Oil change, axle stands and gradient

[pothole]

If I'm doing an oil change at home, am I OK to only jack the rear up and do it with the resulting gradient or does the car need to be pretty level to drain properly?

Thanks

[Spinnaker]

All of the instructions I have seen say the car must be level to drain properly. You also need to wait 30 minutes for it to drain completely.

[pothole]

Yeah, I always leave it to drain for an hour or two. Didn't think I'd get away without having it level, to be honest.

[ChrisZang]

how about you do us all a favor and do the following experiment:

step 1: Jack up only the rear and drain the oil for let's say 30 min
step 2: Now jack up the front and get the car level and see if there's enough oil coming out (that was "trapped") to make a call if it's worth having the car level

I think we all would like to know that

[san rensho]

Just jack up the rear end, remove the drain plug, then lower the car back to the ground and all the oil will drain out.

[Burg Boxster]

Please don't get under the car if it's only on a jack... use properly rated jack stands b/c you never know when a hydraulic jack WILL fail.

Then just follow san resho's tip - it's the easiest way w/o a lift. Also, be careful to not drop your drain plug into the catch pan (unless you have a separating grate) and oh yeah, make sure your catch container can hold at least 10 quarts/liters b/c you'll never get the drain plug back in should it over flow

Good luck

[Idaho Red Rocket 3]

Come on guys. We don't need to be this anal. Jacked up, lifted, or just on ramps. What comes out is enough. A ten minute drain is more than adequate. I do mine on ramps. I still have to put 9+ quarts in it to fill it.

[Jager]

I'm with Idaho Red on this. Check the oil level while the car is level and don't over-fill... I believe over filling with oil is one of the leading causes to AOS failure.

[recycledsixtie]

Originally Posted by Idaho Red Rocket 3

Come on guys. We don't need to be this anal. Jacked up, lifted, or just on ramps. What comes out is enough. A ten minute drain is more than adequate. I do mine on ramps. I still have to put 9+ quarts in it to fill it.

I can identify with u Idaho Red because I had to put a new IMS Guardian pigtail drain plug in and had just bought some Canadian Tire ramps(it says on the box it can takes 6000 lb load). My garage was going to charge me $140Can. to put the plug in. Pelican Parts Boxster 101 book was a big help. Of course I got some oil on the garage floor but I lost about 2 qts. removing standard plug, and juggling around getting the crush ring off the old plug and putting it on the new one. As regards doing an oil change which I dont need yet, it is good to know that only a few ounces of oil is left if u drain oil while the rear wheels being on a ramp. However jack stands may be in my future. It is good to know that there are non anal people around like yourself!:dance::dance::dance:I thank u all for the info.

[Joel-Box-ster]

When I did mine I only jack up the driver side rear and while it was draining I lowered it even level to fully drain, put new oil filter and 9 quarts of oil, perfect fill right on the second notch of dipstick.

[Mark_T]

"and juggling around getting the crush ring off the old plug and putting it on the new one."

You re-used the crush ring?

[pothole]

Originally Posted by Burg Boxster

Please don't get under the car if it's only on a jack... use properly rated jack stands b/c you never know when a hydraulic jack WILL fail.

Then just follow san resho's tip - it's the easiest way w/o a lift. Also, be careful to not drop your drain plug into the catch pan (unless you have a separating grate) and oh yeah, make sure your catch container can hold at least 10 quarts/liters b/c you'll never get the drain plug back in should it over flow

Good luck

Thanks Burg, I have a full set of stands - though two of them are at my parent's house, which is part of the reason for the query.

[thstone]

On almost every job there are corners that can be cut to make things easier without sacrificing much and raising only the rear is one of them. But its best if the car is level.

And all you need is several mins to drain. After that there's nothing more than a few ounces left in the pan at most (as proven when I dropped my oil pan to install a racing baffle and hardly any oil was left in there).