How to Change the Oil in Your Car

1971 was a very busy year. Charles Manson was convicted for his part of the Tate-LaBianca murders. Paul McCartney formed a new band called Wings. A man calling himself DB Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 and then parachuted from the plane with $200,000 in ransom cash. And at Madison Square Garden, Joe Frazier defeated the great Mohammad Ali.

It was also the year of Edwin Washburn.

Now Edwin Washburn was man who, when he retired from the military, finally had the long awaited back surgery he had been putting off. And as Edwin was recuperating he wondered how he would get down under his vehicles to change the oil now that his mobility was limited.

As he was in a tire store, Washburn noticed that there was an outside pit where mechanics could work on campers and RVs. Why couldn’t you do this inside, with cars, and by doing it, drastically reduce the service time? And from this, the very first Jiffy Lube fast oil change shop was created.

Now these shops would have remained simply a few unique stores in Utah if it wasn’t for another character named Jim Hindman.

Jim Hindman was a successful businessman and was also the football coach at Western Maryland College. And during a conversation on tenacity and a hard work ethic, one of his players spoke up.

“That’s great coach, but you already made your million. I’d like to see you make another one.”

So he did. Hindman purchased the first Jiffy Lube from Washburn and began spinning out franchises.

Today there are over 2,000 Jiffy Lube locations, and an additional 800 Valvoline Instant Oil change centers, making the instant oil change shop a solid part of our car maintenance landscape.

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Now this is both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because the instant oil change sites probably extended the life of many cars for drivers who would never change their own oil and who didn’t have the funds or time for the oil change at the dealer. It also made oil changes affordable — if you can avoid the constant up-sell that occurs. But the down side is that now the concept of changing your own oil is right up there with grinding your own meat or making your own clothes since today there are generations of drivers who have never owned a car during a time when you couldn’t pull in during lunch for a fifteen-minute oil change.

But changing the oil in your car will not only save you money, but it is a simple maintenance task that you can master easily.

HOW TO CHANGE THE OIL IN YOUR CAR.

Now here is the first rule. Get yourself a good set of car ramps — those metal ramps you see at Walmart — and never, ever use the car jack.

I mean it. Don’t use the car jack.

That jack that came with your car was meant to lift the vehicle high enough to change your tire during an emergency. It was never designed to lift it up for maintenance. The higher the car goes, the more unstable it is and the easier it is to get hurt — especially if you’re yanking on a stubborn oil filter on an already unstable three-thousand pound vehicle. Also, if you place the car jack in the wrong place you could do some serious damage to your car.

You can get a decent set of ramps for forty bucks that will last you a lifetime so don’t use the car jack for anything other than roadside emergencies.

With that out of the way, let’s cover the 9 steps:

1. Go to an auto parts or department store and get the oil and oil filter for your car — there should be guides there to tell you or it will also be in the car’s owner’s manual. You will also need: a pan to catch the old oil, a socket set, an oil filter wrench — all inexpensive and easily found.

2. Open the hood and remove the oil cap. This will allow the oil from the crankcase to drain easier.

3. Drive the car on the ramps and apply the emergency brake.

4. Drain the oil. Under the car you will see a flat metal pan with a square plug — the perfect size for the end of a socket wrench to fit in. Place the drip pan directly under the plug and remove it, closer to the engine than the transmission. It should have a bolt or plug toward the bottom. This is the oil plug you’ll need to remove to let the oil drain. When the oil has drained completely — and this could take a few minutes — replace the plug.

5. Remove the oil filter. The filter is easy to find and the oil filter wrench will fit right over it. Unscrew it and remove, making sure you take off the rubber gasket of the filter as well.

6. Replace the filter. Dip the tip of your finger in the new oil and run it along the gasket of the new filter — this will help in creating a tighter seal. Screw on the new filter.

7. Add in the new oil.

8. Replace the oil cap.

9. Check. Start the engine and make sure the oil pressure light goes and your oil pressure gauge moves.

And that’s it.

Easy. And a home oil change should cost you around twenty bucks or less for the oil and filter. When oil and filters go on sale — and they always do — purchase them and keep them in your garage until the next oil change.