OIL CHANGE TIME

[ace rothstein 81]

Well, I'm approaching 3500 miles, so I changed the oil for the first time and let me tell you, it was a real pain. My Maxima was such a breeze to change, but accessing the filter on this car is just plain painful. I feel like I must have sasquatch hands, because I couldn't get to it from above or below without inducing carpal tunnel. I even detached the piece that is bolted around the oil pan and that only proved to help a bit. I don't know what purpose it really serves, so I may leave it off for the next change. Then, the wrench I used on my Maxima wouldn't get the filter to budge, so I had to get my neighbor to go pick up a new one for me, because I had already drained the oil and was pretty much stranded. I hope this car will have typical Nissan reliability requiring the slightest bit of maintenance, because I'm not looking forward to having to work on anything mechanically on this car. The smaller the cars get, the smaller the area you have to work with gets.

[nsrZ32]

They're not bad at all Then again, when I've worked on them at the dealership its been on a lift.

[skoobahead]

Seemed pretty easy to me.

[ace rothstein 81]

I'm so glad to hear that. Everything was pretty easy to me, except for getting off the filter. I had to go with the old hammering a screwdriver through the filter. That was the only way I could get it off.

[Demonspawn]

i lucked out with my local VIOC i think it was the first time they had seen one and it took them about 10 minutes longer than they usually take but the job was done and i didnt feel any tugging or beating when they were doing it.

[VersaKing]

i was looking into an oil change soon im hitting about 2800 miles. im planning to do it myself but my question is where the filter is there seems to be a piece of plastic under the filter does that plastic need to be removed for taking off the filter?

[ace rothstein 81]

That's the piece that was when in my way. Well, it wasn't the only one, but yeah... Anyway, I unscrewed the four screws and washers, just to loosen it, but I didn't try to take it off completely for fear that I'd break it. I know how those plastic parts can be. It helped to do what I did, but it certainly didn't help as much as I'd have liked it to.

[skoobahead]

Remove the plastic shroud, use the correct oil filter wrench: No worriesIt's really not that big of a deal

[XterraVersa]

I've changed mine a few time & never once removed the plastic. I am a big guy & didn't find it to difficult to remove the filters I put on. The factory one was installed by a gorilla.

The filter only needs to be snug fit by hand.

One thing I wish they would do for all cars is put the filter straight up & down so that it wouldn't spill when it is removed.

[proxim2020]

I've done 2 oil changes in my driveway and they were pretty simple. Although I was quite nervous. My wife doesn't like oil stains.