butch burton wrote:
> You have to jack her up - I bought a made in china hydraulic floor
> jack- set the parking or emergency brake - slip the round cup under the
> front tie down hook which is in the center of the car just behind the
> bumper - I slip a small piece of wood in the jack cup so the edges of
> the cup do not hit the car. You will want to have bought a pair of
> jack stands to slip under the car to protect in case the chinaman who
> made the jack had a bad day when he made your jack.

no kidding. my intro to safe working practices was coming home one day
to find my father crushed under a car. he'd been working under it
supported only by a jack, wheels off, no stands and the jack failed. he
got away with broken ribs, but he was lucky i came home when i did.
that's one of the reasons i like ramps - the wheels /have/ to stay on
the car and in the worst of all possible worlds, that limits the extent
to which the vehicle can drop.

>
> Do it on a fairly flat paved surface, slip a piece of card board under
> the drain plug - slide a oil catch pan - auto parts stores have these -
> use a 17 or 19 mm wrench to unscrew the plug - careful cause you should
> drain the oil when the engine is hot - keeps the crud suspended and
> after the oil draining out is reduced to a slight drip - replace the
> plug carefully and tighten to around 20 foot pounds.
>
> The filter is about 6" behind the drain plug located on the back side
> of the engine - what a royal PITA - don't burn your arm on the exhaust
> - a filter wrench may not be a bad idea - cheap at auto parts store -
> you may want to use some paper towels to hold the filter as you unscrew
> it - oil will start to pour out as it gets looses - get the drain pan
> under to catch the oil. Wal-mart's house brand filters are pretty good
> - avoid Fram - used to be good and are now garbago. Slightly wet the
> gasket on the filter - screw it back on carefully - keep turning till
> it gets really tight and then back it off a bit until it is moderately
> tight - should take some effort to remove. Just do not use that wrench
> to tighten the filter.
>
> Now I can change my oil in maybe 15 minutes. I have a several 6 gallon
> plastic gas cans which I drain my used tranny and oil into and a local
> garage uses it to heat with. Don't mix in any radiator coolant - take
> that to a recycling center - never dump it into the sewer or on the
> ground - critters like the sweet taste and die an awful death.
>
> It take less time to change oil than to tell how to do it - I have a
> quick oil change facility a few miles away - you should avoid those
> places because problems with over/under fills and wrong filters and
> stripped threads and falling out drain plugs are way too common.
>