i have changed the oil in my new ford 2 times now
i still have one problem

THE MESS
when pulling the oil filter it goes all over! on my rack. on my front diff. on my steering arms. on my skid plate, then all over me, then on my clean driveway...
i know there has to be a better way i dont care about about the mess on the truck parts cuz they could use the bath in oil. its the mess when it hits the skid plate it comes out of every nook and cranny and theres no way to catch it all...

 

Not sure how your filter is situated, but one idea is to first drain the crankcase, then take a punch and punch a hole in the lowest part of the filter, let it drain for a while. Then it will be almost empty. If the filter is vertical, I've heard of folks successfully using something like a large paper cup that fits over the filter but goes a bit beyond to catch any drips from the base.

I also remember on my wife's long ago Grand Prix, removal of the filter was designed to cover the exhaust manifold with oil so the car would stink for a while. I would take out a foot or two length of aluminum foil and drape it over all the parts where the oil would drip, and put the drain pan underneath it all to catch the oil. You can fashion the foil to make a little canal for the oil too, so it runs off where you want it to. You could recycle lightly used foil from the kitchen for this, even...and stuff like used pie tins could also work in certain situations.

(I like foil. I remember on a Boy Scout campout many years ago, one of the scoutmasters needed to add some trans fluid to his van and didn't have a funnel....so I had him make one from aluminum foil, which we had with us.)

As for the driveway, I always use a few sections of newspaper to catch the occasional drip or splash. I've been changing oil for about 40 years now and have made a LOT of messes....

George

 

Try a big ziplock bag. Loosen filter, grab with bag and remove letting filter fall into the bag. Should get most of it.

 

I always slide a large piece of cardboard under the truck before changing oil also. It's more comfortable to lay on and if I do spill or drip oil it doesn't stain the driveway. I like the foil idea or a tray. I always spray down the components that the oil hits with brakekleen to wash out the oil that hits the rack and crossmember. The wife's Taurus with the 24V motor is about as much of a pain as our trucks.

 

You can buy some nice pre-cut foil (if you wanna call it that) from those beauty supply places to make it easier to cover stuff and build 'channels'.

Also, I worked at Honda (I know, I know) and they had some metal trays with magnets on them for vehicles like the Accord where the filter was right above the cross member and on the Civics where the filter was above the axle and crossmember.... Im not sure how the newer truck filters are situated though....

The point im trying to get at though is that if you can make some sort of metal tray and attach a magnet to it, it might work like that. Just throwing out ideas. Good luck.

 

Just talking to a friend with an 08 6.4L F350 - he said I need to get an oil change today. Turns out he is still running the factory oil fill at 36,000km!! Trust me he's not fibbing about this.

His last F350 was a 6.0L PS first oil change at 25,000km and second before he traded it in at 50,000km! Unbelievable.

The truck before that was a 6L Silverado. He trusted the guys at the end of his row of warehouses to change the oil. They never did - just added (probably used oil). It still had the factory filter when it started to smoke at 130,000km - the valve area was completely full of semi solid gunk. The engine needed a rebuild and he traded it in on the F350 above.

I almost freaked when I realized my '08 5.4L Lariat SC was at the 8,000km for it's 3rd oil change in 20,000km - so him and I have very different viewpoints about when oil needs to be changed!

 

mine has a plastic tray under the filter, not sure what it's for, protect the filter from rocks or to catch the spills from the filter? Anyways i took it off, it wasn't helping with the oil spillage, maybe making it worse and it was collecting dirt and was just a mess. But i agree with draining the crankcase first and the punching a hole in the bottom of the filter idea is good! I'll try it next time.

 

I did drain the crank first this last time. Helped but didn't solve my problem. Just strange. My 95 4x4 the oil can was between the a frames. I had to cut the oil wrinch just to fit my truck or it couldn't fit between the frame and the filter. And even after you got it off it leaked down the front diff. Even as messed up as I thought that was then it still had built in channels on the dif to direct it to the bottom at one exact point for easy collection and cleaning.
My new truck honestly looks like the oil filter was an after thought lol.

 

I didn't notice anyone mentioning the possibilty of running a remote filter. You get an adapter that fits where the original filter mounts, a pair of hoses and a filter adapter. You can mount it away from the current location to somewhere it's more convenient and accessible.
On my old Dodge, it was on the passenger side above the frame rail. Other than running a short filter, you were guaranteed to make a mess when taking it off. I just used an old diskpan under to catch the worst.

Paul

 

Maybe try jacking up the back of the truck. My driveway has a slope to it and whenever I change the oil in my FX4, I always back it in so the back of the truck is higher that the front. I have never had a mess when changing the oil. When I crack the filter loose the oil drains right through the hole in the skid plate and only a little bit accumulates on the plastic tray below the filter. I always let the truck sit for a few hours after driving it so the oil has time to drain into the crank case before changing the oil. Good luck.

 

while punching a hole into the filter to drain might seem like a good idea, it does at time.... and not to mention it wouldnt be the easiest thing to get to with a punch, chisel, or screwdriver, unless it was rather long.


save yourself the hassle, and get a gallon size zip lock bag. i use one every time, and its the best way to do it IMO. quick, easy and ZERO mess !!!

 

Ya your right Matt, after i thought about punching a hole, it would be hard to get at the filter, and if you do put a hole in it oil would leak over everything, not to mention the metal is very thin on a filter, and now you have a hole in it, if you have a tight filter you need the integrity of the metal to hold the wrench and not collapse if it is stuck.

 

thanks guys for the advice
the plastic bad sounds about the best i guess
stull think FMC could have done a little better... OH WELL whats a little oil down just a bit more clean up

 

Just for everyone's information, Ford doesn't give a hoot about having to work on their vehicles. Their only thought is about saving every penny that they can during the assembly process to maximise their profit and shareholder value. That applies to all the auto companies. I'm just thankful I don't have to work on these throw away vehicles for a living.

 

If you had a historical perspective, you might note that today's "throw away vehicles" last far longer than the heavy metal vehicles of old. It used to be rare to reach 100k miles in a car or truck; now many are going double that or more....

That said, it would be nice if they were easier to work on, but today's engines are built far tighter than stuff was in the 1960's....

George