Hi,
I have a new Ford Escape XLT 08.
I went to do the first oil change in it and had a bit of trouble trying to get the oil filter out. I ended up getting a “slick hand and arm” and slight burn.
Anyone have any pointers as to how I can do this easier myself?
Thank-You.
The way I do it is I jack the car up and let it drain overnight or until it has cooled down. By the time I remove the oil filter, there is usually no oil in it. If there is oil, it isn’t hot anymore.
If you don’t want to wait for it to cool down, you can place a couple rags underneath it to catch the oil before it drips down on your hand and arm.
Let the engine cool before you drain the oil. It doesn’t have to be hot.
Keeping the oil off your arm might be more difficult. It all depends on where the filter is located and how you have to access it.
I generally drain the oil when it is hot, then go eat lunch or mow the grass, while everything cools off.
I warm the car up enough to let the oil drain freely, drive it on the ramps, and put a washbasin under the oil drain. I wear an old set of LONG rubber dishwashing gloves to loosen the oil plug and filter. I mop up any spilled oil with old dishtowels and handtowels. After trying many other things this is the most effective and cheapest way to do my oil chnges.
This is one of those questions that 100 people will give 200 different opinions.
I change my oil first thing in the morning before I start it. I do open the drain plug and let it drip a long time, but it is not hot. And, on my Sienna, the filter is perfectly horizontal, so a lot of oil spills if you run it first.
I use Mobil-1 Extended Performance, and change it at like 7,000 miles, this spring I miscalculated and it went 10,000 miles. Still looked good.
145,000 miles, 2002. Mostly highway driving.
Do you live somewhere that has ranch supply stores? One of the ones where I live has a huge wall of work gloves of every conceivable variety. I picked up a pair for $15 that are really well insulated with tough material and have some sort of friction grip material that are great for changing the filter on one of my cars that has the filter basically sticking out of a hole in the exhaust manifold. Those slipped over an older Carhartt jacket that’s my “mechanicing” jacket keep my hands and arms generally burn free.
On my personal cars I only change the oil after the vehicle has been sitting all night and is stone cold.
Any oil that needs to drain down has done so by this point.
I allow the oil to drain for a couple of hours while I go and do something else; either mow the yard or watch a football game.
The oil filter on my Lincoln is such a pain in the neck to access I quit even attempting it while the engine is warm, much less hot.
Thanks for all the fast replies. I have changed oil on a few cars before and have spilled very little oil. This being my first SUV the filter is angled in there and kind of in a tight place. Which is how and why I spilled it.
I will try and wait out the oil draining from removing the plug and see how it goes then. Thanks