Hey guys, how many of you change your own motor oil? I find that the dealer is charging too much $$$ for the maintance and decided to do it on my own. How hard is it? any DIY? and is it okay to go Synthetic and then back to Mineral? Thanks.

 

Do a search and you will find a lot of info for it.

As for me, I do change my own oil.

 

well, for the non-lazy answer (), changing the oil is easy...just look in your owners manual and it'll tell you all that you need to know. and yes, you can switch back and forth between synthetic and regular motor oil, and it wont mess with your warranty.

 

Yeah... its pretty straight forward (as in the manual)
A good oil filter is just as important as the oil... you can now get a K&N at CDN Tire stores... stay away from Fram...!!
Stick with synthetic oils..they are just better....

 

It's so easy a monkey can do it (a grease monkey ).

 

not arguing .. but just curious .. have you experienced or heard something bad about them?

thanks

 

What's wrong with FRAM?

 

I purchase a 6-pack of Mobile-1 from Sam's Club for $23 and a K&N filter for $9. That's ~$26.70 per my own change, MUCH less than you'd pay anywhere else for the same (you wouldn't get the K&N anywhere else).

I just started doing this at ~43K miles (up till now I used non-synthetics and fram filters) and all I can say is WOW, the oil is soooo much cleaner after 3-4K than it ever was before - the filter seems to work great.

I also like that you can put on/remove the K&N with a 1" socket.

 

So can you leave the synthetic oil in longer than the oil that the dealer puts in? Like the dealer wants a oil change every 6000km. Can I go maybe like 8000km with synthetic?

 

Oh one more question, the car is at around 50,000km now or around 31,068miles. what other things should I check over with the oil change. I know the dealer offers all this little checkups with the tune up, but they are charging so much for it. Maybe I can do it on my own.

 

FRAM filters are horrible, especially the regular orange ones which are also sold by Quaker State, Castrol, etc, etc with different packaging, paintwork. They used to be really good years ago, but their quality really went downhill. There are several reviews online where many filters were cut open, and their parts & filter media analyzed. Mobil1, K&N, Purolator Pure Ones, AC Delco Premium, and the OEM filters from Japan and Canada(good luck trying to figure out where the local dealer gets his from) were all very very good.

Do a search on oil filter, and I am sure that one of the threads will have links to the sites.

I personally use an oversized Purolator Pure One which costs all of $6 and Mobil 1 5W-30 which I change every 5-7500k miles.

This car is one of the easier ones to do an oil change on; the oil filter is right there on the bottom very easily accessible. Just jack up the car, remove the oil filler cap, then the drain plug and drain out all the oil. Replace the drainplug and retighten it with a new crush washer. Then remove the old filter, toss it, fill the new filter up with oil to prime it, lubricate the filter's rubber gasket, install it, then refill the engine with new oil and reinstall the oil fill cap. Thats it.

 

i was reading in the manual about doing ur own oil changes... they said that ull need to get a special type of tool that ull need to take off the air filter which u can get from an acura dealership... i havent looked too much into it

instead of going between synthetic and regular, why not get the synthetic blend? you get the best of both worlds especially if youre weary of what will happen if you go back to regular

One question regarding this myself... the manual says to do the oil changes at every 7250 miles for the moderate climate that im in (not consistently about 95 even though its been real close for the past 2weeks)... shud i listen to these guys or get it done every 3000 like i was planning on ? any advice would be appreciated

 

All you need to take off the existing filter is a filter "socket"; it's like a big flat socket that fits over the end of the filter. You attach it to a 3/8" breaker bar or ratchet to remove the filter.
They come in different sizes at the auto store; make sure you get the right size for the stock filter.

Just change your oil every 3,000 to 4,000 miles and you'll be fine.
The only thing you lose by doing it "sooner" is a few bucks a year; doing it to "late" could cause you to build up oil sludge in your engine and you don't want that.

 

Dayum--7500k miles? I'd be grateful to get that many miles out of a car, period!

 

Damn I meant every 5k to 7.5k


P.S. Synthetic Blends are BOGUS!! You ever notice that they never mention what percentage is true synthetic?? Make it yourself and get 3.7 quarts regular and 1 quart synthetic and you'd probably have better ratios than the stuff thats on the shelf premixed.

 

here are 2 web sites that analyzed oil filters...VERY informative:

http://ntpog.server101.com/reviews/f.../filters.shtml

http://www.minimopar.net/oilfilterstudy.html

 

oil changes are pretty simple. you don't even need to jack the car if you've got a small frame and enough torque. I just changed my oil for the first time and did some "research" beforehand, here's what I learned.

some suggestions - make sure to drive the car for about 5 minutes before starting the oil change. Yeah, the oil is hotter, but hot oil carries more of the nasty stuff you're trying to get out.

blends are a joke unless you get one with enough synthetic. max your own or all synthetic. depending on the number of miles you have though, you may not want synthetics as they will break the bildup around your seals (which may have shrunk by now) and therefore cause oil leaks to appear.

if you have to skimp on the oil or filter, pay more for the filter. all oil gets dirty, but a good filter will remove the stuff better. mobil-1 and K&N are two of the best filters.

have some kittly litter on hand to pour over any split oil and make sure not to do the work on your driveway unless you want stains.

make sure to place the oil cap back on before starting the car again unless you want to detail your engine later. also, check the oil level once a day for the next two days just to make sure you don't have a leak

unless you have a torque wrench, tighten the drain plug and oil filter a litte more then hand tight...too much and it will be a real pain to get off the next time.

get a good funnel to pour the oil. it's simple, but 50 cents for a filter beats getting oil on your engine.

have an empy milk carton to pour the oil back into and seal it really well with some duct tape so you can drive it over to get recycled
check out http://www.bobistheoilguy.com to learn about oil and stuff. good reading.

 

To make a long story short.. I use to use Fram on the family minivan (Pontiac Transsport)... at cold start ups, the valve noise was unreal......I learned its because the oil filter was actualy on the bypass valve and it took a little time for some oil to get to the heads.... NOT GOOD..... I used K&N and behold .. no star-up noise...
JL

 

Hey Mr. Hyde, what's the oversize oil filter model number? Which car was this filter designed for also?

Thanks!