Originally Posted by
7milesout
Changed the daggone oil (again) last night. 2,235 miles. This is the 4th batch of new oil in the engine. Going to do it 1 last time at 5,000 miles. From that point on, I will stick to the maintenance intervals spec's on the LCD screen.
The oil was darker than I figured it would be. No problems, just darker than I suspected. Oh and it went MUCH better to pull the filter off from the top (quicker / easier). Quicker because I used a 2nd drain bucket under the filter and did that while the sump drained. Thanks for those suggestions from this thread earlier ... I pay attention and listen to good advice!
I had to take my shirt off due to the girth of my arm reaching down to the filter between the engine and radiator. Sharp edges would have ripped my sleeve. The oil change went well until I was topping off the level, and the funnel slipped out the fill hole and dumped a couple ounces. It all mostly spilt down behind the headlight, in front of the service belt area on the under body plastic cover. So not a huge problem, just more reaching down and wiping up as much as I could.
The "filter access" position is, using my left arm, putting my head near the intake tube and snaking my arm down around the radiator hose to get my hand on the filter (for any future readers doing this for themselves). I did have to break it loose with a wrench and cap. It was not easy to find the stud to thread the new filter back on (higher than expected), but after this iteration, I think I could get the next filter started quick and easy.
Use a Baldwin B1431 next time. It's a longer filter than the OEM. No clearance issues but it makes it very easy to access for oil changes. I use this filter on both my Mirage and Outlander Sport.
__________________________________________
View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 automatic: 40.5 mpg (US) ... 17.2 km/L ... 5.8 L/100 km ... 48.6 mpg (Imp)