My son is determined to start doing our own oil changes.

Our last trip to the quickie lube place resulted in the car going into limp mode. Took it to the dealer and the error code was low oil pressure. After checking the oil it was discovered the oil filter was crushed during installation and restricting flow.

I'm not sure about everyone else, but it is at least a two week wait around here to get an appointment at any decent garage and some are 6 weeks out.

I don't have a dedicated garage and will likely be doing most of them crawling on the ground under the vehicle. What kind of setup do you have and how well does it work?

the car kind of makes a difference.
for my dd, I can reach it all without jacking it up.
for my old mopar, a rolling floor jack and some stands.
I have a big oil drain pan thing and use that for all of them.
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...7qDXEco0wBoCgdoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

the only issue is it is easy to break the center plug threads, and loose them in general.

others recommend that thing that sucks it out through the dipstick tube.
https://www.amazon.com/EWK-Extracto...&hvtargid=pla-589807083774&psc=1

never tried, I like to look around while I am under the car.

order new crush washers too.

These days YouTube is your friend, you can find tons of videos on changing your own oil there. Might even find one showing how to change oil on the exact kind of car he has.
Between cars often sitting so low and figuring out good jacking points, I rarely even try to jack cars up to change my oil anymore, I use homemade ramps with a couple thick boards and bricks. You don't have to get the car too far off the ground to get at everything.
It can be a messy job so I always do it in my driveway rather than in my garage so I don't get oil on my garage floor. Wear latex gloves and make sure to have a bag of kitty litter handy!

Sounds like the quickie place just tossed a cartridge in without seating it, and then cranked down on the cover ?
All my stuff is can-style - newest vehicle I own is a '97.
If I don't have the car on stands, I have some 2x6 wood ramps I made to drive up on; doesn't need to be too high.
Sheet of cardboard, drain pan & filter wrench, fill the new filter before installing. Simple.
Some cars are laid out so it's easy to get filter oil all over stuff; for those I use aluminum foil or a shallow aluminum cake pan to guide the oil into the drain pan.
I grab drain plug washers with the seal in their ID from the local parts store.

Get a garage, man ! Maine's too dang cold

i use drive on ramps for my oil changes. my bus [99 caravan] and my wife's 94 chrysler concorde.
the filters are easy to get to. just scoot a piece of cardboard under, plus a slightly oversize drain pan, and easy done.
pre-fill the filters before installation. i use wix filters.
biggest problem is my old body takes 3 hours to do a job that used to take 45 minutes.

Buy ramps. If your cars are low to the ground you must buy appropriate extended ramps. Make sure you have a location that will take in your old oil. Auto Zone used to take it. Buy oil filters in bulk. I buy name brands from Rock Auto for my Camrys. I also buy jugs of appropriate oil. Walmarts Super Tech brand is a great oil at a great price. The biggest thing is making sure you can conveniently (and legally) dispose of your drain oil. The jugs the oil comes in are great for your drain oil. Get a drain bin with a nice easy pour spout that fits into the oil jugs opening.

I drain mine by letting them sit overnight and then put the drain plug, filter, and new oil back in the next morning. Longer drain time allows more of the dirty oil to get out.

Get my oil from a bulk distributor by the case as it's much cheaper than buying individual bottles from the parts stores now.

That's the way I do it, too. The cardboard idea is good to catch all the drips. And I like the Wix filters myself. O'Reilly's house brand filters are Wix and a couple of bucks cheaper. Around here, Rural King has the best price on oil. $13.49 for a 5 quart jug of conventional.

I have a similar one to this. All my life I've been an oil plug snob eschewing the vacuum setup. I used it on my '13 300 pentastar (on the pentastar you completely avoid having to get under) and now use it for my John Deere. I still get under the old stuff but I don't see any real reason to do so except habit. They work very well, no spills is a big advantage.

This and as 2boltmain also said Buy Ramps. Good because it also puts most vehicles in the tilted rearward angle to help drain. Get a large plastic pan used for small concrete mixing at the local home improvement store, get the right tools ready, drive it up on the ramps and shouldn't take a young person too long. Most time is used waiting for the oil to drain and clean up. I always put the oil change milage onto the new filter along with a piece of duct tape under the hood for the next change. If the oil change quantity for the vehicle is more than 5 quarts then I just buy two 5qt bottles to take advantage of those free or reduced price oil filters that most auto parts stores run as promotions, Even getting a different filter for another vehicle in the fleet at the time. Way cheaper than buying individual qt bottles to make the fill quantity needed at the time. RAMPS.

Ramos, you better make sure you teach your son how to properly use them. I was doing an oil change on my daughter's car, had her drive it up the ramps and right off. I neglected to instruct her on how to use ramps properly. Good news is that lesson will never be forgotten.

I put this on all our cars, makes it so much easier
Never searching for the right socket, or getting burned by hot oil when you pull the plug out, or chance of stripping threads on the way back in

https://www.fumotousa.com/

Kinda cool, but for $25.88, I'll pass.

Over the life of the car and all the oil changes, it's worth it to me.
Plus, its reusable, remove it when you get rid of a car and transfer it to the next.

I have the basics:

- One heavy duty drain pan with spigot (to drain into very large jugs to take to disposal)
- Good set of ramps
- One metal clamp style oil filter wrench
- One forceps style oil filter wrench
- Metal Funnel
- Brake Clean Spray

I do oil changes for friends now seeing as how many places locally are either booked solid, charge crazy prices (long gone are the days of the $19.99 oil change!) or do poor quality work.
But with the tools above, I haven't had anything come close to defeating me.

I always wondered about the ramps and whether they allowed the oil to drain properly.

Good to know they work well.

Yes, I need a garage, but I also need a kitchen.

He has found a couple places that say they take old oil.

Thank-you for the ideas.

all the major parts stores will take your used oil and filters.
just call those, you don't have to find an oil change place to take it.

I'm pretty sure even Walmart takes used oil.

Yes they do, I used to buy a drain pan to change my oil on drag week, then just give the whole thing back full of oil lol.

Around here a number of shops have waste oil heaters, never have a problem getting rid of used oil.

Bingo. Long drain time is the key IMO. Overnight and then back level too and more comes out. Jack back up and here comes some more oil. Then I run a half quart of clean oil through to wash bottom of pan. Cheap insurance.

The rest depends on what car, as already mentioned. My '89 Diplomat has no belly pan so I roll a single floor jack up front to and am able to hit a center piece of the K frame, jack it up, and put a jack stand on each side and still have plenty of room to move around. I have a remote filter right up front with steel braided lines that then go to the engine oil cooler.


My Charger is much different. Belly pan, much lower to ground, different jack points.

What about removing the oil fill cap when draining oil to help assist draining the old oil? I never heard of that until recently and now I do remove the cap. But does it really help at all?
I don't need to make changing oil a 2 day affair, I just drain the oil, carefully hand thread the plug back in then snug it down with a wrench, move the pan over to under the oil filter, remove and replace it, and then lower car and add fresh oil. Start up, check for pressure and leaks, then reset the change oil dash light if so equipped, and off I go.
I change my oil and filter at recommended intervals and after 40 years of owning cars and changing my own oil I've never had an engine problem or oil burner (knock wood).

You're right, just drain it white it's hot, no need to let it drip all night (it won't anyway). Since using the vacuum setup I think it actually gets out a little more oil than the plug, remember there's a nut welded inside the pan, the oil isn't jumping over that.

and be sure to view the "stelantis denies the 19k warranty" thread.

This is why I've never been crazy about ramps. It can a bit difficult getting on them and stopping just right.

I'm telling you, I've gotten 1/4 quart more oil out after it's finished dripping jacked up, after I drop my Charger back down and it starts dripping again, then I put it back up and it drips some more. I can't explain it, I just know it happens. Oil is warm. I start my change in morning and finish in evening on a day off when I'm not needing car. I'm not saying it's a "must do" just my way, and I refill with 7 quarts as is the named capacity, and it's always right on the Full line.

I remember when the oil filter was an every other oil change recommendation from the factory. I think the Fram commercials is what got it changed?

Now Sarah is beyond anal, she'd pull the pan and have it blasted and powder coated...

Well....you may have seen my pics of the oil pan in my Police Charger when I first got it.

It'll never look that way again. I won't be idling it for thousands of hours, and won't be using cheap oils lacking detergent, and I will be "washing" the pan before refilling with fresh oil

I cheated. I went to Craigslist and bought a 2 post lift I only have to go about 80 feet from my family room to my detached garage and put my truck on the lift and walk under it and work on whatever I want just like I was doing it at work.
I have a 16 gallon roll around oil drain, when the telltale outside tube gets full I put it on one leg of the lift and raise it up, drain it into 5 gallon pourable jugs and take those to work and dump them into our tanks there. Easy to get rid of the oil.
Back when I was a kid our neighbors had purple lilacs bordering our driveway which my dad could not stand. But they were the neighbor's, not ours/ That part of our driveway along the lilacs was gravel, when I was the youngest I can remember dad and my brother used to just pull the plug in the gravel, then dad got the idea to catch the oil and dump it into the lilacs. Those were some pretty hearty plants, the oil didn't faze them.

To me, at least, it seems that the weak link in this new 10,000 mile oil change schedule is or are the oil filters. Can an oil filter actually last two to three times longer in doing a good job than it used to for 4,000 to 5,000 mile oil changes of the past? When I did an oil change at 4k-5k or even less the oil filter was pretty marginal to bad. I haven't seen too much improvement in standard (OE) base line oil filters at all. Still the same old, same old oil filter tech IMO. Maybe the oil filters should still be changed instead of the oil at half distance to the oil change intervals? Would cost you a little less than a quart and that second "free" oil filter deal of the 5qt auto parts sale.

I cheated like volaredon and made it as easy as possible for myself.

Side benefit it's good for a much, much more than just oil changes!

Yes people who go 10,000 miles between changes should pay up for an appropriate filter or do as you suggested and change their standard filter way before 10k miles. However almost all new cars and most old cars consume oil. Nobody monitors this. Nobody keeps their engines religiously topped off. Shops pull in a truck and drain 1 quart of oil out of a 6 plus quart capacity pan. The filters I buy in bulk- Champion I believe state they are a 3-5k mileage filter. This works for me as I change my oil at 3000 miles.

I agree, never go long intervals. I would never go to bulk oil change place either.

i just wish my garage had room for a lift. it only has an 8ft ceiling.

Same here! Drooling over that setup (and car)