vexingv
Senior Member
- First Name
- V
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2023
- Threads
- 13
- Messages
- 148
- Reaction score
- 54
- Location
- Bay Area, CA
- Car(s)
- '24 ITS LCM/Red; '16 BMW M235-xdrive
- Thread starter
- #1
i know the topic of first oil change or break-in oil change is controversial. but an early oil change can't hurt. after nearly ten months of ownership, i only crossed 1,300 miles as i don't drive much and have other vehicles in rotation as well. i found myself with some free time last week and went ahead with the oil change. it was my first time doing so in this car and took me nearly 3 hours (including a quick trip to an auto parts store).
the owner's manual was fairly detailed and helpful. my process:
anyway...biggest takeaways from this first oil change:
1. be prepared with alternate tools/methods to remove the oil filter
2. oil shoots out backwards at first. i guess it makes sense since the drain plug is oriented on the side of the block. i wasn't set up properly as i'm used to drain plugs that are on the bottom surface and thus the oil just drops straight down from there.
3. lift higher than you think you need. at first i didn't life the car high enough, which made sliding underneath and doing any work more challenging. i wound up going back and lifting the car even more. there's a fair amount of work that needs to be done underneath (removing panel, removing oil filter, draining). i'm coming from a BMW with a top mount oil filter, so the only work done underneath is loosening the drain bolt, which is accessible without having to remove any covers or panels.
I attached some pictures below for any of those people who might want some reference in the future as it's not always apparent.
Rear jack point, immediately to the left of the exhaust
ramps to lift front end to slide floor jack:
front center jack point
another look of where the front jack point is located
i could not get the oil filter out using the oil filter cap wrench...
the tool that finally allowed me to undo the factory-installed oil filter
the owner's manual was fairly detailed and helpful. my process:
- warm up car to get the oil flowing
- put the car up on jack stands
- i drove the front tires onto a set of race ramps (from amazon) that gave about 2 inches of lift in the front. then chocked rear wheels. the race ramps allowed me to slide my harbor freight Daytona 3-ton low profile jack to the front center jack point. i have a rubber jackpad adapter for the floor jack saddle that helps minimize scratches. with all that, there wasn't a whole lot of clearance and it was hard to see where the saddle was positioned. so i had to take it slow to line up the jack point and use shorter/shallower pumps to get the car up but was eventually able to get it up high enough
- slide jack stands underneath front pinch welds. i have these magnetic slotted jack pad adapters that fit perfectly into the pinch weld and are hold in place magnetically
- jack rear from the rear jack point. this jack point is to the left of the exhaust. depending on the shape of your floor jack saddle, it may be hard to clear the diffuser or the recessed area. again, the my rubber jackpad on the saddle helped
- slide jack stands under rear pinch welds
- remove aluminum undercover. explained well in the manual. 4x slotted 90-deg pins and 4x Philips head bolts/screws
- pop hood, unscrew engine oil filler cover
- 17mm socket to remove drain plug. the oil came out pretty strong at first and my oil drip pan was not aligned well so i kind of made a mess.
- remove oil filter. this is where i had a big issue. i bought the CTA A265 oil filter cap tool when i was at the dealership picking up the oil filter, but i could not remove the factor filter--the cap tool would slip on the filter oil filter head. i'm not sure if the oil filter was torqued too tightly from the factory or just the tolerances on the oil cap wrench allowed it to slip. i futzed around a bit and couldn't figure out what to do. i then headed to O'Reilly's and found a locking oil-filter plier, which saved the day. not sure what i would have done at that point besides maybe refilling the oil and keeping the old filter in place.
- put new oil filter on; dabbed a little oil on the o-ring/gasket. i used the cap wrench tool and torqued the new filter to 14N-m (about 10 ft-lbs)
- put drain plug with new crush washer; 30 ft-lb torque per the owner manual.
- refilled oil with Liquid Moly Special Tec Asia & America 0w-20, 5.7 liters.
- finally, ran the engine and checked for any leaks before putting the underbody cover on and getting the car back onto the ground.
anyway...biggest takeaways from this first oil change:
1. be prepared with alternate tools/methods to remove the oil filter
2. oil shoots out backwards at first. i guess it makes sense since the drain plug is oriented on the side of the block. i wasn't set up properly as i'm used to drain plugs that are on the bottom surface and thus the oil just drops straight down from there.
3. lift higher than you think you need. at first i didn't life the car high enough, which made sliding underneath and doing any work more challenging. i wound up going back and lifting the car even more. there's a fair amount of work that needs to be done underneath (removing panel, removing oil filter, draining). i'm coming from a BMW with a top mount oil filter, so the only work done underneath is loosening the drain bolt, which is accessible without having to remove any covers or panels.
I attached some pictures below for any of those people who might want some reference in the future as it's not always apparent.
Rear jack point, immediately to the left of the exhaust
ramps to lift front end to slide floor jack:
front center jack point
another look of where the front jack point is located
i could not get the oil filter out using the oil filter cap wrench...
the tool that finally allowed me to undo the factory-installed oil filter
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