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Diesel Oil Change DIY - A Few Lessons Learned

33K views 45 replies 24 participants last post by  saxdogg 
#1 ·
I just wanted to pass on a few lessons learned on my first oil change for the diesel. I'm not detailing a step by step oil change, just those "gotchas" specific to the diesel.

I purchased the Pennzoil Ultra Euro L 5w-30 as detailed in the manual. You can get a 6 pack of it on Amazon for $7.93 per quart. For the first change you'll have to buy two unless you want to pay the $11.92 per quart for the individual. Once you have the extras you will only need to buy one case for the next change.
I bought the filter on ebay for $39.95 shipped. This was the cheapest I could find it. That puts the DIY oil change at $103. I think this is about as cheap as you can do it give or take a few bucks.

I was able to crawl under the Jeep with the suspension in the Off-Road 2 setting. It isn't a ton of room, but enough. I also placed some jack stands under the front for safety. It isn't supposed to drop, but if you want to trust your skull to a Jeep computer go ahead.
The drain plug underneath is easy to access as there is a cut-out in the under-tray. Use a 13mm socket to loosen and drain the oil.
Be sure to clean the gasket on the drain plug, mine had some gunk on it:



Once under the hood you'll need to remove some engine parts to get to the filter.
Remove the engine cover by pulling straight up on it:



Then loosen the hose clamp on the intake by the cowl area and unclip the airbox clamps. You can then swing the airbox up and out of the way. I left it attached since the MAF wire has a troublesome little plastic clip on it.



There is a vacuum hose also running directly over the top of the oil filter. You can unclip it by squeezing the connector top and bottom and disconnect it. Then swing it up and out of the way. Connection is at the tip of my screwdriver below:



Use an oil filter socket (or a 1-1/16in socket fit fine) to remove the oil filter canister cap. You will tilt it to the side just a bit and hear the vacuum pressure release. Have a plastic bag handy to drop it into so oil doesn't drip everywhere.



Now here is the biggest lesson I wanted to pass on. There will be a few ounces of oil left in the filter canister. If you drop the new filter and cap back on it is going to overflow as it pushes down. This would have been a huge mess. I used a 60cc syringe to remove the remaining oil.



You will have to pull on the actual filter pretty hard to get it out of the cap. The base of it snaps in. When you put the new one in, be sure it clicks into place. Make sure your new filter comes with a new o-ring (this could be an issue once aftermarket companies start producing them. The Mopar comes with one). Remove the old one from the cap, lubricate the new one with oil and replace. Lubricate the small o-ring on the end of the filter as well.

The new filter and o-ring as it comes out of the box:


Do not over tighten the filter cap since it is plastic. It only takes 25nm.

When I refill an engine with oil I always put in one less unit than the capacity. In this case the capacity is 8 quarts, so I put in 7. I then run the engine at idle for a few minutes to circulate the oil. I shut down and allow the oil to flow down. After a few minutes I will slowly add the last quart of oil checking the dipstick after every 1/4 quart (you'll have to wait a few minutes for the oil to flow down). This is important so you don't overfill, and it was evident with this engine since I only added 7.5 quarts of new oil. Had I just dumped in the whole 8 I would be over capacity. It only takes a few extra minutes to do correctly.

Good Luck.
 
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#46 ·
I just looked again a couple of days ago because it's time to stock up again....looked to me like the 2.5 gal jugs are best because you can get two max with a rebate. Have to get them at Wal-Mart or somewhere, not good price on AmAZON...
 
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