ski35off

After 610 miles, I changed my oil. Just like Anthony (adg44), I found it was quite the experience and took way longer than I expected.

First off, I had to go buy an oil drain pan that could hold 10L yet have fairly short (< 6") sides to allow me to remove the drain plug with a socket wrench. I also needed a 32 mm socket, a 6 mm hex bit (for the drain plug), and a crush ring for the drain plug. Part number N-013-815-7, $0.99 each. I already had the filter, about $16 at my dealer.

I drove the car up on low profile ramps (about 6" of lift) so I could get the belly pan cover off. I managed to break one of the two plastic quick-release screws that are used to join the wheel-well plastic (which includes the brake vent) to the belly pan cover from the side.

I then drove the car around the neighborhood to get it up to operating temperature, brought it home and parked it level, removed the filter cartridge and used an oil extraction pump to take an oil sample for Terry Dyson to analyze. Drained the oil, put in a new filter cartridge and filled it up with 10L (ultimately) of Motul E-Tech 0W40.

I put the car back up on the ramps and struggled mightily putting the belly pan cover back on. Most of the problem was blindly aligning the break vent intakes with the cover and fastening both sides. I recommend doing this first before fastening the rest of the screws. I also marked the inside of the brake vents with a sliver Sharpie to indicate how the cover should align - should be much easier next time.

BTW, I after 610 miles, I detected no change in the oil level. I've been using FP60, as recommended by Scott (RI RS4). Also, in a conversation with Terry he mentioned that using E10 (10% ethanol) fuel should help with fuel dilution although I'm pretty sure we don't have this in the Puget Sound area any more.

All-in-all it pretty much took me the whole afternoon, but I'm thinking it will be much quicker next time. Onward to 1500 miles!

-Dave

2007 Audi RS4
Avus Silver, Premium Package, CF, RSA, 3M PPF, 35% Llumar

ELEVENS

Hi Dave - I posted the same experiences with my first one too. Waaaay too many fasteners for the belly pan (Audi could learn from BMW and put a 1-fastener hinged access door for the drain plug), connect the brake vent fasteners first, filter is buried too deep, the quick-release fasteners all need to be captive, etc.

At least there's still a few of us left who prefer to DIY.

Cheers!

adg44

E10 ethanol is everywhere, from what I understand. I beleive it's a federal mandate to mix gas with Ethanol now instead of MTBE, which was found to contaminate ground water. We switched to E10 over a year ago in the DC area.

Why did you take an oil sample with an extractor, instead of just getting it from the oil drain from the pan?

And why did you drain when the car wasn't on the ramps? Sure it's not perfectly level, but it will still drain almost all the oil. It also makes it a lot easier to work under there.

Did you put the filter in the housing and then screw on the cap, or secure the filter to the cap and then insert the whole assembly into the housing? Be sure to leave the drain plug out while you are changing the filter, as some more oil will trickle down once the filter is removed.

Glad you had as much fun as I did!!!

- Anthony

ski35off

I'm not completely certain of the E10 availability in the Puget Sound area. The link below seems to suggest that it's no longer being used here.

I took the oil sample with a small extractor you can buy from Blackstone Labs out of convenience - it draws the oil right into the sample bottle.

I traded the minor inconvenience of pulling the car off the ramps for having the car level and having most of the factory oil drain before I put the new oil in.

I put the filter in the housing and snapped it down (and centered it) before putting the cap on. The filter was off while I drained the oil.

And yeah, it was a blast :-)<ul><li><a href="http://www.pugetsoundcleancities.org/FuelBlends_Ethanol.htm">Ethanol in Puget Sound</a></li></ul>