My First Oil Change On a Low Slung Car

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I've been spoiled by my Jeep that I can slide right under without even lifting it. They do make ramps for cars with less clearance that extend out a bit more. My friend has them for his lowered BMW e46.
 
Originally Posted By: Kira
THRILLING I'm going to see my friend's 2015 Impreza in a few days.

Got ramps.
And I'm ready to try my homemade extractor again.


If you end up taking the drain plug out and don't think it's a big deal, please let me know how you did it.
Unless you have a full lift or work in a pit like the Jiffy Lube boys.

I'd much rather take the plug out if I can, the extractor is OK but I feel like more solid crud could possibly be left in that way.

Maybe my ramps are short? I have Sceptres instead of the Rhinos that are so common.
 
Only 1 time could I not remove an oil pan plug. It was so destroyed. I think I could do it now, as I am older and have more tools. The car was an early Datsun B210. The dealer replaced the pan.

If you are gonna work on cars, get the right tools. I have 4 floor jacks. 2 are those small Harbor Freight models. They have served me well. And good jack stands are the only way to go.

One tool we have today is forums like this and Youtube. I have learned so much from the 'Net. Maybe you will make a video on your Subaru oil change one day?
 
Originally Posted By: JeffKeryk
Only 1 time could I not remove an oil pan plug. It was so destroyed. I think I could do it now, as I am older and have more tools. The car was an early Datsun B210. The dealer replaced the pan.

If you are gonna work on cars, get the right tools. I have 4 floor jacks. 2 are those small Harbor Freight models. They have served me well. And good jack stands are the only way to go.

One tool we have today is forums like this and Youtube. I have learned so much from the 'Net. Maybe you will make a video on your Subaru oil change one day?


If I made a video of me working on a car, it would be filed under comedy...maybe I could dress like a woman with a multicolored fright wig, run around the car screaming obscenities and waving my arms, and then make a million bucks off YouTube ads. My daughter knew a kid who made big bucks posting vids about solving video games, he had a pretty nice high performance Stang for a 16 year old.
I have certainly taken advantage of YT vids for the simple things I have done on my car, although I still manage to screw things up the first time I do them. Actually getting my hands dirty is the real education, but the vids are good prep.
Storage is the big problem for me when it comes to large tools, I already think it's a huge PITA to deal with having non-stackable ramps and one small floor jack. They end up getting stored behind the snowblower and then I have to fight with them when the flakes fly. The extractor will do for now when it comes to the Impreza and I'll ask to have the drain plug replaced next time it visits a dealer.

BTW, should have mentioned that I used PPPP 5W30 and a Mazda branded Tokyo Roki filter that appears to be identical to the 15208AA160 that came on the Impreza when it was new...I know it has the same bypass pressure specs. Not a big fan of the blue cans the dealers use in the US, I can feel them flex way too much while I'm putting them in and it freaks me out a bit...I won't bother to pull them off when the dealer uses them, though. I just prefer to go with the black Tokyo Rokis when I'm buying the filters.
 
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Nice on the Toyo Roki!
5w30? I would do that on a stick but IDK on a CVT.

How does it run with the thick oil?
 
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Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Nice on the Toyo Roki!
5w30? I would do that on a stick but IDK on a CVT.

How does it run with the thick oil?


I have only run 5W30s in my FXT, that's what Subie recommends for its turbo 4s (although some dealers are not aware of this and I may have had some 0W20 changes from them early on). The one that really stood out for me was M1 5W30 ESP, it's pretty thick for its grade and I did notice my typical oil temps went up a bit and my gas mileage seemed to go down just a tad. M1 5W30 AP seems to be a midpoint between the ESP and the vanilla 5W30 as the oil temps dropped a bit but not quite back to where they had been. The one I didn't like was M1 5W30 EP, had a small rattle that I would hear not long after startup in certain conditions...I'd guess it was probably really a funky oil filter for that change and not really the oil, but I just decided to not use it again because there are so many other choices out there.
Might get a 0W30 in there within a month if I can find a dexos1 Gen 2 flavor I like. No particular reason other than curiousity, the 5W30s I have used have gotten me through ski winters in the past.

I have a box of 10 Tokyo Roki 15208AA170s sitting in the basement waiting for future changes, this is a short and squat filter supposedly designed to fit under the WRX's hood. Some Subie dealer was selling them cheap on Amazon for a while, not anymore as I just checked. I bought the Mazda Rokis before I discovered the sweet, but short lived, source for the 170s. I was shocked to find that the Subie dealer blue cans actually had a metal casing, they flexed so much that I had assumed they were some kind of composite. The only bad things about the 170s is that my daughter's Impreza seems to have a narrower "cup" to screw the filter into and I don't think they'll fit in there, that's why she got the Mazda filters.
 
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