Most annoying oil change

I changed the oil on my RX8 last night. Every time I change the oil I end up cursing the engineers for making this seemingly simple task as difficult as possible. The car is too low to fit an oil pan under, or to reach the drain plug with out jacking it way up in the air, but it's a sports car so that's to be expected. Then you get to the oil filter. It's upside down and buried way back in the engine bay under the intake manifold where only a person with raccoon sized hands could reach it and it's impossible to get an oil filter wrench on.

After coming up with a goofy arrangement of socket extensions and joints you can then dump oil all over the engine.

What's the most annoying car you have changed the oil on?

This is the engine from a Ferrari F40. Notice where the oilfilter is and it's orientation?

My 2nd-gen RX-7 wasn't a whole lot better, at least in terms of the oil filter and dumping oil all over the place. And it took 2 different jacks to get the nose high enough to get a pan under it because my floor jack didn't go low enough and I had to use a scissor jack to lift it up high enough for the floor jack.

My parents' former 2000 Olds Intrigue was a pain in the ass purely for the reason that it had a cartridge filter and they made it require a special, custom tool (weird-lobed wrench) to get the filter out. Thankfully after a lot of swearing and a number of tries I was able to get a strap wrench onto the thing and use that to get it off.

AE92 'rolla but it's nothing compared to this...you have to remove a splash shield and then the oil filter is nestled among the searing hot tubes of the exhaust manifold. Apart from that, pretty straightforward.

I think the RX8 is gonna be hard to beat.

I seem to remember 80's, maybe 90's Toyota 4X4's were horrible from my days in the oil change place.

The oil filter on my '93 Toyolla is right underneath the exhaust heat shield.

Ouch.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

the supercharged LSJ cobalt and ions are a pretty big PITA unless you are removing the s/c to do them.....It took a socket, swivel, ratchet, and some creative movement to get them out.....and even then, it still sucked.

strangely, the winner is my ms3. As much as I hate the oil change on the Cooper S- at least MINI made it ALMOST feasible w/o a jack. The ms3 you need to jack up, and you need to remove the splash shield, which you are GUARANTEED to lose at least 3 bolts and snap one more every time you look at it. Mazda was thoughtful enough to put a hole in the splash shield to service it through- HOWEVER, it's nice and not in the right spot so it's effectively useless.

IS300. Have to unbolt the transmission filler tube and even then, it is very complicated to snake the filter out between the intake mani and brake master. Meanwhile, pissing oil everywhere and skinning up forearms.

mad_machine wrote: This is the engine from a Ferrari F40. Notice where the oil filter is and it's orientation?

At least there's only one. Most Ferrari V12's I've seen have two filters in the same orientation. I've always wondered how the hell the filter is removed without dumping oil all over the engine... Surround it with a million rags?

When I had my '91 Integra, I never once changed the oil filter myself during the 6 years and 150K miles I owned the car. I crawled under the car once, found the filter and said "eff this..." and let Jiffy Lube do it...

87 Ford Escort wagon. Filter is on the back side of the block, no problem. Except you have to jack the car up as high as it will go AND snake your arm around the exhaust pipe directly under the filter.

ANY 3.0L powered Ranger. You will burn your arm getting to the filter and the degree of the burn will depend on who installed the filter the last time and how much torque they applied tightening it down.

My local ford dealership charges me ~$22 for my Miata, or my F150, or the XJ-eep. I'd rather drink coffee and watch the Dan Patrick Show for the hour it takes them to do the work. I can hardly buy the oil and filter for the much money and it'll take me more than an hour because I am slow when I work on cars.

My dad had an 89 Dodge Dakota with the V6. Pulling the drain plug shot the oil onto the cross member which then filled with oil until is started coming off in a solid sheet about the full width of the truck. It was a waterfall of oil. Not particularly fun if you didn't know it was coming.

A certain large Joy air compressor. Trailer unit, powered by a diesel (probably Detroit, but it's been a long time).

The floor pan has a hole for the filter. The hole is the size of the filter. So you can't get a wrench up onto the filter. It's just a pointless hole. You have to remove the floorpan of the trailer. The entire trailer, it's one piece.

The filter itself is about the size of an office trashcan. It's not light when empty, and it's heavier when full of oil. Hot oil. That will splash all over you when the filter comes off and crashes into the ground beside you.

Several hours and a change or two of clothing is required for a filter change on this unit. Never did learn to like it.

Cutting the floorpan into two pieces, with a drop out section for oil changes helped, a lot. Though access to the oil pan drain plug was several feet away.

I was annoyed when I had to rent a 36mm socket to access the oil filter on my E36.

I HATE doing Oil changes on NB miatas. My arm is neither the size, shape, or possesing of the correct number of joints that mazda engineers expected it to be to access the filter.

Most annoying oil changes ive done have been on commercial vehicles.

I honestly find 'i have to jack the vehicle up' being a complaint on oil changes is just ridiculous. Buy a lifted truck then. I mean, i cant believe you would have to jack up a car to get to stuff on the bottom of it.

Newer chevy 3.6 transferse mounted on any car. Right under the manifold. Its doable, but you gotta be real good to not burn yourself when its hot.

I work 40 hours a week for my day job, and depending on the time of year, an additional 3-20 a week for my second job. I also have a girlfriend and hobbies. I value my free time at roughly $40 to $50 an hour. It cost $30 (with tax!) for oil and filter change at the Mazda dealership last time. I didn't have an appointment, so it took an hour. I test drove a BRZ (they also have Subaru there), watched One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest, and drank coffee while reading a magazine. At the end of the hour, I was clean, not bleeding, didn't swear once, didn't make a mess of the garage floor, didn't have to worry about oil disposal, and I had helped out a local business.

Of course, that is in an NB Miata. It is "easy" enough to do it on my own, but it is way cramped and I have to jack it up to do anything. My brothers truck? I'd probably do it myself, simply because it isn't nearly as cramped and I could just crawl underneath it easy enough.

I never had an issue with my SA22. The filter was right there on top in the back. I didn't mind the filter on top, most of the oil in it drained back into the pan, so when you pulled the filter off, there was no mess.

It also helped that there was really nothing in the engine compartment.

Just wait a day and the filter on a rotary will be empty - thus not dumping oil everywhere.

Can't help you on the placement though, it's easy on a 13B.

MA$$hole wrote: I was annoyed when I had to rent a 36mm socket to access the oil filter on my E36.

Why? The housing cap is right on top of the engine. I just used a normal filter wrench on the M3. Didn't buy a 36mm socket until we bought the MCS and it was required.

In reply to Ian F:

Didn't have one handy, and it was torqued on there from whoever last did it.

On the other hand, the easiest car I ever owned was my 1980 Mazda 626 - both the drain plug and the filter from were easily accessible from above, I could have changed oil while wearing a white dress shirt.

DaveEstey wrote: Just wait a day and the filter on a rotary will be empty - thus not dumping oil everywhere. Can't help you on the placement though, it's easy on a 13B.

The RX-8 is a 13B as well, and the trick to less oil spilling on any rotary is to poke a hole in the filter first. I use an awl, but any pointy screwdriver will work.