Great thread. 2006 coupe 6mt, changed the oil by removing the two 10mm bolts in the very back of the panel and the 10 mm bolts to either side so the back 1/2 of the plastic hangs down. I have a small oil catch so it worked fine. I live in an apartment so I try to minimize drips even more so, so I grabbed one of those puppy pads for house training dogs to catch any stray drops and used just that pad when I removed the oil filter. I used the mobil 1 synthetic and the fram 6607 tough guard. I still put the oil filter on hand tight with another quarter turn with the filter wrench.

I installed the fumoto valve, the one without the brass nipple. I have one in our highlander and even though it seems like such a little thing, it's one of those things where I wish I knew about it when I started changing oil. No leaks so far in the highlander from the fumoto valve, the garage ground is clean for the past year of oil.

I read some threads in regards to the fumoto valve as well. I decided not to purchase the one with the rubber hose attachment site because 1. Plastic pan needs to come out anyway for the oil filter and 2. The car has such a low clearance, that rubber hose attachment on they type N comes out 180 degrees from the car so I was concerned about it catching on a stray speed bump or what not. However, there are those that love the attachment.

The ramps are great and I definitely agree that the front of the bumper can catch on the ramp. An easy fix that I did was placing a piece of 2x4 in front of the ramp. The 2x4 lifts up the bumper by obviously about 2 inches and it seems to tilt the bumper up slightly so it clears the ramp even more so, likely my imagination. If you have a car that has less than 2 inches of clearance, all I have to say is wow.

 

man... and just today i changed the oil, didn't read this thread before hand, so i unscrewed 50 screws...
that rear 4 screws makes much more sense...
love the fact that the filter is right there
good thing for my 2X4 for my old slammed ride, didn't think i'd ever use it again

 

do you think 5.75 qts is too much oil? or will I still be ok?

 

I think I'd drain about 1/2 a qt, 5.25 qts is what I've always added, and w/ the filter change it always reads at the top mark on the stick. I've had a problem w/ a blown oil seal on a Jeep when it was overfilled so I'm paranoid about overfilling.

 

Here's a few picks of my $8 wheel ramps and the hinged flap exposed after removing the back four bolts on the plastic underpan (it's been wired to keep it opened up)

 

I thought the capacity was 5 quarts? For the sedan, at least.

 

5qt will get you about 3/4ths up the dipstick to the "H"mark, add another 1/4 qt to get to the "H". IMO 5 qts is just fine though, better than overfilling.

 

The 07 Sedan manual calls for 5-1/8 qt with an oil filter change, or 4-7/8 qt without an oil filter change.

 

old car overfilled by 1 quart once, ran fine, so no worries
most people would use 5 quarts, who goes and measures 1/8ths, lol

 

Or who changes oil without changing the filter?

 

^
lazy shops, that's why i do everything myself, it's cheap and easy

 

yup you have to build a mini ramp up to the ramp with a bunch of 2x4's i had to do it with my lexus....the kit and drop was too low for almost any lift.

 

very true! couple of years ago, changed the oil and filter on my 91 talon. i noticed that the gastket was missing from the used filter, but paid no attention, thinking it was already in the oil eater box. put the new filter on, put the oil in. and started it up. big, loud hiss and oil shot out from under the car. we had to rush to the nearest shop to buy more oil eater, clean up the mess, bought more quarts of oil. this happened twice that day, before i realized the gasket was doubled. spent hours cleaning up and bought about 6-8 quarts of extra oil that day.

 

Hey where do you get this thing? Does autozone carry it? Can you find one at Wal-mart? Can you just go and get a certain size and walk out or does AZ keep it in the back for each car?

 

Can anyone describe what the crush washer should look like. I went to the local autozone, bought everything (i dont need a new drain plug, correct?) and asked the guy for a crush washer.

He gave me some blue plastic ring, that looked like it had a star cut in the center, perfectly round on the outside. Does that sound right?