I'm about to do my first oil change on my TII. I was wondering if anybody had any advice or tricks to make the whole process easier. Stuff like puncturing the old oil filter, yada yada. I've changed the oil on my Jeep Grand Cherokee, but this is a lowered rx7, so anything to make it easier on me would be great. How do you guys change your oil?

 

Get the car good and warm first, and use the proper sized socket on the drain plug to prevent rounding. A floor jack makes the whole process very easy, but you may have to use the little jacks at the side to life the front enough to get the floor jack underneath. Might want to replace the little copper 0-ring on the drain bolt as they're a standard dealer part and very (30 cents) cheap. Don't use a filter wrench to tighten the filter, but use one to loosen it. Never a good idea to jam a screwdriver through the filter as it could cause little metal pieces to find their way into the engine.

 

hehe, ooookay... so that intercooler is pretty much squarely on top of the oil filter... There IS a way to replace my oil filter without removing my intercooler(I assume)... So is there a secret trick to get it out with ease? Or is it more of a "Grit your teeth, grab a wrench, and pull that sucker out of there!" kinda deal? A standard Oil Filter wrench doesn't look like it'd have enough room to operate down there, so what's the deal? Thanks guys!

 

GET one of those oil filter wrench that works with a socket extension. Use the socket extension to turn the filter wrench. Another words, get a wrench w/o the 'handle'