Q5 2.0T DIY Oil change
 

For those of us Q5 2.0T owners who are DIYers and passed on Audicare I offer this thread. This past weekend I did my first oil change on our 2011 Q5 2.0T (mileage at 12.5K). It might not have been the easiest oil change I’ve ever done but it was pretty simple. Although Audi says you can go 10K between oil changes I have decided to do my changes at 7500 mile intervals. My Q5 replaced our 02 MB ML 320 which also went 10K between oil changes but it carried 9 quarts of oil. I felt that the 2.0T deserves changes slightly more often since it carries less then 5 quarts. I documented my steps to show you how it went. Let me know if you have any questions.

1)Remove the engine cover. Just pull it straight up in each of the four corners. The attachments are held on by rubber suction pieces. The engine top is now exposed.

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2) I don’t use a suction tool to remove the oil. Just old fashion gravity. The Q5 rides higher but not high enough to get under to remove the pan. I jacked up the driver’s side front to give myself plenty of clearance. Then I removed the protection pan. Now, there are two of these pans. You only need to remove the front pan. You’ll need a #2 Phillips and a torex screw driver (I have 2 torexes, this was the larger one, you could use an allen wrench if you had to). Note the pan, the three Phillips screws in the rear require only a half turn and stay connected to the pan. The torex screws are around the front (9) and the Phillips screws are on the front side corners (3 for each corner). Once they are all out slide the pan rearward (it has slots it fits into on the front bumper) and it drops down exposing the oil pan and drain plug.

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3) Back to the top of the engine, clean the rubber gasket and oil filler cap of sand and dirt before opening it up. The rubber collar actually comes off and I used some WD40 on it. Then remove the filler cap.

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4) Now to the oil filter, I happened to have the collar tool for the oil filter but you really don’t need it. It is easily accessed. I cracked the oil filter loose but did not remove it.

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5) With the filler cap off and the filter cracked I was ready to drain the oil. I used a 19mm wrench to remove the oil drain plug and let the old oil drain out. I let the engine drain for a number of hours.

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6) With all the oil out I cleaned the drain plug area, the drain plug, and reinstalled the plug with the 19mm wrench. No crush ring is necessary. It has a washer on it already and does not require replacement with an oil change.
7) I then fully removed the oil filter. The nice thing about the new design is that 99.9% of the oil drained out of the filter resulting in very little cleanup or mess. I just cleaned the surface area.

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8) As always, coat the gasket portion of the new OEM Audi oil filter and then install. It says hand tight so that is what I did.
9) Now start filling the engine with the 4.9 quarts of synthetic motor oil. While I was doing this I checked everything out underneath (looked good) and then reinstalled the protection pan.
10) With the engine filled with new oil replace the filler cap and install the engine cover.
11) Reset the service indicator.

Pretty simple and my dealer gets over $100 for this service. It cost me $30 with no inconvenience of doing without the car. This is my third Audi 4 cylinder vehicle and it is the easiest one to date to do the oil change on.

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Nice write up, thanks!

My only comment is about your oil selection assuming you used the M1 5W30 pictured. It doesn't meet the written spec for the engine in your vehicle.

I think if we're going to self-maintain, we need to make every effort to use approved products as they establish a baseline minimum level of performance. You don't want anyone to be in a position to deny you future warranty coverage due to the use of inappropriate products :)

Curiosity: no printed torque spec for the oil filter?

I changed ours for the 3rd time this weekend and used Castrol SYN 5w40.
The process itself is a breeze. It's nice not needing a lift or ramps.