Oil Pan Removal 2000 Buick Century 3.1Liter

Maintenance/Repairs
,
1

What all must be done to do this job?

2

Tester

1 Like
3

On a FWD car, usually all that needs to be done is:

  1. Place the car on a lift, or use a floor jack to raise up the front of the car and place jack stands on the approved support points OR place an extra wheel under each front tire.
  2. Get under the car, drain the oil, put the drain plug back in, unscrew the oil pan bolts.
  3. Use a rubber mallet or large slotted screwdriver to break the gasket seal and free the oil pan.
  4. Clean the gasket mating surface on the bottom of the engine block, clean the oil pan thoroughly with brake cleaner and shop towels.

On some cars, there is a subframe or other obstacle blocking easy removal of the oil pan. This is very common on AWD models.

1 Like
4

Thanks for quick reply, Tester. I had watched this video about the 1998 Century oil pan job earlier & there are differences from my engine that made me wonder if there would be things I would still need to know about my particular engine to attempt an oil pan removal.

5

I noticed an odd thing doing the oil change where I noticed the oil on the oil pan bolts. I had drained the oil quite a while before I removed the oil filter, but when one removes the oil filter on this car, a lot of oil drains out of the oil filter nipple & runs all over the engine block before it lands in the oil drain pan on the floor. But this time, not one drop of oil came out. The engine was by no means out of oil, it was only down about a half quart.

6

Tester, I looked in my DIY manual about the oil pan removal. Usually I don’t put much stock in these manuals. But what all was described as to what all must be done was quite different than the video about the 98 Century, and I can see I would have to turn myself in to a shop to have this job done. :confused:

7

I was lucky I eventually did pan gaskets on both of my rivieras and it was wide open to get to. Just have crawl under and take a look at obstructions and if the timing cover gasket creates an issue.

8

The vdo certainly showed an involved and complex process. But the fellow in the vdo was doing other jobs too. So maybe if you only have to remove the oil pan, nothing else, maybe it is not quite as big of a job as presented.