Why I Change My Own Oil

[JExpedition07]

I’m probably one of the younger guys here so yes I just scoot myself under the truck (no lifts or jacks) and do it in the ground. My one complaint on my 5.0 is how damn slow that pan drains when it’s almost empty when level. 15 minutes. I can write an essay while it drains out the last little stream. My only other issue is the 10R80, my buddy has a 2021 with the 3.5 EB and his behaves the same. Both sound like they are chewing on rocks if you suddenly juice it hard and force a downshift on the highway. I half wonder at times if the 3.5 and 5.0 are a bit too much motor for this trans, seems unprepared for the power when it’s forced through. After all the 2.3 I-4 also is mated to this trans….the 3.5 and 5.0 are putting a lot more force though it. Other than the odd occasional clunks and clanks I’m happy with the 10 speed though. It has good days and occasional bad days.

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[Gros Ventre]

Yes.

I did nearly all the work on my family Suburban you've heard me talk of... Am in the throws of deciding how much I want to keep doing on this truck. I'm not the spry and youthful guy I was when I bought that Suburban... But you know, Ford could have put that oil filter in an easier to get at place...

 

[Dale B]

Just tried this, using a fluid extractor. Could only pull out 2 qts with it. Still had to go under and pull the sump plug... Feels like there is a baffle plate in the oil pan preventing a full depth insertion of the tube. Oh well...!! I have a Powerboost 3.5L Twin Turbo, Hybrid engine.

Good try. Maybe I will have better luck with a 5.0. Thanks.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Good try. Maybe I will have better luck with a 5.0. Thanks.

It's not uncommon for there to be baffle plates in oil pans. Reduces crankshaft windage and thus improves MPG... and frothing of oil which is a bad thing...

 

[Dale B]

I’m probably one of the younger guys here so yes I just scoot myself under the truck (no lifts or jacks) and do it in the ground. My one complaint on my 5.0 is how damn slow that pan drains when it’s almost empty when level. 15 minutes. I can write an essay while it drains out the last little stream. My only other issue is the 10R80, my buddy has a 2021 with the 3.5 EB and his behaves the same. Both sound like they are chewing on rocks if you suddenly juice it hard and force a downshift on the highway. I half wonder at times if the 3.5 and 5.0 are a bit too much motor for this trans, seems unprepared for the power when it’s forced through. After all the 2.3 I-4 also is mated to this trans….the 3.5 and 5.0 are putting a lot more force though it. Other than the odd occasional clunks and clanks I’m happy with the 10 speed though. It has good days and occasional bad days.

Did you open up the oil filler tube before you pulled the drain plug? Letting in air to the crankcase usually speeds things up.

 

[Dale B]

It's not uncommon for there to be baffle plates in oil pans. Reduces crankshaft windage and thus improves MPG... and frothing of oil which is a bad thing...

Yes, but the engineers can fix the problem by just adding a small hole in the right place. Can you imagine how much easier it could be for a dealer to have bays with no lifts or pits to do the basic service if they could just insert an extraction tube and replace an oil filter if it was located where it is accessible from above? Never a stripped drain plug, never one that leaks after service or was forgotten to be reinserted. Never a problem with removing and replacing a belly pan or skid plate to get to a drain plug or filter? Reduced insurance costs for dealers because fewer lifts are required. All just by putting a hole in a windage tray and putting an oil filter in a proper place.
In my company we had the engineers and designers also do service work. After a time of doing service work, they started changing some designs so that parts were accessible and much easier to service. It wasn't a problem for them until they started having to fix it themselves. No more having to completely disassemble an electrical cabinet to replace a fuse.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Yes, but the engineers can fix the problem by just adding a small hole in the right place. Can you imagine how much easier it could be for a dealer to have bays with no lifts or pits to do the basic service if they could just insert an extraction tube and replace an oil filter if it was located where it is accessible from above? Never a stripped drain plug, never one that leaks after service or was forgotten to be reinserted. Never a problem with removing and replacing a belly pan or skid plate to get to a drain plug or filter? Reduced insurance costs for dealers because fewer lifts are required. All just by putting a hole in a windage tray and putting an oil filter in a proper place.
In my company we had the engineers and designers also do service work. After a time of doing service work, they started changing some designs so that parts were accessible and much easier to service. It wasn't a problem for them until they started having to fix it themselves. No more having to completely disassemble an electrical cabinet to replace a fuse.

Agreed... I saw our Nuclear Submarine Force go through such a discovery across my career. Designing in the ability to do maintenance without gyrations of access was a growing discovery in the 70s & 80s. I've thought about installing a remote filter but came up against the universal question: Where do I put it? There's just no room under that hood...

 

[Snakebitten]

I'd personally like to have an old fashioned analog dipstick in my German flat-6, thank you very much.

While I am well versed in the proper method of discerning which digital oil level measurement it displays on the dash is the CORRECT measurement, if you DON'T know what to ignore you can panic and overfill.

I love that motor. It's worth more than the car itself. So it'd be nice to go through the terrible fuss of checking the oil level with my own eyes. ?

 

[Dale B]

Agreed... I saw our Nuclear Submarine Force go through such a discovery across my career. Designing in the ability to do maintenance without gyrations of access was a growing discovery in the 70s & 80s. I've thought about installing a remote filter but came up against the universal question: Where do I put it? There's just no room under that hood...

I was thinking about a remote filter as well. I haven't been under the hood of a pickup in a long time. The last time I did it, you could stand in there and I have. I guess when you start adding twin turbos and 10-speed transmissions you have a lot less room than in an old 4.9 straight six.

 

[Gros Ventre]

Well... My gripe about these fancy-shmancy vehicles is those computers tell you what they think you want to know, not necessarily what is really going on... That's why I put some basic analog indicators on mine. Oil pressure, voltage, oil temperature... People get so used to the fancy stuff that they cannot discern the reality... and being so used to this stuff they believe anything if a seemingly good rationale is given. This is just like checking your dipstick with a Mk 1 Mod 0 Eyeball. I installed a catch-can on my truck and am amazed at the amount of emulsified "stuff" it has collected; that was going through my engine? Really? One thing I learned in my Navy time was that liquid level sensors routinely lie... As you note above, go look for yourself at the dipstick.

 

[Old Hat]

I love it! DIY oil change thread has everything from "it's much easier/faster to do it myself" to "it's so difficult and time consuming that I need to buy more tools and modify the factory set-up to make it tolerable."

 

[Kingnut]

I do it because with the valve, it saves me time. Hose tip into pan, valve open, remove and replace filter, valve closed, fill with 6 qts, done. It's 20 minutes max with zero mess, Bezos Claus delivers my oil and filters to me and I can keep the used oil for my crazy metal melting furnace idea (which has yet to work but seems good in theory). Spending $100 for the dealership to take two hours to change my oil isn't a good deal.

This isnt true. The oil filter makes a mess. Drain plug just makes less mess.

 

[amschind]

This isnt true. The oil filter makes a mess. Drain plug just makes less mess.

I think you could play with your technique a bit. I was really skeptical of the location of the oil filter at first what with the purpose build drip tray, but I have found that I rarely lose more than say 20 ml when changing it. It's fiddly to get it unthreaded and then immediately tilt it back, and you absolutely lose some to the drip tray, but I have been very pleasantly surprised at how small of a mess it makes.

 

[RobertD]

I find that filter fairly easy to get to on my 3.5 EB. Just raise the truck to where the front bumper is a little below my shoulders and you can see it easily. Also having 39" arm length I can easily reach the filter.

So there you have it - barn, lift and being a rather tall man (6'7") with really long arms and changing the filter becomes rather easy. I am sure that the Ford engineers assumed everyone would meet this criteria.

 

[Gros Ventre]

They are so focused on EPA requirements that they simply stuff things in as small a space as they can find. They assume that a dealer tech using a lift will do the oil change. So the rest of us, most without lifts, are stuck with whatever they let us have. In my case I put some 2x6s three high on the garage floor to get access to the filter, that works pretty nicely. But if I could have it up top on the engine, that would be beautiful...

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