Changing your car's oil and oil filter regularly is one of most important things you can do to keep your car running smoothly. Over time, oil in your car breaks down and filter becomes clogged with contaminants. According to your personal driving habits and models, engine oil should be changed every 3 months or at least 4,800 kilometers and at least every 24 months or 32,000 kilometers (see corresponding instructions in owner's manual). Luckily, changing oil is a simple and inexpensive affair. Here's how to change your engine oil.
Method
1 Drain oil
1. Raise car. Jack or ramp required. On level ground, apply handbrake and jack up vehicle. Jacks that are out of place can seriously damage your vehicle, so check your owner's manual for specific instructions for your model. Working under vehicle while it is being jacked up is especially dangerous, so be sure to apply handbrake first.
2. If you don't want to lift your car, you can park it at top of ditch. Make sure emergency braking is on, wheels are tight and tires are fully secured to road.
3 Let engine run to warm up oil. 2-3 minutes of work is enough for oil to shake up and flow out faster. Solid contaminants tend to settle to bottom in cold oil, and solids can only enter oil when oil is agitated. So let engine run to make sure oil in crankcase is completely drained.
4 Any auto shop will tell you type of oil and oil filter if you tell your car model.
5 Open oil cap. Open hood and locate oil cap located at top of engine. This is where you drain old oil and add new oil, opening it will allow you to drain old oil faster because air can enter when crankcase is empty.
6 Locate oil pan. Locate a flat metal shell on bottom of car, closer to engine than transmission fluid sump. It should have a stud or plug pointing down. This is an oil plug that must be removed before oil can drain. Directly under oil plug, place a container and a few pieces of newspaper to collect old oil.
7 If you can't tell oil pan from transmission fluid pan, run engine for 5-10 minutes. At this point, oil pan will heat up, but transmission fluid pan will not.
8 Oil may get on your hands or clothes during this process. Taking away newspaper is a sensible precaution, otherwise you'll have to clean up a lot of oil stains in your driveway or garage.
9 While you're under car, take a moment to find blue or white cylinder oil filter. Next, you'll replace this thing.
Method 2
1 Change engine oil
2 There may be some cars, such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, whose filter element or ink cartridge is not a simple squeeze type, you need to open built-in fluid reservoir cover and take out filter element.
3 To avoid excessive oil leakage when removing oil filter, you can wrap oil filter in a plastic bag to catch oil that flows out during removal process. When you're done with this job, turn oil filter upside down and put it in a plastic bag to drain used oil.
4 Prepare a new oil filter. Dip your fingertip in new oil and apply it to seal of new oil filter. This will keep seal lubricated, create a good seal, and ensure you can remove it without a problem next time.
5 You can also add some oil to oil filter before installing it. This will shorten time it takes your car to restore proper oil pressure. If your oil filter is mounted vertically it may almost fill up with oil, if it is mounted at an angle some oil will leak out before the filter is screwed in, but not much.
6 Carefully screw in new greased oil filter. Oil filters usually have instructions on how tight to tighten, so see instructions on box for more detailed instructions. In general, you will tighten oil filter until it contacts gasket, then a quarter of a turn.
Method 3
1 Add new oil
2 Close hood. Check car for any tools you may have left behind, then put hood back on.
3 Start engine. Check after starting to make sure oil pressure light is off. Stop car in a parking lot to see if it's dripping and check under car again for leaks. If oil filter or oil plug is not tight enough, it may leak slowly. Let the engine run for a minute to build up pressure and check that everything is installed correctly.
4 Reset oil change indicator. This depends on make and model of your vehicle, so please refer to your vehicle owner's manual for specific setup steps. On most vehicles, following method works: turn off engine, then turn on ignition without starting car. Next, press accelerator three times within ten seconds. The light should reset when backed up.
Method 4
Used oil treatment
1 Pour oil into an airtight container. Now that you've changed oil, it's safest to drain used oil into a permanent container and add it to new container you just emptied. Using a plastic funnel, pour slowly so that oil does not spill. Clearly write "used oil" so as not to confuse it with something else.
2 Make sure oil in oil filter is drained. These oils (sometimes up to 225 grams) can be added to old motor oil. Oil filters are also recyclable, so save them.
3 Locate a used oil collection point in your area. As a rule, in any place where motor oils are sold, there is information about where you can collect used oil. Retailers that sell more than 1,000 oil filters per year must accept used oil filters. Many service stations that do oil changes will also accept your used oil, albeit sometimes for a small fee.
4 Next time you can try recycled oil, that is, oil made from used engine oil that meets same certifications and specifications as new oil. This process requires less energy than refining new oil, so engine oil refining helps reduce need to import oil from overseas. In some cases, recycled oil also costs less than new oil.
Tips
Warning
You need to prepare