Husband is ready to make our first oil change. Have purchased filter and oil. Can anyone give him any pointers. We have always done our own oil changes on our vehicles, just need to know anything to be aware of. Getting ready to make trip to South Dakota.

 

Some people use the topsider to suck the oil out. The one change I've done so far I've done from the bottom. 8mm socket takes off the four screws on the skid plate and 13mm is for the oil pan bolt. Took longer to pour new oil in than to take off skid plate, drain oil and put skid plate back on.

 

Did he buy the proper fleece filter? Only other advice was above except use synthetic 0W-40.

 

I did my first xfire oil change last week. I used a vacuum pump to get the oil out, it is the easiest oil change I have ever done. The pump reverses to put the used oil in a container. The filter change is easy also. Look closely and make sure you replace the rings in the right place.

 

Make sure filter's big O ring is fat enough compare to the original, if is too thin, it will leak oil from top of filter, Only use filter from dealer, it's expensive, buy it at Merceded dealer is cheaper there. Krank that sucker tight. there is factory mark in hosing and filter cap. After my first self oil change, oil leaking made my engine belt come off, beware of any burning oil smell, and if your power steering fails, the belt came loose.

 

Also, make sure your drain pan can hold a minimum of 8 qts.

Myself and others have found that 8 qts will refill our engines perfectly.

 

My local Mercedes dealer wanted more than the Chrysler dealer for the oil filter.

 

When I did the first oil change on my SRT-6 I drained almost the full 8.5 quarts from the motor.

Here's what I did it beyond the basics to get a more complete drain:

1) Jacked front end up level and pulled the drain plug.

2) After flow slowed to a trickle I lowered the passenger side of the car so that the drain plug was even lower.

3) The amount of oil flowing out of the drain picked up again and continued to stream out for quite a while longer.

The oil was still coming out as a tiny stream after more than 10 minutes! I waited until it slowed to an occasional drip before closing everything back up.

With a filter change the motor took 8.5 quarts to bring back to full after drainng the oil this way.

 

8.5 qts of Mobil 1 0w-40 and a extended performance filter w/O-rings.

I've read in other post that some folks put 8 quarts in and let the engine run for a few minutes to work the oil through the engine and then add the last half quart. I put 8 in and let mine sit for a minute and added the last half. No problems.

Bought a topsider, hate it. Low profile car so traditional drive up ramps won't work either unless you put some heavy boards down to extend the length of the approach/incline of the ramps. Race ramps are nice but also upwards of $200.

All in all I still like crawling under and checking everything out and draining it the old fashioned way.

 

My oil has 3000 miles on it now and is clean as a whistle. Supposed to change at 6000. I may or may not depending on how dirty that oil is. I'm all ready with 9 qts of Mobile 1 0w40 a top sider to suck out the oil and a K&N oil filter made in Germany ($8 at advance auto)... I'm gonna put on a tuxedo before I change the oil this time, just so I can say I did it....