Okay, I did it; decided to get my hands dirty, roll up my sleeves, and change the oil in our '07 LTZ (5.3L Flex). I changed to synthetic at Jiffy Lube back at 1829 miles. It had been 8268 miles since, and I still had 16% showing on the DIC, which projects out to about 10,000 miles between changes. For this change, I went with Mobil1 Extended Performance 5W30, and the Mobill filter.
I know that it doesn't save much money (if any), but I guess I just wanted the peace of mind of knowing that everything had been done right. So, for the next noob who wants top change their own oil, here's a few things I took away:
1) Finding the jack points was easy. There's are long, thick metal bars that run parallel to the running boards (chassis frame?); I used the front of these as the jack points.
2) Once I was under the engine, the filter and drain plug were easy to spot. The filter is all the way at the bottom of the engine, which makes it easy to reach. I was actually surprised at how small the filter is; it's about half the size of the filter on the 4.0L engine on the Explorer that we traded-in.
3) There are no bars or wires in the "spurt path" of the oil once you remove the plug. It looked like the spurt might reach a part of the chassis, but it didn't when I removed the plug, so as long as you position the catch pan right, there won't be a bunch of chassis that you have to wipe off.
4) The filter was the worst part to me:
a) Although it's easy to reach, it's partly surrounded by the crankcase, so your best bet is to get the strap type of filter wrench. The thin metal of the strap will fit in the small space between the filter and the crankcase; that might not be the case for the endcap-type wrenches out there. Mine didn't fit, but fortunately, the folks at Jiffy Lube had hand-tightened it at the last change, so I was able to get just enough of a grip to loosen it. I filled the new filter with oil before putting in on, to minimize the dry start.
b) The biggest mess that I made was removing the filter. Since the filter screws in vertically, none of the oil that's in it will drain out when you remove the plug. There's a LOT of oil that starts to spill up over the top and down the side out as you unscrew the filter and break the seal between the filter and the crankcase. I wasn't expecting it, so it got a little messy. Next time, I think I'll punch a hole in the bottom of the filter and let it drain before I unscrew it.
Hope this helps someone!
I know that it doesn't save much money (if any), but I guess I just wanted the peace of mind of knowing that everything had been done right. So, for the next noob who wants top change their own oil, here's a few things I took away:
1) Finding the jack points was easy. There's are long, thick metal bars that run parallel to the running boards (chassis frame?); I used the front of these as the jack points.
2) Once I was under the engine, the filter and drain plug were easy to spot. The filter is all the way at the bottom of the engine, which makes it easy to reach. I was actually surprised at how small the filter is; it's about half the size of the filter on the 4.0L engine on the Explorer that we traded-in.
3) There are no bars or wires in the "spurt path" of the oil once you remove the plug. It looked like the spurt might reach a part of the chassis, but it didn't when I removed the plug, so as long as you position the catch pan right, there won't be a bunch of chassis that you have to wipe off.
4) The filter was the worst part to me:
a) Although it's easy to reach, it's partly surrounded by the crankcase, so your best bet is to get the strap type of filter wrench. The thin metal of the strap will fit in the small space between the filter and the crankcase; that might not be the case for the endcap-type wrenches out there. Mine didn't fit, but fortunately, the folks at Jiffy Lube had hand-tightened it at the last change, so I was able to get just enough of a grip to loosen it. I filled the new filter with oil before putting in on, to minimize the dry start.
b) The biggest mess that I made was removing the filter. Since the filter screws in vertically, none of the oil that's in it will drain out when you remove the plug. There's a LOT of oil that starts to spill up over the top and down the side out as you unscrew the filter and break the seal between the filter and the crankcase. I wasn't expecting it, so it got a little messy. Next time, I think I'll punch a hole in the bottom of the filter and let it drain before I unscrew it.
Hope this helps someone!
) but some say you can safely let it go to 7-8K. Mercedes and BMW don't call for a oil change until 15K per....as per the Manual. So that tells you something when it comes to intervals with Synthetic.
