Vibe Oil Change – Wrong Drain Pan
I got out the tools to do an oil change on the Vibe tonight before it rains. 14mm box wrench, oil filter and filter wrench, 3/8″ ratchet and extension. The brand spanking new rino ramps were cut free from their packaging and I was all set to go.
The Vibe is a standard and I drive an automatic every day. I can drive standard — it just isn’t pretty. The rino ramps aren’t that high, only about 8 inches or so but became obstacle number one. I couldn’t get the vehicle up on them since our driveway is sloped too that extra slope made it really hard to get her up on the ramps. Lauren put the car up on them no problem for me.
I found two more oil pans behind the shed when I was digging around back there cleaning up. The one I tried to use is like a jug with a hole and shallow collector reservoir built into the side of the jug. Needless to say once the drain plug came out of the oil pan and the oil started flowing full speed it overflowed the collector edges pretty quickly. I should have used the other oil pan that has a spout and a place to rest the filter on kind of like this one except square with a round ledge built into the catch basin to drain the oil filter. Luckily I had my open round pan near by as I thought that might happen.
Put the drain plug back in after the crank case drained and wiped down the opening – the crush washer was ok to reuse. Moved the drain pan under the oil filter and removed it. Always check for the old gasket to be stuck on the oil filter flange of the engine. Scrape it off with plastic or wood not a screwdriver if the old gasket is still there. I would expect gasket to be left on there if the filter was really hard to get off. Put some clean oil from the jug on the new oil filter gasket and install.
Filled her up with 4.4L of fresh 5W-30 turned her on in neutral for 20 seconds to fill the filter. Checked that everything is holding oil just fine then backed her off the ramps (much easier than driving up) and checked the oil level. I knew the engine and filter takes the full 4.4L but it’s best to check.
That was a $16.48 oil change.
Luckily it started raining as I was figuring out how to use both our vehicles scissor jacks to rotate the tires so I’ll have to do that another day.