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Posted by: bhorste Mar 9 2015, 08:01 PM

Changed the oil in the wife's Town & Country for the first time yesterday. The oil filter on the 3.3 points straight down. I guess that's great in that the filter will (almost) always have oil in it to feed the moving components right after startup, but man does it make it about impossible to get the filter off without making a mess of it, yourself *and* the garage floor.

Never mind that, when I pulled the drain plug, the oil overshot the pan by ~4-5" and the plug - of course - fell straight into the drain pan... that I couldn't reach to fish out the plug before the pan was full of old oil. Or the oil that spilled down the bottle I was pouring it into from the pan. Needless to say, my garage floor is a bit of a mess.

Oh, and I ran out of cat litter so I had to run and buy a bag of Oil-Dri at the hardware store.

Posted by: slowgls Mar 9 2015, 08:41 PM

Did you stop by the pizza joint by your house and treat yourself?

Posted by: bhorste Mar 9 2015, 08:44 PM

Not when I needed to get back and slap Oil-Dri on the puddle of oil on my garage floor before it had a chance to soak in or spread (lots of melted snow down there, too). Yesterday was just a helluva day for me.

Posted by: J2Elantra Mar 9 2015, 09:25 PM

That's one nice thing about the Elantra. The drain plug and filter are accessible from above the car.


Edit, I meant on my Elantra.

Posted by: bhorste Mar 9 2015, 09:27 PM

Not on mine, they aren't. Certainly not the drain plug. The filter? Maybe if you pulled the headlight assembly.

I don't mind putting mine up on ramps and doing the change. The filter's at least angled a bit, so there's a fighting chance you don't get oil up to your armpit.

Posted by: Blupupher Mar 9 2015, 10:25 PM

When I had the Grand Caravan with the 3.6 (same block as the 3.3) I would always just loosen it a turn and let it drip into the pan for 5 minutes, then get a rag and take it off, not too much of a mess.
I had a Fumoto on it also, so that made it easier too, just stuck some tubing on the end and opened it up, never a drop spilled.

Posted by: RPW00Mirage Mar 10 2015, 06:58 AM

that is interesting.

the boxer brz/frs has a downward facing oil filter. my buddy says changing oil is a breeze.....

Posted by: bhorste Mar 10 2015, 04:53 PM

Getting at the filter is easy enough... it's just a raging mess when you undo it.

Posted by: ewang Mar 10 2015, 08:07 PM

My Ram is the same way. Cut a half-gallon milk jug to fit around it and attach a hose. Cut a window into the jug for you to loosen the filter.

No a super clean method, but it cuts down on the spillage...

Posted by: trololololo Mar 12 2015, 08:37 PM

Plastic ziplock bag