One of the most basic items on the maintenance checklist is changing your car’s oil. Once you’ve done it once or twice, it’s easy and quick and not necessarily messy. I remember the first time I did it myself, and I wondered why anyone would endure that terrible ordeal rather than shelling out $50 to have someone else do it. Happily, poverty forced me to try it again, and I’ve learned a few tricks along the way that make oil changes a snap.
You don’t need your own garage to do your own oil changes. Sure, it’s nice, but plenty of people use their driveways, condo parking spaces, or even on their street parking. Pick a nice, warm day and get outside. Just be considerate and don’t leave a mess!
I change my oil every 5000km which is on the conservative side of oil change intervals. Most cars will specify an interval in the owners manual (usually 5000-10000km), but modern cars have fancy oil analyzers built into the computer that monitor the oil life and will tell you when it needs changing.
Here are the tools and supplies I use for oil changes.
1. Under the front wheels of the car you can see my wheel ramps. Wheel ramps can be tricky to use and get lined up properly, but they can save time over jacking the car up and putting it on stands. If you are going to use a jack you really also use stands. Other alternatives are driving the car up onto blocks of wood (carefully stacked!), using an oil change pit, or if you have a truck you can often just reach under and access everything without raising the vehicle.
2. You will also need a catch pan. They’re cheap and useful. The one pictured here is nice and wide. I used to use a pan with a small catch funnel, and it tended to get messy.
3. Beside that is my oil and filter. My Subaru uses 5L of oil (a whole jug) and I like Rotella T6 synthetic diesel oil. It’s not strictly designed for gas engines, but it has a long history of being used as such. It’s also great in motorcycles. For a filter, stay away from Fram - they offer next to no filtration and have been the cause of many premature engine failures. The filters sold by Napa are made by Wix, and Wix makes a good oil filter.
4. Nylon gloves keep your hands oil-free. I buy fairly good gloves and justify the purchase by reusing them until they break or get really messy.
5. The only real tool needed is a socket or wrench to open and close the drain plug. A filter wrench may be needed to remove your old filter, but if it was installed correctly you should be able to do it by hand.
6. Oil is messy. A funnel helps keep oil in the places you want it, and not in the places you don’t. If it does get into places you don’t want it, a few rags or paper towels help clean it up. The big white thing is an oil absorbing pad for bigger spills.
7. Under all that stuff is my rolling creeper. One of the first things I bought when I finally had a garage floor to roll it on. It makes getting under the car much more comfortable, but isn’t necessary.
Before starting an oil change it’s a good idea to take your car for a quick drive. This warms up the oil, making it more viscous and easier to drain. It also makes the engine parts hot and dangerous, so watch where you’re sticking those hands.
Okay, with tools all assembled and the car raised up, we need to get the old oil out of the car. To the underside we go.
The oil drain plug should be easy to find, as it will be directly under the engine at the lowest point.
The transmission may also have a drain plug. Make sure you’ve got the right one - it should be directly under the engine, not the transmission. If a fluid that is very thick and smelly, or a red fluid drains out instead of relatively thin and warm black or brown oil, that’s the wrong one. Put it back. Also, top up your transmission fluid.
Out comes the drain plug, and the oil.
The biggest tip I can give with oil changes is the one that will also keep you cleanest: hold the drain plug in as you undo it! You should be able to break the plug loose with your wrench or socket, then turn it the rest of the way out by hand, all the while putting pressure on the plug towards the oil pan. This keeps a seal on the oil, and keeps if from flowing out around the plug, into your hand, down your arm, under your shirt, and all over your floor. When the plug is ready to come free you will feel a small “click” as the last thread on the plug disengages. Keep holding it in, until with one quick motion you pull the drain plug out of the way and let the oil flow.
At this point I will slightly open my oil filler cap to allow air in, which helps the oil flow out the bottom.
When the flow underneath turns into a trickle, we get to removing the oil filter. It is in different places of different convenience on different cars. Subaru was thoughtful enough to locate it on the bottom front of the engine, but sadistic enough to surround it by hot exhaust pipes. Watch your hands!
The only time having a Fram oil filter is beneficial is if you don’t know where it is located. The ultra-bright orange of Fram filters leaves no confusion about its location.
If you have a wide oil catch can like mine, it should be able to stay under the oil coming from the drain plug while also being under the oil filter. If not, you’ll need a second pan or you’ll have to wait until the oil has finished draining from the drain plug, then put the plug back in and move the pan under the filter.
You should be able to undo the oil filter by hand. When the seal is broken, quite a bit of oil will start draining out from around the filter. I like to break the seal just enough to get the oil flowing, then leave it to do its thing until the flow has ceased.
When the filter is ready to come off, out it comes. Keep it upright as it still contains a lot of oil. I like to drain the oil out into a funnel and a small bottle. I will let a filter sit in this arrangement until my next oil change.
You need to check that the rubber seal on the old oil filter came off with it. If it remains on the car, you will end up with two seals squeezed together, and this won’t seal for long. I once got my motorcycle a few blocks away before I realized it was coating my feet in oil, all due to a double-stacked oil filter seal.
You should see this where the filter used to be (no seal!):
With the oil still draining from the car, we can start preparing the new filter. If the new filter is put in the car dry (with no oil in it), there are a few critical seconds of the car having no oil circulation when it is first started. This is prevented by filling the filter with fresh oil, and smearing a little around the new rubber seal to help it do its sealing thing.
When the oil has finished draining, we can install the new filter. It spins on by hand, and I like to make it as tight as I can with my hands without excessive effort. If your hand is slipping on the filter and it’s not due to oiliness, that’s too tight.
The drain plug gets a quick cleaning with a rag and it is reinstalled. Some drain plugs may need a new seal to reinstall them properly, but you can usually get a few oil changes in without having to replace it. Tighten it down by hand and give it a bit of torque with your wrench or socket. Steel drain pans are pretty forgiving when it comes to plug tightness, as long as it’s not so loose it will won’t seal, or worse yet, fall out.
With the plug and filter it on the bottom side, we can bid adieu to the dirty underside of the car. We’re not yet done with the old oil, however. While it is still hot and viscous, we want to put it into a suitable container. I keep my old oil jugs for this purpose. I put a big X on the label to remind me that it’s used oil, and drain it in with the use of my funnel.
I tend to save up my old oil until I have a lot of it, then take it to the nearby fire station which doubles as a household hazardous waste dropoff. It’s free, convenient, and the responsible thing to do. They take the old oil filters, too. You can usually find the disposal locations by having a look at your city’s website.
Now we can start putting new oil in the car. Before you start pouring, ask yourself: drain plug tightened? new filter installed? If the answers are yes, start pouring in the new oil. Note the cleaned funnel - no sense getting any crud or old oil in with the new.
I like to put in an approximate amount of oil (most of the 5L bottle, in my Subaru’s case) then start the car and back it down the ramps. When the car is elevated and not level you won’t get an accurate oil reading from the dipstick. The dipstick assumes that your car is parked on level ground. One thing you definitely don’t want to do, however, is start your car without oil in it. I make sure it has most of the oil it needs, run it only long enough to get down the ramps, and shut it off immediately. I will then put away my ramps, do a little cleaning, and give the car a few minutes to let the oil drain back down to the oil pan.
If your car was up on jacks then you don’t need to worry about this stuff. Just jack it back down the ground, don’t start it, and put in the oil.
I find Subaru dipsticks can sometimes be liars. Oddly, you can stick the dipstick in once and see an empty reading, then do it again and find it overfilled. For this reason, I tend to dip it several times and look for consistency.
With most of the oil jug in the car:
Hmm… not quite up to the “full” mark. Needs more.
Speaking of the “full” mark - your oil should always be at that level. Having an oil level less than that does nothing good for your engine. The more oil (up to the fill mark), the better lubricated everything is, and the more heat can be dissipated in the oil. If it is lower than that you should keep adding until it’s there. The low mark on the dipstick simply means that anything lower than that and you’re risking engine damage.
When adding oil, I will add the majority of a jug to the car (unless it has a small oil capacity) and then check the dipstick. If there is no oil on the stick, I’ll add in about 1 liter at a time until I see a reading on the stick. At this point, I’ll dial it back to about ½ or ¼ liter at a time to avoid overfilling. If it gets overfilled it can be messy to remove some of that oil from the engine.
With the rest of the jug upended into the funnel I had my oil consistently on the full line. Satisfied with the level, I like to start the car and let it idle for a minute or two, checking for any leaks underneath. I’ll check the level again the next day to ensure it’s where it needs to be.
And there you have it - my take on the oil change. I encourage anyone who is interested in learning to work on their own car to start here. Sure, you can get a cheap oil change for $30-50, but that will be the cheapest oil and filter possible, done by the cheapest labour available. Personally, I like to feed my car better stuff and know that it was done correctly. Peace of mind.
If I were to use the same oil and filter used by the cheap oil change shops, I would have only spent a poverty-pleasing $20 or so.
Cost breakdown:
$37 - 10w40 Rotella T6 synthetic oil (walmart)
$5 - Napa Gold oil filter
==$42
Incidental supplies:
paper towels
gloves
You don’t need your own garage to do your own oil changes. Sure, it’s nice, but plenty of people use their driveways, condo parking spaces, or even on their street parking. Pick a nice, warm day and get outside. Just be considerate and don’t leave a mess!
I change my oil every 5000km which is on the conservative side of oil change intervals. Most cars will specify an interval in the owners manual (usually 5000-10000km), but modern cars have fancy oil analyzers built into the computer that monitor the oil life and will tell you when it needs changing.
Here are the tools and supplies I use for oil changes.
1. Under the front wheels of the car you can see my wheel ramps. Wheel ramps can be tricky to use and get lined up properly, but they can save time over jacking the car up and putting it on stands. If you are going to use a jack you really also use stands. Other alternatives are driving the car up onto blocks of wood (carefully stacked!), using an oil change pit, or if you have a truck you can often just reach under and access everything without raising the vehicle.
2. You will also need a catch pan. They’re cheap and useful. The one pictured here is nice and wide. I used to use a pan with a small catch funnel, and it tended to get messy.
3. Beside that is my oil and filter. My Subaru uses 5L of oil (a whole jug) and I like Rotella T6 synthetic diesel oil. It’s not strictly designed for gas engines, but it has a long history of being used as such. It’s also great in motorcycles. For a filter, stay away from Fram - they offer next to no filtration and have been the cause of many premature engine failures. The filters sold by Napa are made by Wix, and Wix makes a good oil filter.
4. Nylon gloves keep your hands oil-free. I buy fairly good gloves and justify the purchase by reusing them until they break or get really messy.
5. The only real tool needed is a socket or wrench to open and close the drain plug. A filter wrench may be needed to remove your old filter, but if it was installed correctly you should be able to do it by hand.
6. Oil is messy. A funnel helps keep oil in the places you want it, and not in the places you don’t. If it does get into places you don’t want it, a few rags or paper towels help clean it up. The big white thing is an oil absorbing pad for bigger spills.
7. Under all that stuff is my rolling creeper. One of the first things I bought when I finally had a garage floor to roll it on. It makes getting under the car much more comfortable, but isn’t necessary.
Before starting an oil change it’s a good idea to take your car for a quick drive. This warms up the oil, making it more viscous and easier to drain. It also makes the engine parts hot and dangerous, so watch where you’re sticking those hands.
Okay, with tools all assembled and the car raised up, we need to get the old oil out of the car. To the underside we go.
The oil drain plug should be easy to find, as it will be directly under the engine at the lowest point.
The transmission may also have a drain plug. Make sure you’ve got the right one - it should be directly under the engine, not the transmission. If a fluid that is very thick and smelly, or a red fluid drains out instead of relatively thin and warm black or brown oil, that’s the wrong one. Put it back. Also, top up your transmission fluid.
Out comes the drain plug, and the oil.
The biggest tip I can give with oil changes is the one that will also keep you cleanest: hold the drain plug in as you undo it! You should be able to break the plug loose with your wrench or socket, then turn it the rest of the way out by hand, all the while putting pressure on the plug towards the oil pan. This keeps a seal on the oil, and keeps if from flowing out around the plug, into your hand, down your arm, under your shirt, and all over your floor. When the plug is ready to come free you will feel a small “click” as the last thread on the plug disengages. Keep holding it in, until with one quick motion you pull the drain plug out of the way and let the oil flow.
At this point I will slightly open my oil filler cap to allow air in, which helps the oil flow out the bottom.
When the flow underneath turns into a trickle, we get to removing the oil filter. It is in different places of different convenience on different cars. Subaru was thoughtful enough to locate it on the bottom front of the engine, but sadistic enough to surround it by hot exhaust pipes. Watch your hands!
The only time having a Fram oil filter is beneficial is if you don’t know where it is located. The ultra-bright orange of Fram filters leaves no confusion about its location.
If you have a wide oil catch can like mine, it should be able to stay under the oil coming from the drain plug while also being under the oil filter. If not, you’ll need a second pan or you’ll have to wait until the oil has finished draining from the drain plug, then put the plug back in and move the pan under the filter.
You should be able to undo the oil filter by hand. When the seal is broken, quite a bit of oil will start draining out from around the filter. I like to break the seal just enough to get the oil flowing, then leave it to do its thing until the flow has ceased.
When the filter is ready to come off, out it comes. Keep it upright as it still contains a lot of oil. I like to drain the oil out into a funnel and a small bottle. I will let a filter sit in this arrangement until my next oil change.
You need to check that the rubber seal on the old oil filter came off with it. If it remains on the car, you will end up with two seals squeezed together, and this won’t seal for long. I once got my motorcycle a few blocks away before I realized it was coating my feet in oil, all due to a double-stacked oil filter seal.
You should see this where the filter used to be (no seal!):
With the oil still draining from the car, we can start preparing the new filter. If the new filter is put in the car dry (with no oil in it), there are a few critical seconds of the car having no oil circulation when it is first started. This is prevented by filling the filter with fresh oil, and smearing a little around the new rubber seal to help it do its sealing thing.
When the oil has finished draining, we can install the new filter. It spins on by hand, and I like to make it as tight as I can with my hands without excessive effort. If your hand is slipping on the filter and it’s not due to oiliness, that’s too tight.
The drain plug gets a quick cleaning with a rag and it is reinstalled. Some drain plugs may need a new seal to reinstall them properly, but you can usually get a few oil changes in without having to replace it. Tighten it down by hand and give it a bit of torque with your wrench or socket. Steel drain pans are pretty forgiving when it comes to plug tightness, as long as it’s not so loose it will won’t seal, or worse yet, fall out.
With the plug and filter it on the bottom side, we can bid adieu to the dirty underside of the car. We’re not yet done with the old oil, however. While it is still hot and viscous, we want to put it into a suitable container. I keep my old oil jugs for this purpose. I put a big X on the label to remind me that it’s used oil, and drain it in with the use of my funnel.
I tend to save up my old oil until I have a lot of it, then take it to the nearby fire station which doubles as a household hazardous waste dropoff. It’s free, convenient, and the responsible thing to do. They take the old oil filters, too. You can usually find the disposal locations by having a look at your city’s website.
Now we can start putting new oil in the car. Before you start pouring, ask yourself: drain plug tightened? new filter installed? If the answers are yes, start pouring in the new oil. Note the cleaned funnel - no sense getting any crud or old oil in with the new.
I like to put in an approximate amount of oil (most of the 5L bottle, in my Subaru’s case) then start the car and back it down the ramps. When the car is elevated and not level you won’t get an accurate oil reading from the dipstick. The dipstick assumes that your car is parked on level ground. One thing you definitely don’t want to do, however, is start your car without oil in it. I make sure it has most of the oil it needs, run it only long enough to get down the ramps, and shut it off immediately. I will then put away my ramps, do a little cleaning, and give the car a few minutes to let the oil drain back down to the oil pan.
If your car was up on jacks then you don’t need to worry about this stuff. Just jack it back down the ground, don’t start it, and put in the oil.
I find Subaru dipsticks can sometimes be liars. Oddly, you can stick the dipstick in once and see an empty reading, then do it again and find it overfilled. For this reason, I tend to dip it several times and look for consistency.
With most of the oil jug in the car:
Hmm… not quite up to the “full” mark. Needs more.
Speaking of the “full” mark - your oil should always be at that level. Having an oil level less than that does nothing good for your engine. The more oil (up to the fill mark), the better lubricated everything is, and the more heat can be dissipated in the oil. If it is lower than that you should keep adding until it’s there. The low mark on the dipstick simply means that anything lower than that and you’re risking engine damage.
When adding oil, I will add the majority of a jug to the car (unless it has a small oil capacity) and then check the dipstick. If there is no oil on the stick, I’ll add in about 1 liter at a time until I see a reading on the stick. At this point, I’ll dial it back to about ½ or ¼ liter at a time to avoid overfilling. If it gets overfilled it can be messy to remove some of that oil from the engine.
With the rest of the jug upended into the funnel I had my oil consistently on the full line. Satisfied with the level, I like to start the car and let it idle for a minute or two, checking for any leaks underneath. I’ll check the level again the next day to ensure it’s where it needs to be.
And there you have it - my take on the oil change. I encourage anyone who is interested in learning to work on their own car to start here. Sure, you can get a cheap oil change for $30-50, but that will be the cheapest oil and filter possible, done by the cheapest labour available. Personally, I like to feed my car better stuff and know that it was done correctly. Peace of mind.
If I were to use the same oil and filter used by the cheap oil change shops, I would have only spent a poverty-pleasing $20 or so.
Cost breakdown:
$37 - 10w40 Rotella T6 synthetic oil (walmart)
$5 - Napa Gold oil filter
==$42
Incidental supplies:
paper towels
gloves
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