Hi I'm Midge and today we are going to try and save you a few quid on your garage bills
by changing your oil at home with nothing but a few simple tools, here is how it's done.
Right, it is important to change your oil atleast every 10,000 miles and to be honest,
you can't do it too frequently.
The most important thing is to get the right oil for your car, same can be said for the
filter.
If you speak to your parts supplier, they will be able to tell you exactly what you
need and how much of it.
When you change your oil make sure you warm up your engine first.
This means the oil will be thinner so it will come out quicker.
Oill goes here in the oil cap so we get that off and then we have to go and jack the car
up.
Check your manufacturers hand book and find out exaclty where you can and where you can't
put a jack.
Get it up in the air and get it on a pair of these, I can't stress enough how easy it
is to drop a car on your head, so use axel stands.
Don't be an idiot, and don't do it while it's on the jack.
First things first, we need to get underneath the car, get off any undertrays and find the
sump plug.
Sump plugs just a little bolt that goes in that hold in all the oil.
Once that's out we can drain the oil.
Just get this undertray off.
Right this is where the job gets a little bit messy, and the thing about oil is that
it can be carcenegenic.
So get yourself some Mitrol gloves and get them on before you start.
All you usually need to get the sump plug out is a box socket or spanner, don't forget
you need an oil tray because it is much better than using your mums washing up bowl.
The reason you use an oil tray is because you want something big enough to catch the
oil.
At first it comes out at an angle so you need to move the tray to make sure you don't get
it all over you drive.
And now we just wait a while for it all to come out.
Hello Mum, yeah fixing the car, whats for dinner, ooooooh!.
On most cars you need to replace this little washer on the sump plug.
On Volkswagons you need a whole new plug, but in any case it is always important to
use a torque wrench so that you don't strip the threads when you are tightening it up.
Get the specified torque from the manufacturer, use a torque wrench, let's go.
To get your oil filter off your car you are going to need to use a specialist tool.
Which one you use is different for different vehicles, it dependds on the access.
Here we have got quite a selection so let's see which one we need.
Right, so here's our oil filter, we need to take this all off.
And for that we use our rather spanky tool, let get that on and give it a quick twist.
It's not too tight.
You can actually do more damage to the engine just by over filling it.
So top tip would be to find out the capacity of the engine and fill up a jug just to that
level.
On the golf it is around four and a half litres so that will do nicely.
Fill up your oil filter before you reinstall it just to stop your engine running dry when
you first start it up.
Also always make sure you always put a little bit of oil around the seal just to lubricate
it before you put it on.
You don't need any tools to put the oil filter back on.
You only have to do it hand tight.
Once we have got the undertray back on it is time to jack the car up, get the axel stands
out and get it on a nice level surface for filling up
the oil.
When you are putting in your new oil, always use a funnel just so you don't make a mess.
If you do spill any clean it up straight away so it is not all down the engine.
Fill your oil up until you have got about a litre to half a litre in the jug and then
you can start checking the dip stick.
Yeah that could do with a bit more, then it is just a case of topping it up and checking
it.
Once you have got the oil level spot on, it is time to put the oil cap back on and turn
the engine over, just so the oil can flow round and get in all the nooks and crannies.
So one last check and it is job done.
Now that is a job anyone can do, but please make sure you get rid of your old oil responsibly,
take it to a governmnet recycling centre.
For more videos, check out silverlinetools.com.