i'm running penzoil right now...anyone know how much it is to get that cleaning job done so i can run better oil...Valvoline said 120 and i was like s***

[S13 240SX]

penzoil and valvoline both suck.. best oil i believe is mobile and castrol baby!!

[artemous]

Ok, this is funny. To the originator. Buy a manual and take a community college auto maintence class before you do your oil if your that unsure. Go to a dealer for the oil change untill then. Stay away from "speedy" lube places like walmart, jiffy lube, etc.

As to Penzoil. It is one of the best conventional oils on the market. I ran 97K miles on it with my datsun and the internals looked new. (unless an oil can blow a head gasket) No gumming, varnish, coking, sludge. You want to see a bad oil, try a can of STP. That will screw up an engine faster than you can start it. Anybody who has something bad to say about penzoil needs to change their oil more often than every 20k miles. I've used every major brand and with the strict regulations and competition they are all good. Personaly I only use synthetic now as the best convential is worse than the worst synthetic. (syntec in my book, but see preceeding sentence)

Need more thought, almost all american made oils use the same grade of crude base which is 99% of what the oil is.

[S13 240SX]

ewwww goddd penzoil sucks!

I change my oil every 2,500 mileage.

[skydragoness]

OEM Oil filter from Nissan: $6-8 best filter around hands down. Only other filter i'd put on my car if I couldn't get a Nissan one would be the PureONE from Purolator.Best oil for the good ol' KA: Mobil syn BLEND, or Castrol's syn-blend/hi-mileage formula.

Like someone already said, stay away from Jiffy-spiffy Lube's and no-name places. The dealer tends to be expensive, but for oil changes they are pretty competitively priced, and unlike Jiffy Lube they have real technicians working on your car not some highschool drop-outs. Just be wary they may talk you into stuff you may not need.

Best thing to do if you don't know how to work on cars: Go by word of mouth from friends, relatives, co-workers etc to find a reliable, HONEST mechanic that you can depend on until you get yourself a Factory Service manual (FSM)

[240Knightrider]

Just use your own opinion on whats the best.

I personally use Castrol with a Bosch Filter. I like the way the Bosch is designed. I used fram for years and never had a problem. I just like the Bosch more.

I would use Mobile 1 but my engine isnt new and Im not going to swap it over to synthetic.

[benemorius]

Kudos to ~4N~ for shamelessly asking for help, and a major W00T to all Niconauts for not turning this thread into three pages of n00b bashing. Nico is sooo the best forum on the planet.

0: it's good to change your oil while the engine is warm, but be careful as the oil, oil filter, and many parts of the engine can be HOT

1: you may not have to jack your car up, though some cars are so low that you have no choice

2: the very bottom-most part of your engine will be the oil pan, and at the bottom of that you will find the 14mm drain bolt. The oil pan is usually black, and could perhaps be better described as a bucket than a pan.

3: ditto on the oil filter being about like a can of beans, but better yet: just look at the new oil filter when you purchase it and you'll know exactly what it looks like, though of course the colors on it will vary from brand to brand so don't go looking for it according to that. 8 times out of 10, when you go looking for the oil filter on a car, you'll spot it as a bright orange can (that would be Fram) You can usually unscrew it with your hand(s), but you may wish to pick up an oil filter wrench while you're getting the filter and oil just in case. Upon looking at the new filter, you'll see that it just screws on and off. When screwing the new filter on, first dab your finger in some fresh oil and lube up the gasket running around the mating surface where it meets the engine, and don't over tighten it. DO NOT tighten it with the filter wrench (that's only for removing filters) Two fingers and a thumb provide plenty of grip to tighten the filter. Tighten it too much and you're going to be uber sorry when it comes time to remove the filter for the next oil change.

4: the oil will go in opposite of where it came out. Where as the drain bolt was at the bottom-most part of the engine, the oil cap is at the top. It's located on what's called the valve cover, which is an upsidedown tub atop the engine, frequenly bearing numbers or lettering such as "12 Valve" or "DOHC" or "Nissan". It might also have the spark plug wires sticking in it down the middle, though it might not. At any rate, the oil cap is pretty much the only thing on it, and that's where the oil goes. Of course, give the old oil time to drain (5 minutes or so - it drains faster when hot and slower when cold) and replace the drain plug before pouring in new oil. Give the new oil a chance to trickle down through to the bottom of the engine (long enough to lower your car from the jackstands) then check the dipstick to make sure the level looks good. (it's usually a yellow ring poking out from somewhere) Start the engine, make sure your oil light on the gauge cluster goes out in a few seconds (aka: make sure you have oil pressure) then let the engine run for a while. (long enough to clean up your work area and yourself) As you back your car out, check the floor where you were working to make sure no oil leaked out while you let it sit there running.

5: A lot of oil change places will take the oil off your hands for you free of charge, but a lot of them won't. Don't go hauling the oil around with you looking for a place. Fine a place that will take it, then return later with the oil.