Oil Change Fun...

[PraetorIan]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has any good tips when doing oil changes at home...

I've got an Astra VXR which has done just over 10000 miles, so I've changed the oil for its second time today. The problem I have is when it comes to the oil filter.

I drive the car up onto some flag stones which I stack up into small steps so that I can keep the front of the car level (left-to-right), and have enough clearance to get underneath. I turn the steering wheel to the right to give me access to the filter, but I still find that I have no way of catching all the oil that seems to flood out of the pipes when I unscrew it.

I thought of sticking one side on an axel stand so that I could remove the wheel, but I want to try and keep the front of the car level so the oil drains as much as possible.

I was just wondering if anyone has come up with any clever ways to avoid oily hands, wishbone and ground?

[spamiser]

nope :P :lol:

[ZS]

It's impossible. The 1.9CDTi dumps the filter oil all over the exhaust, so be thankful you only get soggy wishbones.

[StevieB]

use the oil filter box from the new one as a drain guide. rest it over the wish bone and bobs yer uncle.

For the CDTi, use the same principal but wind it round the egg n sauce pipe. job done

[MikeyNI]

It's easy enough to do it on the cdti, you just screw off the lid until you get a good flow from the little drain pipe bit on the side of the housing, takes a while then just screw the cap off and clean out the housing. I always put a cloth over the flexi section of the exhaust to stop any drips getting on to it. (Y)

[PraetorIan]

Thanks for your input guys,

Actually, I had a bit of a brainwave while I was in the bath this morning thinking about the Fast Show today...

It's not too far off StevieB's suggestion.

On my next change, I'm going to cut the top off of a big lemonade bottle so that after I've loosened the filter a little, I can push the bottle over the filter and unscrew it the rest of the way by squeezing the bottle's sides. I'm hoping that the filter will just slide down to the bottom of the bottle and that there'll still be enough space inside to catch all the oil.

If anyone gets a chance to try it, let me know - else it's back to the bath ...err, I mean drawing-board.