Oil Changes for Newbies

Inside your engine, there is oil. Oil is used as both a coolant and a lubricant at the same time. By making things slippery inside the engine, it prevents friction from causing too much heat which might make metal engine parts stick together and self-destruct during the engine operation at 200 degrees. When you pour in new oil, it goes in the oil pan, which is a long metal bowl bolted to the bottom of the engine block. The oil stays there until you start your engine. Then the engine sucks the oil out of the pan and brings it up to lubricate parts.

Because of oil residing in the oil pan, it is always a good idea to let your Jeep warm up after you start it before you try putting it in gear and driving anywhere. Just give it ten seconds or so to suck oil out of the pan and lubricate the engine, and you will put a lot less wear and tear on your Jeep.

Oil for Jeep TJ's should be 10W-30. In some colder climates, 5W-30 oil can be used. 5W-30 is more fluid at cooler temperatures, but in the heat it breaks down faster. So, 5W-30 might be useful for someone in Montana during the Winter to prevent extra engine wear and assist with cold weather starts, but for the most part, 10W-30 is the oil for your engine.

You should change your oil and your oil filter every 3,000 miles. Sometimes, you will meet a car expert who says that this is little more than propaganda for oil sales and filter sales, and that it can go longer. I don't think so. These days, just about everyone is putting their Jeep through a heavy-duty schedule just because of increasing traffic during daily drives or the performance requirements of off-roading. Oil gets dirty as it is used. It is naturally a transparent caramel color as it goes into your engine. After 3,000 miles, when you pull it out, it will be pitch black due to the crud that is in it. That, and no other reason, is what motivates me to change my oil and filter every 3,000 miles - just to get the junk in the oil out of my engine.

You should also check your oil every week or so. Sometimes, oil will leak out of places on a Jeep, and you don't want to be low on oil, because that leads to your engine heating up and being damaged more quickly by normal wear.

It's best if you check your oil levels using the dip stick about ten minutes after it has rested after running at full temperature. Pull out the dipstick, wipe it with a paper towel, reinsert it, pull it back out, and check the oil levels. To be honest with you, I only sometimes find this useful, as usually when I pull the dipstick back out, it gets covered in oil no matter how much is in there, and only sometimes can I get an accurate read after pulling the dipstick several times.

If you are low on oil, you should add a little, and then you should, if at all possible, get the leak fixed. There's little excuse these days for an oil leak in a vehicle. Modern technology allows for very tight tolerances and excellent seals on components, so if your Jeep drips oil, like most cars, it is only because you are not maintaining it very well, in my opinion.

Changing the oil in your Jeep is not difficult, but it is a little messy. You can do this yourself and not only save yourself money, but put better products in your Jeep and know for a fact that the job is done right.

Synthetic Oil

One controversy that rages on and on in automotive circles is the one over synthetic oil. I prefer to run synthetic oil in my Jeep. Why? Synthetic oil has been proven time and again to provide slightly better performance, slightly better gas mileage, and slightly more horsepower. Synthetic oil breaks down more slowly, lubricates more efficiently, and in general does everything that oil needs to do for your engine better than regular oil - also called dino oil.

But synthetic oil costs more than dino oil - a lot more. I use the money I save by not going to my local oil changing shop to purchase excellent synthetic oil at discount prices. Instead of paying $80.00 for an oil change with synthetic, I pay $35.00 to do it myself. I think it is worth it, since oil is the one lubricant that is changed this often and absolutely critical to engine performance and life span.

However, you should realize that synthetic oil does not improve performance dramatically. You will not get 20 more horsepower from your 4 cylinder engine by using it. You might never be able to tell the difference at all. But I remember what one mechanic told me about his experience when he opened up an engine with 300,000 miles on it that had been taken good care of with synthetic oil. He said, "When we opened it up, it looked like new in there. It was beautiful. The parts on the engine that failed had nothing to do with oil. The oil was so good, apparently, that the rest of the engine failed before the parts protected by the oil, because it protected those parts so well, they lived longer than they should have. I always use it." That's what he said.

There are a lot of myths about synthetic oil, however, we should discuss in case you have heard them or run into them later and have doubts.

You cannot switch to dino after you use synthetic. This is wrong. You can switch back and forth between dino oil and synthetic oil any time. You can mix them together in the engine, too. The law requires that any oil produced to SAE specifications, such as 10W-30, perform and work interoperably with any other 10W-30. Switch all you like. It affects nothing. This is just a myth.

You shouldn't use synthetic in your engine until it is broken in. This too is wrong. Some people think that synthetic oil prevents seals from seating properly. This is not true. Synthetic oil that is 10W-30 works just like dino oil that is 10W-30 with the seals in your engines. In fact, several high performance automobiles ship from the factory with synthetic oil in them before they have ever been started. You can use synthetic oil from day one.

Besides, the concept of a break in period for an engine is largely a myth anyway. Engines today are not pre-loaded with the old "break in oil" like they used to be. This oil had filings or some such in it that was supposed to help the engine break in faster. Then, after just a few miles, you would change out this oil after the engine was broken in. Engines today are not so sloppily created, and they really don't need a break-in period or a break in oil.

There are also some myths about how great synthetic oil is that are not true.

You can leave synthetic oil unchanged for 12,000 miles. The reasoning behind this is that synethic oil takes longer to break down and lose its friction-preventing power. While it is true that synthetic oil lasts longer, I still think you should change your oil and your filter every 3,000 miles, even if they don't need it yet. Why? When you change your oil, you are only spending around $35.00 to do it even if you buy the top of the line filter and oil. I spend that much on a tank of gasoline these days, and I have to fill up my Jeep every three days, so the oil change interval has no financial impact on me. In the meantime, I like the frequent peeks under the hood and under the chassis that give me a chance to find out if anything else is going wrong. The last time I changed my oil, I found that my transmission cooling hose had come off the radiator and I had leaked tranny fluid. If I were changing my oil every 12,000 miles, I would have lost a lot more fluid and maybe burned up my transmission.

Every 3,000 miles is a good rule of thumb for oil changes. They take a half hour, they get you under the hood and under the Jeep, the oil change at this interval involves no risk at all, and it only costs $35.00. Every 3,000 miles for me.

I can feel the increased performance from synethetic oil. No, you can't. Any gains are small. Over time, they are significant to the life of the engine, I believe, but not immediate rip-roaring gains so that your Jeep drives faster or chews up mud more powerfully.

You can use synthetic oil in your engine, as long as you aren't confused by some myths about it that people pass around. I use synthetic oil in my engine, and I change my oil and my oil filter every 3,000 miles.

Oil Filters

When you drain the oil out of your engine to change it, you should also replace the oil filter. That's not a big deal on a Jeep Wrangler TJ, because you just reach in with your left hand and turn the thing until it pops off and then clean up the mess from the oil that comes out of it. Then you put on a new oil filter.

Just like oil, not all oil filters are created equal. One of the dumbest things you can do when doing your own oil change is go out and buy the least expensive oil filter can find! What the heck are you thinking? Get a good one! There are various studies performed on oil filters that involved cutting them open and looking at how they are constructed. See the reading assignments at the bottom of this page for links to them.

You want a high quality, heavy duty oil filter on your Jeep that does a great job of filtering oil without getting plugged up. While I no of no evidence that anyone has ever had their engine up and die specifically because the oil filter they were using was a cheap piece of crap, I have read that some people have pulled cheap filters off of their cars and found them to be plugged up because they were poorly constructed.

I recommend for your Jeep the Mobil 1 oil filter. It is heavy duty, and on average, filters as oil as anything else out there. It is a little more expensive, and a little more difficult to find, but I have had really good luck with them. Never are they gunked up or looking funny. The gasket never comes off, the insides never look like they have been damaged or worn. It's a great oil filter. The Purolater Pure One is also a great oil filter.

What isn't a good oil filter? Well, it's hard to say. Many different brands of oil filter are out there, but most of them are made by the same few companies and are re-branded for retail sale. The worst of all filters are the less expensive FRAM filters, in my opinion. Rather than metal end caps and heavy duty construction with carefully pleated filtering material, these have poorly pleated cheap material with cardboard end pieces. I think FRAM filters are crummy filters made in the old-fashioned American way: badly. I think you should avoid them.

The Kids that Change Oil at Ultra-Mega Lube

While you are avoiding FRAM oil filters and deciding upon dino or synthetic oil, you might start thinking, "Man, this is going to be dirty work, take a half our, I'm scared I'll break something, and I could just pull into some ten minute oil change shop and have teenagers do this for me cheap and really fast.

ROTFL!

No, you do not want to do that. There are a number of reasons you don't want to ever leave your Jeep in the hands of the kids that work in these fast oil change shops.

1. Employees are not mechanics. If these guys really knew anything about cars, they would be actual mechanics working in an auto shop, not changing oil in a quickie lube type place. You don't want the kind of people who look for work in a ten minute oil change shop to be in charge of your Jeep's oil changes. Only you, the owner, cares enough to do this right. If you refuse to do it yourself, then take it to a real mechanic, since they usually don't have higher prices anyway.
   
   
2. Foolish overeliance on techno-dolts to properly use a computer. These guys operate by entering your vehicle into their computer and getting instructions back as to what kind of oil to use and how much. When they could not find my car, they just made up some BS and stuck whatever they guessed was the right thing in there. Sometimes if they already gathered my information from me, then they just look at what's in there, even if what they have is a different vehicle than what I bourght them. I've watched them try to put on the wrong filter and put in the wrong amounts and type of oil becuase I brought in my wife's car and they never even compared the actual car to the record in the computer. Do you trust these guys to do your oil changes? I don't.
   
   
3. Crummy Parts and Oil. Do you like deep-discount recycled oil in your Jeep? Then take it to the ten minute oil change. They just squirt stuff from their huge tank using a long hose with a nozzle on the end. Where do they get it? Wherever it is dirt cheap. Is it good oil? They have ads for good oil everywhere. Yeah, I'm sure that these guys get the best oil money can buy instead of taking you to the cleaners. Right. The oil filters they use? The kind that clog up. Some oil change shops specialize in high quality parts and oil - and they charge a fortune for an oil change and still change your oil too fast, in my opinion.
   
   
4. You cannot change oil in ten minutes. It takes at least 20 minutes for your oil pan to properly drain. If they change your oil in ten minutes, then they did not drain it thoroughly, and your engine still has dirty oil in it, and then they added too much on top of it. Just what you needed in your Jeep, right? Some say there is only part of a quart left if you drain it for only ten minutes. I prefer to get that last out of there. I think of it like the spit at the bottom of a soft drink bottle - it's the worst part.
   
   
5. Damaged Vehicle Parts. These guys might get in a hurry and use power tools to put in the drain plug and strip the threads in the oil pan, leading to an oil leak until you spend $500 to have your oil pan and drain plug totally replaced on your engine. Or they might leave out the plug and let you drive home without oil in the engine. Or they could damage the plug and grab one not designed for your engine and stick it in the hole without telling you. They will not carefully treat the parts as if they personally are responsible for them. They just don't care, and your Jeep comes back worse than it went in. They don't love your Jeep - you do. You will always be more careful not to break things than they will, no matter how skilled they are.
   
   
6. My oil change horror story. My personal experience should be enough to dissuade you from ever taking your beautiful Jeep Wrangler TJ to these fools to change your oil.
   
   

My Ten Minute Oil Change Horror Story

Before this story happened, I had a string of bad experiences at the local ten minute oil change shops. I came home one day dripping oil from the oil pan because the drain plug wasn't even screwed on all the way. Once they put in 5W-30 instead of 10W-30 (not a big deal), and when they handed me my receipt, I asked them to refill it with 10W-30, which is what I asked them to put in. They refused, and then claimed they did use 10W-30, but the receipt was wrong. They just made up whatever lie got me out of there becuase they figured the kind of oil wasn't really that important, and who cares what kind is in there.

They may have been right that it wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't worth lying over.

They pulled some other stunts too, such as charging me for the full service even though they did nothing but change my oil. But this story was the final straw. It took a lot to convince me that I wanted to learn anything about my cars. I knew that once I started learning how they worked I would never stop learning and would be paranoid for anyone but me to work on it for the rest of my life. But finally, they just went too far.

I used to own an F-150. I always took it to the local oil change joint up the street to have the oil changed. As time went by, the engine ran worse and worse, even though the oil was changed regularly? Why? Bad oil, bad filters, bad people not doing the full job. I learned this the hard way - I brought my Jeep to them for its first oil change at 3,000 miles.

I went next door and ate while they worked on it, then walked back to see how they were doing. They were fighting the oil filter, having trouble getting it on. They tried and tried, and could not get the thing to attach. Why not? Watched them break three filters, and then I looked at their computer read out. They were looking at my records for my F-150.

So, they were trying to screw the wrong oil filter on my Jeep. I said, "Guys, this is not an F-150. Maybe you should get the right filter.

They got a different filter, and it screwed right on. I was lucky that they hadn't cross-threaded the filter mount on the engine block and destroyed my new Jeep's engine right there at its first oil change. They all laughed and thought it was hilarious. Then one of them told me about how just last week, they themselves had put the wrong filter on someone's car, and that the guy got down the road, and the filter exploded off of the engine and ricocheted around under the hood, with oil shooting out everywhere. He said, in a redneck twang that was hard on the ears of even me, a die-hard Southerner, "We had ta buy him a new enjun!"

They all thought this was comforting to me, I guess.

They then put everything back together and handed it back to me. Of course, they charged me for the highest level of service, which supposedly includes vaccuming, which they didn't do, window washing, which they did not do, and a host of other things, which they did not do. $39.95 out the window.

I got down the street, maybe 1/4 mile, and then smoke started pouring out of the engine. I had an instant panic attack. My engine was on fire! I new absolutely nothing about cars at this time, so I didn't think to check anything. I pulled over, praying that I had not just trashed a brand new Jeep that I was quickly falling in love with.

I ran back to their store, and I went in and said, "My Jeep is on fire down the street!" Two of them piled in a pick up truck and drove down to it to look at it. They came back with it and told me it had oil all over the exhaust manifold and everywhere else, and that the oil was burning off.

Before they told me that, I was remembering the battle with the wrong oil filters, and thinking that maybe they had forgotten to even put oil in it. But, they washed it off, and it was fine.

After I calmed down, I resolved to stop being powerless over my vehicle, which is fully in my circle of control, and instead to get off my prissy butt and learn to change my own oil so that those creeps would never get their hands on it again.

To their credit, they were apologetic and offered me a refund and two free oil changes. But customer service was not the issue. The problem was that they tried to destroy my Jeep right in front of me, thought it was funny, and then sent me away to have billows of smoke pour out from under the hood.

I immediately went online and started finding out how to maintenance my own vehicle, and I've been doing my own service ever since, mostly due to help from the people at JeepForum.com.

If that doesn't convince you to stop letting amateurs change your oil, then nothing will. Hopefully, you are now more determined than ever to do this job on your own from here on out, and never look back to Ten Minute Oil Change Dependency Syndrome.

Required Tools

Let's get down to business.

Ratchet Wrench. 3/8" is fine for this job. You will also need a 16mm socket. I got my first set at Walmart for $15.00. It came with little, cheap sockets that have lasted two years so far, a ratchet wrench, and other little tools and has been quite handy.

Oil Catch Pan. Autozone and Walmart both sell these big, plastic pans to catch oil in. After you drain your engine into the pan, fill up your Jeep with fresh oil, you can drain the dirty oil back into the empty containers from the new oil. Then carry those bottles back to AutoZone to dump in their oil recycle tank.

Oil. I buy my Mobil 1 oil at Walmart for $20.00 for 5 quarts and $4.00 for one more quart. Your Jeep's 4.0L I-6 engine takes 6 quarts of oil according to the owner's manual, the factory service manual, and my favorite mechanic, Ben.

Oil Filter. I buy my Mobil 1 filter at AutoZone because Walmart is too stupid to carry them and instead has walls of crummy Fram filters sitting right next to the magnificence of Mobil 1 oil goodness. Why, oh why, Walmart? WHY?!?

Some of the stuff you might need for an oil change - M1-204 filter, 6 quarts of 10W-30 oil, a ratchet wrench with a 16mm socket, and a funnel.

Two Editions of Your Favorite Leftist Rag. I use two weekday editions of the Atlanta Journal Constitution for my newspaper needs. The AJC is terribly biased in favor of any socialist agenda they can find, and being resentful of this, I enjoy using the paper for my oil drip cloth around the oil pan. Yes, newspaper is essential. Without it, you will get oil on the driveway, and it never comes out. Spread it out far and wide. Whereever there is not newspaper, that is where you will spill a quart of oil.

Paper towels or shop cloths. For wiping all of the oil off your hands. There is no stopping it.

You will defnitely need an oil pan that will cover a large area and hold the drained oil like a big bottle. And you will need a lot of newspaper - preferably a newspaper which you find to be biased and disagreeable. I always use the revolting Atlanta Urinal and Constipation. Take that, Cynthia Tucker.

The splatter was caused by my jerking my hand back trying to avoid the splash... too late! Use lots of newspaper on your driveway.

A Clean Funnel. Not some crummy funnel that has dirt and muck in it. A pristine, clean, shiny, beautiful funnel. We want our engine to be nice and tidy on the inside with clean oil. We do not want the new oil to carry in sand and grit from the inside of a dirty funnel, do we?

Torque Wrench. I recommend a small one that has a shortish handle, but any will do that can measure down to 20 ft-lbs. You will need this to replace the drain plug properly and know it is on there good without being damaged.

Bolt Size & Torque Specifications

Bolt	Size	Torque
Oil Drain Plug	16mm	20 ft-lb
Oil Filter	N/A	Hand Tighten
Oil Fill Cap	N/A	Hand tighten until it clicks locked

Changing Your Oil

1. Park on a level surface and set the parking brake after putting transmission in "Park". Before you start this exercise, your Jeep should be cooling down from having been operated up to a temperature. You can start it and allow it to idle up to around 150 degrees or more then shut it off, leave it for 10 minutes, and then start the process. Or you can wait a while after having driven it at full temperature. You might also block your wheels as long as you will be under there. Hey, I'm all about safety.

2. Spread newspaper under your Jeep's oil pan from one wheel to the other and all the way up to the front bumper.

3. Open the fill cap. The Murphy's Law for fluid changes says that after you have drained a fluid from your Jeep, the fill cap will not come off and your vehicle will be totally disabled. ALWAYS TEST THE FILL CAP BEFORE OPENING THE DRAIN. This is why your Jeep cannot be at 210 degrees Farenheit when you change the oil. The fill cap is designed to not open until the engine has cooled significantly. You won't be able to get it off. Don't force it, or it will explode and plastic shards will go into your engine, and you will have to get it towed in. Yes, someone actually did this. One thing I have on my to-do list is to get a replacement fill cap without this silly "feature."

4. Place plastic catch bin under drain plug. The catch pan needs to be big, because oil will splash at first, then come out in a powerful stream, and then drip straight down. And, if there is a breeze, it will blow left and right. Get a nice, huge pan to catch it in.

5. Open Drain Plug with 16mm socket wrench. You will turn it and turn it with your hand before oil suddenly shoots out and gets all over your hand. And, you will drop the plug in the dirty oil. It happens every time. Two warnings here:

OIL MAY BE HOT! Don't drain your oil when the engine is at 210 degrees, or you will fry your hand when the oil comes out. Let the engine cool a little.

WATCH OUT FOR HOT ENGINE PARTS! In particular, I would warn you against the 3rd degree burn I got from the exhaust manifold. It is the silver pipe running under the oil filter from front to back. Touch that thing when it is hot, and your skin will come off and stick to the pipe and fry in front of your eyes. Mine actually caught fire and burned away right in front of me. I will always have a scar. So, be careful what you touch while wrestling under your Jeep.

6. Allow oil to drain for at least 20 minutes. Go inside, drink some water, put oily hand prints on your girlfriend or wife, and strut around like the magnificent peacock you now know yourself to be. Snort and and scratch triumphantly.

7. Replace drain plug. This is important, because if you forget this step, all of the new oil will pour out of the bottom of the engine when you put it in, and your Jeep will be disabled.

Screw in the plug after the oil draining out slows to a slow drip-drip-drip. If it is a thin stream, let it finish. Be patient.

Finger tighten the plug. Then get out a torque wrench and wrench it down to 20 ft-lbs (2003-2005 Jeep Wrangler TJ torque specification - check your factory service manual for the correct torque for yours).

8. Move the oil catch pan. Put it under the oil filter now that your Jeep's drain is plugged. You're going to pull off the filter and put on a new one. Oil will come out when you do this.

Be careful! Watch out for hot things, battery posts, alternator cable connections, and other things that are really hot or have electricity in them.

9. Reach in and unscrew the filter. You should be able to do this by hand. I have never needed an oil wrench. If your hands are greasy, wash them, or put on gloves, and then try to unscrew it. When it pops off, oil comes out and you might startle and drop the filter into the pan. LOL! That's OK. You're done with that filter. Make sure the rubber gasket came off with the filter and isn't still stuck to your Jeep. If you had a crummy filter on their before, it might have come off.

I have always been able to hand turn my filters on and off in my Jeep Wrangler TJ 4.0L I-6. You might need an oil wrench if you put it on too tight, but as long as the filter and your hands aren't greasy, you can probably do this by hand.

10. Clean up the mess. Get a shop towel or paper towels and get the oil that spilled off of your engine block or it will smoke and burn when you start your engine. Be careful of wiping hot things, like the exhaust manifold, which will be really, really hot.

11. Open the quart bottle of oil and pour into bottle cap. You will put this oil on the new oil filter.

12. Open the oil filter, and lubricate the rubber gasket. Stick your finger into the bottle cap of new oil, and rub oil onto the rubber gasket on the new oil filter. This oil will help the gasket get a good seal on when you screw it to the block.

Put a little oil on the gasket of the new filter to assure a good seal and that you can hand turn that last turn.

13. Install new filter. Hand tighten it until it is hard to turn. That's far enough. It doesn't have to be on to tight it will not turn any more. As soon as it resists really hard, you're done.

14. Pour in new oil. Stick the funnel into the oil fill hole, and pour in the oil - not too fast. Pour in six quarts (4.0L Jeep TJ)

You'd be surprised how many idiots do this without using a funnel, which means that some oil gets on the dirty valve cover, and then drips into the engine core, and some oil always spills. Use a funnel. They cost less than a dollar at Walmart.

15. Close the oil fill cap. Screw back in the oil fill cap, clear away all paper towels, funnels, bottles, and anything else, close the hood, and go start your Jeep. You are done, my friend.

16. You are not done. Take your dirty oil in the container to Autozone or some other auto center to dump it in their recycle bin. If they sell oil, they are required by law to provide a way to recycle it. Never pour oil down the drain, in a sewer, in standing water, or anywhere other than an approved recycle station. Oil is poison to the environment, and Jeep drivers TREAD LIGHTLY to preserve the environment we love to ride topless through.

WAY TO GO! You just did something really cool! For about $35.00, you gave yourself an $80.00 or more expensive oil change. Unlike the crummy place you were planning to take your Jeep, you didn't have to talk to a kid about replacing your air filter or getting your transmission flushed by amateurs, nor did you have to pay someone for a bad job washing windows and vacuuming. Also, you know the right filter is on there, it is on there good, and the right amount of the right kind of oil is in there.

Now that you can do this, I predict in the future you will have a hard time letting someone else work on your Jeep, and you will find yourself doing more and more for yourself!

OH NO!

Sometimes things go wrong...

Oil is dripping from fill plug. Maybe you didn't torque it enough. Maybe it is the wrong plug. Maybe it is damaged. Maybe oil is leaking from higher up and just hitting the plug before it drips off the pan. Get a new plug from a Jeep stealership, and change your oil (but not your filter) again right away if this is the case.

I put in more than 6 quarts. This is not better. Only fill it the correct amount and no more. If you did this, buy more oil, drain all oil out, replace the plug, and then refill with only six quarts of oil. There is no need to replace the filter if you do this.

I drained it and the fill cap won't come off. You dumbass! Don't you read? I told you to open the fill cap before you drained it. You have to wait for it to cool enough before you can open it. This might take an hour or more.

I broke my fill cap and pieces are inside the engine. Have it towed to a mechanic and DO NOT START YOUR ENGINE unless you like buying new engines.

I hate the fill cap! Yep, me too. Get a replacement at an auto parts store if you don't like waiting for it to cool down before it will open. Of course, then you will be able to scald yourself with boiling oil by draining it when it is too hot to handle. Yes, you will get oil on you, so don't think this is necessarily a good thing. That fill cap is annoying, but it does have a safety factor attached to it.

I put in the wrong oil. Drain and refill. Do not drive it until it you replace the oil.

I put on a Fram filter and used $1.00 per 5 quart bottle of oil. Ignorance is a temporary condition that exists in the absence of experience. There is, unfortunately, no cure for stupid.

Fumoto and Other Drain Valves

There is a valve you can buy to replace the drain plug on your oil pan. It basically allows you to attach a hose to it to drain oil more cleanly into a bottle and to open the valve cleanly without having to pull the plug. I do not like these valves. I ran a Fumoto valve on my oil pan for 15,000 miles, and then I removed it. The reason?

The valve screwed into the drain hole, and some of it stuck out inside the oil pan, thereby preventing the bottom layer of oil to ever drain. And the bottom of the oil pan is the dirtiest oil of all! When I removed this plug, the oil made a bigger mess, but more came out, and it drained more quickly. Also, the valve sticks out and could get caught on something off-roading and break off, causing you to lose all of your oil. That's not only nasty for Mother Earth, that disables your Jeep or destroys your engine if you don't know it happened.

Some people like these valves because they help them get around engine skids and save them a lot of reaching and straining to change their oil. I don't blame them for not liking the hassle, but the valve is, imo, a bigger risk than it is a help. Stick with the plug.

Snake Oil

Motor oil additives that you pour into your engine along with the oil serve no purpose other than to get you to pay more money for them. Do not bother with putting additives in your motor oil. If you are concerned about better motor oil and want to waste your money, get an expensive synthetic oil, which actually will have at least an extremely remote chance of bringing some benefits for your engine under extreme conditions beyond that of regular oil. Additives are a rip off, by in large.

Feedback

Matt writes:

Hey there, I just read your article on oil change. It was very good... Cracked me up and explained everything in detail. I appreciate the help. With all the garbage out there on the internet it is a relief to find some actual helpful info. Thanks

Tom writes:

Dear US41, My warranty recently ran out on my 2005 TJ, which I've owned since it was born. Under the warranty plan, the stealership did free oil changes for me while it was active. So, needless to say, I took advantage of it. However, since my warranty has expired, I've decided it's finally time to play! I joined the Jeep forum earlier this week and found your site through them. I love it! I just finished dropping 6 quarts of pristine Mobil 1 Synthetic into my TJ for my first successfully completed oil change. I feel like Clint Eastwood. I've already found myself searching through your site for another mini-project. Your instructions are clear, concise, and entertaining. I've almost read everything on your site and I'm still wanting more. As an English major, I will say that you are a terrific writer. Hopefully, that didn't sound too conceited. My opinion is a humble being. Your views on contested topics (i.e. body lifts) are objective, well-defended, and well-researched. Did I mention you're funny as hell? Anyways, I'm rambling. I love your site. Keep up the good work. Best wishes, etc. Your newest patron, Tom

Reading Assignments

Oil Filter Overview will educate you as to why you might want to avoid buying a FRAM oil filter, or why you might want to purchase a Mobil 1 or other oil filter that is higher quality. There is no hard science here, but it's about as close as anyone has come.

Myths about Synthetic Oil. Read this to learn more about the common myths surrounding the use of synthetic oil.

ExxonMobil article about synthetic oil. Biased? You bet. Accurate information? Yes it is. Many myths are dispelled here in this article from a company that, if it misspoke on this issue, would be legally vulnerable to all kinds of lawsuits.

Snake Oil. An article that explains why you probably don't want to be putting any additives in your motor oil - ever. This article gets reprinted a lot on the Internet.