20 thoughts on “Get Back In The Kitchen Dammit !

  1. She took that surprisingly well. Reminds me of my previous F-150, the oil filter was situated horizontally and partially above a large steel structural member that was part of the engine support. There was no way to remove the filter without making a damn mess from oil spilling on that cross member. Stupidest damn design I think I’ve seen.

    • I would have installed a double remote oil filters so the filters hung vertically and were easier to remove and drain. I hated my Fords for that reason and did that to a number of them I owned.

      • That’s an excellent idea. I really need to do that on a couple of vehicles I own, both of which have their oil filters poorly placed. Not sure why I never considered it before, since I’ve added auxiliary Transmission coolers before. Just the inertia of not wanting to add another damn project to my already endless list.

  2. She’s lucky the oil was cold.

    Mercedes recommends using a vacuum evacuator to suck the oil out through the dipstick tube. It works great and since Mercedes puts the cartridge oil filter on top of the engine I perform my oil changes with no muss and without getting under the car.

    • Well, that must be the only thing Daimler ever bothered to make genuinely easy to service on one of their vehicles, at least in my experience. Of course it presupposes one has access to a vacuum suction rig to do the job, and not many DIY types do. I have one I put together myself to do transmission fluid exchanges, but then I’m an inventive and eccentric bastard who likes to do such things.

      • Go to Amazon and search for “automotive fluid evacuator”. Mine was $50CDN IIRC. Mine has a hand pump but there are versions that hook up to an air compressor.

  3. I once did an oil/filter change on my E150 van. I failed to notice that when I pulled the old oil filter that its o-ring stayed on the engine block. When I spun the new oil filter on, it now had two o-rings. When I fired it up, it blew six quarts of new oil on my nice, clean garage floor in about 30 seconds time. I’ve had a good deal of respect for oil pressure ever since.

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