I've had my 03 Edge 3.0L for a little over a year now and have always done the oil changes at my dad's shop on the hoist. Well, I needed to change to oil today but didn't have access to the hoist, so I decided to do it in the driveway... Bad idea.

I don't know why but nothing seemed to go right. I dropped the drain plug into the drain pan and had to stick my fingers in the hot oil to get it out, then I burned my hand on the exhaust trying to get that stupid filter off (which took forever for some reason, it seems to come off much easier with the truck lifted off the wheels). Not to mention I had the truck undercoated two months ago so that rubbed off on me wherever I touched.

All in all I learned how spoiled I've been with that hoist, and not to try to change the oil when your just having one of those days.

 

I used to let the quick lub shop do mine but I've started to do them myself again.

I think that most of the problems come from not having the experience. There's a learning curve that leads to the mistakes that you mention and that I've had also. I dropped the drain plug too but it hit the ground and rolled down the driveway under the rear axle. Then the oil filter drained mostly on the driveway instead of into the pan.

Other things have to be learned or relearned. Where's the best spot to jack, where to put the jack stands, drain the pan first or remove the filter, where's the drain pan, what size wrench to use on the drain plug, where's the oil filter wrench,

It just takes doing it to relearn it.

But there's that satisfaction of knowing that it's done, and done right. That's not always an automatic at the quick lube joints.

 

We've got it down that we can do it in 15 minutes. And I've got both of my college age sons trained to do it just as quickly. For us, to make a clean job:

1. Change with the engine warm, not hot.
2. Don't change on a windy day.....the high ground clearance allows for the draining oil to blow and miss the pan.
3. Practice the path to remove the old filter (before it is removed) using the new filter.

We do all our oil changes in 5 vehicles ourselves. The quick lube guys recognize us now when we drop off our dirtly oil for the free disposal.

 

i just changed mine out in the driveway. i had taken it to a 'quick lube' place the last time...
i had to use a 4 ft length of pipe over my socket wrench as a breaker bar to get the plug out... it was on that tight!

the no name generic filter weighed a ton when it came off (even after draining the old oil out of it..) it probably would have been completely plugged soon.

will never let them touch it again.

now at least i know it has a new motorcraft filter and 5qts of castrol gtx 5w30 in it so it's good to go for a while.

 

Let me tell you it gets easier with experience and tougher with age. I've worked vehicle mainteance my whole life and stubbornness keeps me doing it at 70. Sometimes I'm rollig around on that creeper and I wonder what am I doing it for. The fun comes when it is time to get up. kotzy

 

Ha, that's why I trained my sons. Now I am the gopher and the parts and tools runner.

 

I have three sons and they are all very well trained but they are all over and not close enough to home. Not like the old days. kotzy

 

I stay away from the quick lube places for Oil changes, they use the crappiest filters. I get my NAPA Golds from fleetfilter in bulk. Luckily my Expy and Ranger take the same filter so I buy them 12 at a time.

 

As for dropping the drain plug in the pan, I don't worry about that. I can rarely avoid changing fluid on a breezy day the past few years, so I focus on catching that crud, but I could use a big floor underpan kinda thing if I get really fancy. I just pick it out with a magnet probe if I do drop it. Easier to clean whole thing anyway. Of course, you could always magnetize the socket. And I let it drip as long as it takes to stop as completely as I have patience for, esp if I'm just getting involved with said vehicle & want to get as much sludge out as possible. I also try make time to change it much more frequently if the oil sludges up or breaks down, etc. In that case, I note the mileage afterwords as a note on health of engine, not before. I just rip a tag off the filter box with oil specs, brand, filter details & stuff it the owner's manual organizer. When it runs clean from change to change, I stop using conventional & switch to Castrol Syntec or Mobil 1 so far. No automobile should EVER have trouble with that routine as long as its streetable and runs motor oil. My Dad's 95 Crown Vic has surpassed all expectations running cheap Kendall synth for 144k. My brother's 90(?) Corolla equally happy on Mobil1 with similar mileage. This from a car renown for sludge.
Edit: Dad insists on quick change outfits as long as synth available. I could easily do it for half that & use better filters, but it's his baby so whatever floats his boat.

 

Driveway?!?

I do it in my garage.

 

I wish I could do an oil change in my garage, but it's just not big enough/set up for it or any other auto related work. The area where you park the car is 2 inches lower than the pathway on the side of it and it slopes on all 4 sides towards the drain in the middle. There's no way I'd be able to squeeze under the truck with that stupid drop there.

Besides. the redneck in me likes the driveway oil change idea anyways, and I'd much rather crawl around the driveway then take it to a quick lube place.

 

Yeah, that's too bad.

I even bring my creeper home from work. Collect all the oil from my truck and my wife's car and put it in a 20l pail, filters and all, and dump it at work too.

 

Don't you love having a place where you can dump all that stuff while on the clock.

When I'm able to use the shop where my dad works, it's nice because I can just leave everything there and all I have to do is clean up any mess I make. But I doubt it'll happen often anymore since I'm moving 400km away and, it's hardly worth driving that far just to be able to do an oil change on a hoist.

 

Are you buying a place?

Is this the place you're talking about with the wonky garage?

 

No, the place we live in now has the wonky garage. I'm moving because I've decided that since I graduated highschool almost 2 years ago, and I haven't been able to get the job I wanted, I guess everybody was right and you really do need more than a highschool diploma. So I'm going to college for Aircraft Maintenance. I'll be living in rez, and I don't think that they'll like it to much if I try to do an oil change in their parking lot.