Do you know that one thing that you need to do regularly if you drive your car? Yes, you’ve to change the car oil.
If you learn this today, you can use this for the rest of your life and never pay a dime to your mechanic for a job as simple as oil changes.
First, let’s discuss the elephant in the room. What equipment will you need for changing the oil?
- You should have a socket set. A good socket set can never go wrong. This is a one-time investment because this is a must-have item when you want to do anything with your car.
- It can get messy while changing your car oil. So you should keep some paper towels with you.
- You should not touch anything with bare hands. That’s where gloves come in place.
- You need oil for your car.
- You need an oil filter for your car.
- You need to have a bowl that can catch all the oil.
- Last, but not the least, you need a funnel. That will help you pour the oil into your car.
- You need to lift your car to drain the oil. You can either have ramps or a jack to move your car upwards.
You need to remember that each car is different. And oil for each car will be different as well. But how will you know which oil is the correct one for your car?
That answer is already given in the owner’s manual. Yes, that book that no one reads, but it has almost every piece of information related to the car.
It will also tell you after how much mileage you should change the oil.
In the owner’s manual, you will find the amount of oil you need to fill up your car tank. It will also tell you the viscosity.
The owner’s manual does come in handy.
While getting the oil keep in mind that the jar has more than the total capacity otherwise you will be left short.
To change the oil you first need to drain the previous oil and that can only be done from under the vehicle. You can jack up your car and go under.
But before that make sure you have a wood block or something similar placed behind the rear tire so that it doesn’t roll back.
Also, keep your vehicle in Parking mode and pull up the emergency break. Then you can jack up your car.
You can use a ramp also to lift your car. One advantage of using a ramp is you get a lot of space under the car. You can now easily slide under the car.
Now the thing that you’re looking for is an oil drain pan. It will have a bolt in it. Once you’ve located the oil drain pan, the oil filter should be right with it.
Just screw the bolt with a rachet. It’s pretty easy and self-explanatory. If the bolt is too tight you can always use a bigger rachet which will give you more room to turn the lever.
Don’t forget to place that oil-catching bowl under the drain pan. Unless you want your driveway to be covered with black sticky oil.
After you have your entire oil drained, tighten the bolt with your hand first. Then use the rachet to give it some more pressure. Don’t tighten it too much otherwise, you’ll cause more problems.
The next thing you want to do is change the oil filter. It is fairly easy. You can just use your hand to remove the old oil filter. If it’s too tight feel free to use a rachet.
While putting on the new oil filter, you can fill it with oil beforehand. The thing with an oil filter is it needs to have oil in it, so having it pre-filled will make sure your car doesn’t run dry.
Also don’t use old oil to refill the oil filter, I know you won’t but still for safety I’m giving you a friendly reminder of that.
Now just gently add the oil filter. Just use your hands to do so. You don’t need any other tools. If it gets slippery because you’ve been dealing with oil for the past couple of minutes then use a towel to get a good grip.
Now comes the final part. You have to pour the oil into the Engine. Open the lid and keep a funnel. Place some towels around so that any excess oil can get caught.
Now, you remember how much capacity your engine has. And you know how much oil you have in the can. Subtract one from another and voila, you will pour that amount of oil into the Engine.
Also, a good tip is to hold the oil can sideways. That way the oil can be poured smoothly and no wave will be seen while pouring.
After completing all the steps you need to check the oil level. Turn off the engine if you have it on and let it sit idle for 5 minutes. Then open the hood and bring out the dipstick. In the dipstick, there should be a minimum and maximum marking. The oil should be anything in between. If it’s on the lower side you can always pour some more oil.
Congratulations, you now have successfully changed the oil in your car. Whatever you do don’t overfill your engine because that’s not good for the engine.
Now you have your car installed with an oil and oil filter. But what to do with the previous oil you just drained?
You can keep that oil in a container and you can give that to your local auto store. They can recycle that oil so that it doesn’t bring any harm to the environment.
So that’s about it. Let me know whether you were able to change it yourself. The first time is always the hardest and once you’ve done that it will feel like a piece of cake in the future.
