Changing Your Oil: How To Change Your Engine Oil?

Changing your oil is not a complicated job, and by following these steps, you should be able to do the job yourself without needing a mechanic:

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• Step #1: Jack up your vehicle
• Step #2: Drain the old oil
• Step #3: Remove the old oil filter
• Step #4: Insert the new filter and close the drain plug
• Step #5: Add the required amount of oil
• Step #6: Check the oil level and look for any signs of leaks

Your car requires a lot of fluids to work properly, and without the right amount of fluids, your vehicle deals with significant internal problems that could cost you thousands of dollars. Therefore, you must maintain the right level of fluids in your vehicle and change these fluids between now and then to make sure that they work properly and still have the required characteristics.

An oil change is the most common type of maintenance that you need to keep up with to prevent engine damage is related to overheating. Since oil change is not a complicated job, many drivers prefer to save on labor costs through the job themselves.

This article provides you with a step-by-step procedure for changing your oil without needing a mechanic. It also highlights some additional information that you need to be familiar with related to your motor oil.

Why does your engine need an oil change?

Before we get into the details about changing your oil, let's take a closer look at why your engine needs an oil change in the first place. Your vehicle's engine relies on the oil to lubricate internal components and prevent engine overheating that could damage the engine.

Over time of use, oil breaks down. As a result, it loses its capabilities of lubricating the engine and might lead to significant engine overheating that could cost you thousands of dollars under pairs. Therefore, depending on the type of oil and new engine performance, you might need to change your oil occasionally.

Some good oils might not require replacement up to 15,000 miles. However, if you relied on the cheap conventional oil, you would need to replace it at least once every 5000 miles, if not 3000 miles, in certain instances.

Therefore, if you're concerned about these frequent oil changes, we advise that you choose a specific type of engine oil that does not require regular changes but keep in mind that these oils might be more expensive and might not be compatible with your engine. Thus, you must consult with your mechanic and confirm whether you can choose a higher quality type of engine oil.

Changing your oil: how to change your engine oil?

Since changing oil is critical maintenance and ignoring it might lead to significant engine damage is, you must get an idea about how to change your engine oil by yourself. This way, you can save on labor costs.

The good news is that changing your oil is not a complicated job, which means that you can do it yourself easily without worrying about introducing mistakes that could cost you money on vehicle problems. However, you must familiarize yourself with the process very well before attempting to change your oil so you don't deal with other complications that might cost you more than the labor costs for an oil change.

Let's take a closer look at the step by step procedure on how to change your engine oil:

1. Step #1: Jack up your vehicle

The first step in changing your oil requires raising your vehicle using a Jack and Jack stand. Since you'll be working underneath your car to drain the old oil, your vehicle must be securely jacked up without any risk of falling.

Jacking up your vehicle requires certain skill sets, and there are plenty of available youtube videos and other articles that walk you through a step-by-step procedure on how to Jack up your vehicle.

2. Step #2: drain the old oil

Once the vehicle is raised, it's time to locate the drain plug and drain the old oil. If you find it challenging to locate the drain plug, always refer to your vehicle's owner’s manual to get an idea about where it's located exactly.

Before removing the drain plug, you must put a bucket underneath the vehicle to collect all the old oil and prevent it from missing the ground or contaminating the soil.

The drain plug doesn't require a lot of force to be taken out. In other words, you can easily unscrew it by yourself and allow the old oil to drain inside the buckets. That's why it's very critical whenever you perform an oil change, never over to tighten the drain plug so you can allow an easy oil change the next time.

3. Step #3: Remove the old oil filter

The third step is extremely critical, which involves removing the old oil filter. Unfortunately, many inexperienced mechanics and drivers might forget about removing the oil filter, which leads to significant troubles in the system and requires an assistant from a professional mechanic with a better experience.

Therefore, once you completely drain the old oil, the next step is to locate where the oil filter is and move the bucket underneath the area because there might be some old oil around the oil filter as you're taking it out.

Removing the old oil filter is not very complicated. You could easily take it out or use any simple tool to help you remove the filter without damaging the surrounding components.

4. Step #4: Insert the new filter and close the drain plug

Once the old filter is removed, the next step is to compare the current filter with a new one because you don't accidentally install the wrong fieldwork. After confirming the right filter, you can go ahead and insert it in the right place after lubricating it with a little bit of engine oil. Then, go ahead and close out the drain plug to prepare your vehicle for the new oil.

As we indicated earlier, you must never overtighten the drain plug, so someone else can take it out next time you want to perform an oil change.

5. Step #5: add the required amount of oil

Once everything is set, you can go ahead and pour the required amount of oil into the oil reservoir. But, again, you must refer to your vehicle's owner’s manual to get an idea about how much oil you need to add, and it's critical to get an idea about what type of oil is required by your vehicle.

For instance, if you're driving a modern car, you were most likely required to add synthetic oil. However, driving older vehicles might not necessarily require synthetic oil, and it's the other way around because if you add synthetic oil to older engines, you might cause damages. Whatever your owner’s manual specifications require, you should follow.

6. Step #6: Check the oil level and look for any signs of leaks

After adding oil, you must use the dipstick to check how much oil you added and confirm that it's within what is specified in your vehicle's owner’s manual. Also, make sure that you look again at the drain plug and some other connections locations to inspect for any signs of leaks. An oil leak is never a good thing and might lead to significant engine damage if not detected and fixed immediately.

Oil might leak because of a loose drain plug or because of our place oil filter. Therefore, take a closer look at these locations and ensure no oil is dripping on the floor.

What are the different types of engine oil?

It's critical to learn how to change your vehicle's oil, but also, it's as important to learn about the different types of engine oil available in the markets. Every oil comes with its characteristics and has its price as well.

1. Conventional oil

Conventional oil is the most common type of oil that is the basic one that provides you with the required characteristics to cool down your engine and lubricate the internal components. Although this conventional oil is not expensive and is affordable by most drivers, it requires more frequent replacement because it breaks down fast and might not have the top additives that help extend the lifetime of your car.

2. Synthetic oil

Synthetic oil is the most advanced in High-quality engine oil that you might encounter. It not only extends the lifetime of your car, but it might also come with certain additives to help prevent oxidation and corrosion that could impact your engine's performance.

Although synthetic oil comes with great characteristics, it has one drawback, which has a cost. Synthetic oil is much more expensive than conventional oil, so not every driver can afford it.

Furthermore, synthetic oil might not be compatible with every vehicle, especially if you're driving a car with an old engine. Since synthetic oil comes with additives to prevent oxidation and remove sludge buildup, it might damage weak seals in older engines, which means that it's not recommended if you're driving an old car.

3. Synthetic blend oil

Synthetic blend oil is somewhere between both synthetic and conventional oil. It provides with great culture six closer to the synthetic oil but not as good. However, it comes at a much lower price than synthetic oil, which means a great sweet spot for drivers who would like high-quality oil without worrying about expensive costs.

How much does an oil change cost?

Oil change cost varies significantly depending on your vehicle type and the type of oil we've decided to go with. The difficulty, conventional oil costs somewhere between $35 and $75. However, if you plan to go with synthetic oil, you might need to expect somewhere between $65 and $125.

Is changing your oil worth it?

Although it's obvious that changing your vehicle's oil is not a complicated tale, some experts argue that it's not worth your effort because changing your oil at a professional shop might not be very expensive.

That's why in some scenarios, you might want to consider having a professional with advanced mechanical skill sets perform the oil change for you, especially if you are not interested in learning how to change your vehicle's oil.

Conclusion

Your vehicle's oil is a critical component, and without it, your engine deals with overheating that could damage the internal components in no time. Therefore, you must maintain the right amount of oil in your engine and change the oil occasionally depending on the type of oil and your vehicle owner’s manual.

Changing your oil is not a complicated job, and this article provided you with a sub by step procedure on how to change your engine oil without needing a mechanic. The procedure is a very straightforward procedure, which means that you should be able to pick it up in no time. Furthermore, once you learn how to change your oil one time, it should be very easy the next time you perform an oil change.

Keep in mind that no matter how much you keep up with oil changes, your engine might deal with significant damages because of other problems. When that happens, it might be worth considering selling your car and using its money to purchase a better vehicle, especially if repair costs piled up and approached 75% or more from your vehicle's value.

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