car oil change - DIY
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- Last Updated: Friday, 12 July 2024 01:00
- Published: Friday, 13 November 2020 00:56
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car oil change
If you have a regular car, chances are that an oil change is one of the things that you have to do once or twice a year. Without an oil change, your car may get into serious trouble. If you skip oil changes for a couple of years, or bought a used car that had neglected oil changes, then your car may not last long. Oil change is #1 maintenance thing that you have to do. If you buy a new car, for the first 10 years of ownsership, you may not have to do any other maintenance except for oil change every year. So, don't skip on it, but also do not overdo it. Overdoing it doesn't harm your car, but may be money getting flushed down the toilet.
Oil change can be done either yourself or at a mechanic's shop. I'll list both options below:
1. At a shop: This usually runs from $20 to $100 depending on the car. Older or cheaper cars use conventional oil which is usually cheaper but needs an oil change every 6 months or so. Newer cars use "synthetic oil" which is usually expensive but needs an oil change just once a year. More about oils below. So, in the long run, all kind of cars cost about $50-$100 in oil change per year. Walmart is the cheapest place for an oil change. They don't look for unnecessary repairs for your car, or come back with a list of 100 things that you have to get done on your car. If you take your own oil and filter to them, they charge you just for the labor, which is $10. However, some walmart locations will still charge you the full price irrespective of whether you bring your own oil+filter or get their oil.
Other places as Jiffy, Pep Boys, Car dealers etc have coupons for oil change. Look on their websites. Car dealers do your oil change for almost the same price as these local chains or mom and pop stores, especially if you use their coupon that they have on website most of the times. I would rather get the oil change from the dealer than from these smaller shops.
2. Do it yourself (DIY): Of course you are here on this website to save money, so we everything humanly possible ourselves. Oil change is such an easy job, that it can be done yourself in less than 30 minutes in your parking space. It not only saves you money but time too. Going to a repair shop, waiting there, getting the oil change and coming back is half a day lost for nothing. Not to mention cheap oil that is used on top of being an expensive oil change. I've started doing my oil change, and I never have done any tool work in my life before. So, if I can do it, anyone can do it !! You will need to buy some tools though, but they will all pay off in one oil change.
Items needed for Oil Change:
Get these things before you start doing oil change. These are one time investment, and can be reused.
1. Ramp: You need to raise the car, so that you can get under it. This is the most dangerous part, that gets people extremely scared to do oil change. Raising car on jacks is one option, but jacks are not easy, and you don't know if it's done right. Ramps are a solution to these. You just drive your car ver the ramp. The front 2 wheels get oon the ramp, and now are raised by couple of inches compared to back wheels. Then you slide form the front of the car. Only 1/4th to 1/3rd of your body needs to be under the car, as the oil changing screw is in the front of th car. These ramp are very sturdy. One thing to note is that your ramps start sliding, once you drive your front wheels over the ramps. To prevent thet, place the front of the ramps against some raised level (as like the entry of garage where the outside of garage is little bit lower than the inside of garage, giving an edge that will prevent sliding). Or people use a rope, or some other tricks. Read in links below on slickdeals on various ideas.
I bought Rhino ramps from walmart for about $35. Here's a deal for ramps for $30:
https://slickdeals.net/f/15026011-rhino-gear-rhinoramp-29-99-at-advance-auto-parts
2. Screw: Opening the screw at the bottom of the car, from where the oil drains is another big thing. You need to have the right size "screw opener" to open it. Look in Youtube videos for your particular brand car and find out the size you need. Any generic toolbox has the screw opener you need.
3. Oil Filter Wrench: You not only need the screw opener, but also the circular oil filter opener (called as wrench). This is the hardest part to find. Filter box should be easy to come out, but they are circular, and so hard for anything to move it without slipping. I bought one at Autozone for about $10 (It specifically mentioned on the item that it works for Toyota cars), which works great on My Totyota Sienna. All the other styles that I bought never worked. So, choose this or a similar style:
4. Drain pan container: To drain oil and store it, you need a drain pan. These collect the used oil as you drain them. Then you can close the top opening of the container, and take it to a local auto shop, and they will get rid of the oil for you - for free. These used to cost $7 or so, but as of 2022, I'm seeing prices of $15.
One such Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374355003098
5. Funnel: Any funnel to pour oil into the engine. I bought this super funnel from walmart for $2.50, but you may easily get smaller ones for a dollar or less.
Link: https://www.walmart.com/ip/FloTool-05034-Super-Funnel/20440553
6. Rugs: These are any plastic sheet and old clothes lying around. You don't need to buy anything here. Just use old kids clothes, socks, underwear or whatever. Something to soak the oil if it drips on the floor, as well as to clean the floor that you are going to lie down on.
7. Oil:
First things first: oil is not same as gasoline. In countries other than USA, oil loosely refers to gasoline, but here oil and gasoline are 2 different things. Oil is the one that goes in your engine to lubricate it. You change it once a year or so for newer cars. Gasoline is what your car runs on (diesel or petrol). You will need to know what oil goes into your car. Assuming you are driving a regular vehicle, you will see oil with numbering as 0W-20, 5W-30, etc written on them. There will also be synthetic oil, conventional oil, full synthetic oil etc. Most of the times Synthetic oil is what is used on newer cars. However, your car manual is the ultimate guide on what kind of oil can go in your car. Read it. Many times, even though manual say conventional oil,you can still go for synthetic (search online forums to see if it's supported). Given an option, go for full synthetic oil as the price is the same as other synthetic oils (semi synthetic, blend etc). Most cars get better mileage and need less frequent oil change with synthetic oil.
Viscosity of oil: Oil viscosity is it's ability to flow. higher number => thicker or more viscous (higher viscosity) oil. Oil with viscosity=5 flows better than oil with viscosity=20. Thicker oil generally gives lower fuel econmoy, and more stress on engine. Oil gets thinner when hot and thicker when cold. So, to maintain optimal performance, you would want to use thinner oil in winter (as oil will get thicker anyway with colder temp), and thicker oil during summer (as oil will get thinner anyway with hotter temp). So, you are able to maintain best fuel economy and less stress on your engine. This is what people used to do in old times. They would change oil with different viscosity during summer and winter to keep optimal performance. These were called single weight oils. Single weight oils are not supposed to be used anymore. We have multi weight oils now that care of viscocity automatically in high and low temps. They have a mixed formula where the composition of oil changes to thinner oil in winter, since it gets thicker anyway with cold temp, and to thicker oil in summer, since it gets thin anyway due to heat. Thus one oil works for both summer and winter, and there's no need to change oil due to outside temps changing.
Oil Numbering (5W-20, etc) refers to this viscosity at low and high temps. Numbers such as 5W-20 refer to the weight and viscosity (or thickness) of the oil. The letter ‘W’ means both varieties are suitable for cold temperatures. The first number before the letter refers to the oil’s thickness at a cold temperature and the number following the letter indicates the thickness at operating temperature.
Oil is expensive. Your car needs 5-7quart of oil. You can almost always find Oil on sale. Look in gasoline/oil deals section. It will cost about $1/quart when on sale.
Steps for Oil Change:
Search on youtube for your specific model of car followed by "oil change", i.e "Honda Civic 2012 oil change". You should find at least some video which has all the steps for an oil change. Even if your exact model or year is not there, many of the oil change steps are similar for same brand car with similar specs. This is because, car companies don't make lot of changes around where different components are placed, as that disrupts their assembly line process, and incurs higher cost. May be once every 10 years, you will see some changes, but that's it.
This is one of such videos showing how to change oil for 2010-2016 Toyota Sienna minivan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jlpDcSeUz0
I'll list the basic steps again for cars that Ive worked on (I've worked on doing oil changes on both Toyota and Honda cars. First time it took about an hour, but now it takes 30 minutes or less).
- Put the ramps on flat ground. It's better if you can find the edge of your garage to put the front of your ramps. Since there 's small notch (a slightly higher surface separating the outside driveway from inside of the garage), you can rest your ramp against that notch so that the ramps don't slide. Now drive your car on to those ramps. It looks scary the first time you drive, because the car goes really high (or at least it seems that way). At this point you will notice that the ramps start sliding. this is where the notch helps you and keeps those ramps from sliding. Make sure that the car front wheels are on the flat surface of the ramp.
- Open the hood of of the car, and take out the "oil dipstick". Check oil level, and leave the dipstick on side, or put it back. We'll use it to check the level of oil once we fill in new oil.
- Once the car is resting in a stable state on the ramps, get underneath the car from the front of the car. You will have to slide your body may be 2 feet inside to get to the nut that holds it.
- Get your oil drain pan under the nut that you are going to unscrew. Oil is going to drain fast as soon as you unscrew the nut. Unscrew it slowly, so that you have enough time to move the drain pan in right spot to collect the oil from the car.
- Now you need to get out the oil filter that is sitting close to this nut. This oil filter is tricky, as sometimes you need special tool to open it. I had to use "oil filter wrench" for my toyota sienna. Some left over oil will gush from here too.
- Let the car sit for 5 min or so to let all the oil come out. Once done, you replace the old oil filter with new oil filter , and put the filter back in place using the wrench. Now screw the nut back exactly to the point it was there before. If you don't screw it enough, you will see drops of oil dripping when car is standing overnight. If it's too tight, it may not unscrew at all next time you do an oil change. That's even more painful, since that may require a mechanic shop visit to unscrew it, or worse break that nut, that will cost you a bit. As a guide, I mark the point on the nut to the body of car, before I unscrew the nut. Then when I put it back, I screw it until those marks align again. That way I know that it's tightened enough where it won't leak (as it wasn't leaking before).
- Now on the hood of the car, open the oil cap, from where you are going to fill in the oil. You put in a little bit of oil and check if it's leaking from the bottom, where you tightend the nut. If not, you fill more. Keep filling until you are slightly below the spec. If it says, 6.4oz, you go to 5oz and then check the oil level. Of course the car is tilted, so the oil levels will not be accurate. Close the oil cap, and put the dipstick back where it came from.
- Now you start the car, and bring it back to ground.
- IMP: Do not drive the car before filling in the new oil. Since you have drained out old oil, the engine is w/o oil, and driving may damage your car seriously.
- Put in some more oil now, and keep checking the oil level via the dipstick. Dipstick is not always accurate, so you have to rely on the spec. Make sure, you fill slightly under the spec. i.e if it says 6.4oz, go up to 6.2oz and monitor the car for a day. Check the dipstick and put some more oil if needed. Never overfill, else we'll need to drain it from the bottom by loosening the nut a little. That is too much work, so play safe.
- You should keep monitoring oil levels in general, and if it goes below the min, you should fill it with extra oil from the top. That shouldn't happen though. So, it might indicate a leak or something else wrong with the engine. If it's over the max, then you need to see how much over. Little bit over is fine, but if it's too much, then drain out some oil from the bottom.
At this point you are done with oil change. Collect you used oi, and take it to any car repair shop. They have to take your used oil to dispose of it in lawful way. They can't refuse to take it. Or goto walmart auto shop which might be lot easier. Keep lot of rugs, papers handy, as oil may get to your hands, floor, inside of car, etc. Congrats for job well done !!