Make sure the car is warm, the oil will drain better this way. Im not sure of the socket size for the drain bolt, but i use an adjustable wrench. Drain the oil into a pan or bucket. Let it drain then take the oil filter off using either your hands or a filter tool. Let that drain as well. Put your new filter on and the drain bolt back in. Take the oil cap off, put your new oil in. I usually go 4 quarts, check it, then put as much as i need to get to 4.5 or whenever the dipstick is full. Generally ill turn the car on to get the pressure up when i check it after 4. Its very very simple.

I was told, when dealing with turbo cars, to prime the new oil filter before putting it back on. Meaning, fill it up with the new oil first, so there is no air left in it, then quickly screw it on there.

just remember, put the oil plug back in before adding the new oil. i learnt this the hard way. i was changing the oil in my tbird, and i had just got done adding the 4th qt and my dad walks out and to his bench. he looks at me and goes "umm what is this to?" and hes holding the drain plug. "aww shit" and i look under and all 4qts are on the shop floor. it took alot of kitty litter to clean that mess up.

oh i dont know if anybody else does it, but my shop teacher taught me to put a little dap of grease on your finger, then rub it on the o-ring of the filter before you install it. he said it helps make a good seal.

Really? Ive never heard that, i just usually take some of the old oil on my finger tips and rub it around the part that screws in.

Here's Steve' way to change oil.

1. obtain 13mm socket
2. take oil drain pan and put it under the oil pan
3. break loose drain plug in pan and USE YOUR HAND TO PULL IT OUT
4. let the oil drain
5. use your hands (most likely won't come off) or a big wrench to loosen oil filter
6. when oil is drained from the pan take the filter off and let it drain into the oil pan
7. TAKE YOUR NEW FILTER and just prime the edges of it by matching it up to the old one
8. put the filter on, and make sure it's snug. It's also good to check your oil drain plug that it is snug.
9. 4 quarts of oil in the top, and add half of another qt.
10. start car and idle for a second (check for leaks)
11. kill it check dipstick and add oil until it's up to the second notch

done

^^^ you just pulled a me. you forgot to mention put the oil plug back in. you jsut mentioned to make sure its snug, not installed. . :laugh:

now step 12 is cleaning the mess of oil under the car.

My oil plug is a 17mm

I'll take an additional swipe at this, from scratch.

Mine's 17mm too. So, you need a wrench.

Go ahead and get one of those sets of "Grip" wrenches, or whatever name they have on the ones with the rubber strap. This is for the last gorilla who did an oil change.

Get a drain pan, splurge and get the $7 one that has the rim around it and the pour spout. If you have a cat, fish the last litter jug out of the garbage to dump your used oil into.

Pick up your choice of oil, refer to other threads for the synthetic/natural/weight/brand squabbles. Same for a filter. Also get a new copper crush ring for the drain plug. If you've never replaced the gasket for the 71O cap, get one of them as well, or just replace the whole cap. A set of Blitz Rhino Ramps is also strongly suggested. Gloves if you're a fairie, some hand cleaner and a bag of red shop rags. A $4 urethane sleeping bag pad is an additional luxury. You may want to pick up a magnetic drain plug, but there's not really a lot of point- if the motor's shedding steel and iron bits, a magnet's not going to do much to save it.

Fram makes a drain adapter that replaces the plug with a snap-on device, that sort of thing's your call.

Drive the car up onto the ramps. Block the rear wheels and engage the parking brake. Remove the oil filler (71O) cap and place a clean shop rag over the hole, and put the cap upside-down on the rag.

Take a couple of rags, the wrench, the Grip wrench and lay on the sleeping bag pad under the car. Put the drain pan under the filter. Loosen it. Come on, be a man, it just unscrews. What was that about someone's mother? Use the Grip wrench to get the bastard off, and realize you're not going to put it back that tight. (Special warning for water-cooled oil systems: http://vfaq.com/mods/oilcool.html )

Open a new bottle of oil, take of the damned piece of welded-on foil, stick your clean finger in and get some fresh oil. Put a light coat on the gasket of the new filter. Wipe down the mating surface of the filter mount, and thread the new filter on. Spin it on its own until it makes contact. Turn it down another ¼-turn, just so it's nice and snug. DO NOT TRY TO TWIST THE CAR UP ONTO ITS FRONT WHEELS LIKE THE LAST IDIOT DID. Wipe up all the drippings on the frame that came from the filter area when the old filter came off.

Now replace the drain pan back under the pan drain plug, and loosen it. O my, the same brainless bastard put that in the last time. Be gentle as you can in getting this to come loose. Remember the car's on ramps.

Drain the oil from the sump, and while it's doing that, clean off the drain plug and replace its copper crush washer. By the time you get back, the pan should be about as empty as it's going to get, so replace the plug with your fingers. Tighten it down as hard as you can, then use the wrench. Again, ¼-turn should be enough to get it as tight as it needs.

Put in the fresh oil. Use the rest of that first bottle you opened, then cut the bottom off of it. Use it as a funnel for the remaining bottles, 4 quarts in total. It takes a dollop more to fill the filter, but you can top that off later. Put the cap back on the valve cover. Look under the car for fresh puddles.

Some people like to pull the engine fuse and crank the motor until the oil light goes off. Using whatever method you prefer, start the engine and make sure the pressure comes up and the engine quiets down right away. As the engine idles, empty the drain pan into the kitty litter jug (if you or your neighbor doesn't have a cat, use a milk jug). Prop it up to drain, and set the used filter in the pan so it'll drain as well.

Check under the car, around the filter housing, and the cap for leaks again. Remove the blocks from the wheels, back slowly off the ramps and clean up. Take the oil to a parts store, recycling center or city yard. Repeat in 3-8000 miles, to taste.

I change my own oil also. It's the only way to know that it's done right and it gives you a sense of closeness with your car (I really love my car).

The best thing you can do if you are changing your own oil is to buy one of those FRAM Sure Drain oil plugs. I bought one and I don't know how I lived without it before. It makes changing your oil a snap (no more looking for the right socket or adjusting the wrench that slipped off causing you to smash your finger (@#%$ that hurts!)). Just make sure that you look up your specific plug thread size because they differed I think three times with the 2g's alone. The plug works kind of like the valve on your tires. I know this thread wasn't going anywhere but I think that this is one of the most valuable maintenance modifications that money can buy.

hmm, the first thing i bought when i got the eclipse was a full metric socket set. from like 4.5mm all the way to 20 or so. if i dont have it, it doesnt exist. or just use a adjustable crescent wrench and loosen it that way. its just a dam bolt.

Injected said:

The best thing you can do if you are changing your own oil is to buy one of those FRAM Sure Drain oil plugs.

Click to expand...

Those are the ones I've seen. Does it hang down at all, any snag hazard?

MyEclipse5 said:

How do i go about doing this? (like i said, don't laugh)

Click to expand...

I'm not laughing, but I will recommend buying the Haynes manual for your car. It is incredibly good for the $15 or whatever it costs.

And, yeah, I've always put a thin layer of oil on the new oil filter seal, too. I thought that was standard practice.

got the manual

Defiant said:

Those are the ones I've seen. Does it hang down at all, any snag hazard?

Click to expand...

Looking at this LINK of it installed on an explorer it dosen't look like it would hang much further down on a dsm. Maybe about 1/4th of an inch with the cover on?

http://www.autobarn.net/frasdseries.html
There's another please that sells them.

If you put a big piece of cardboard under the car (like a flattened TV box or something), not only will it give you a clean place to lay on and catch any spills that might occur, but when you're done, you can just slide it back out to pull out all your tools, oil pan, etc. on it.

You guys forgot to mention this:

If you remove the oil filler cap, the oil will drain faster.

doodie said:

You guys forgot to mention this:

If you remove the oil filler cap, the oil will drain faster.

Click to expand...

Yoiu didna read too good, grasshopper.

Defiant said:

Those are the ones I've seen. Does it hang down at all, any snag hazard?

Click to expand...

The FRAM plug doesn't hang down any further than the normal plug (maybe a few mm) but it is just a regular plug with a valve in it and a dust cover. The oil pan still hangs lower.

My old bolt is starting to get old and its gettin stripped bad from all those times I changed my oil. I am soo gettin that FRAM Plug now thanks injected and 98redgs for the link..Peace

so in short:

find the plug
Unplug it
Let it drain
take out filter
put in new filter(and make sure you rub the sides with oil(?))
Put plug back on!
Pour new stuff in


?

my car's prior owner must have tried to jack the car up on the oil pan b/c mine doesn't not look like that one,

Thomas91169 said:

^^^ you just pulled a me. you forgot to mention put the oil plug back in. you jsut mentioned to make sure its snug, not installed. . :laugh:

Click to expand...

Seriously, how the hell is "check to make sure oil plug is snug" not good enough? Do you think someone is going to get under the car to check if it is snug, realize it is not there, and then fill the oil anyway?

Do we need to break it down into how many turns of the wrench are necessary?

doodie said:

If you remove the oil filler cap, the oil will drain faster.

Click to expand...

\

Doubt it. The valve cover vent is about 3/8" in diameter, and it goes straight into the oil system. That should be big enough to make removing the cap futile.

one thing i didnt see mentioned was if the oil filter was on tight as hell, sometimes the old gasket will stick to the housing...you have to make sure you take that off before you screw on the new filter or it makes a cool little oil squirt bottle all over the floor