I never thought I would do this....

[NSU RS6]

I never thought I would change the oil on my RS6 in my garage with no lift.

Why you say?

Because I am getting too old to be sliding around under cars. Further - the RS6 is a car that was meant to be serviced on a lift.

But I was changing from winter to summer wheels yesterday, so the jack was out. I was also a few months and a couple thousand miles over my scheduled oil change, due to my friend never seeming to be able to have a lift open (he is an indy Porsche mechanic).

I had the oil and filter on hand. Hell, why not?

So I jack the RF wheel up with a six inch long block of wood on the jack point, and set a stand on its lowest setting under the aft subframe mount with a 3 x 3 x 5/8" think plywood block in between.

I move to the other side, and the LF wheel is off of the ground. Fuck. I had not broken those lugs yet, so I start over. Five minutes later the front is up on stands.

I then remember to check our DIY section - and there it is: the DIY oil change. Yes! This will be a piece of cake!

What a worthless thread. OP says you can remove the filter out the side, and the pics showing how to do so have been dropped. I find out later there ain't no way that filter is coming out the side, unless I was to crush it first bare handed, which then leaves the reinstall as iffy. The remainder of the thread is T-Belt questions, 12 pack drinking, Toyota loving, dealer bashing, DP clearing, stock options trading drivel.

That thread needs to be updated or removed. Doesn't say much about our DIY thread when it doesn't even cover how to change the oil.

Anyhoo, with the necessary fluid and parts, my trusty strap clamp oil filter wrench - and the fricking miracle that I actually had a T55 torx in my tool box, I went at it.

- Break RF wheel lugnuts
- Jack car at forward jack point with 6" long wood block centered on jack pad (line contact).
- Place jack stand on aft subframe mount, also wood block protected.
- Repeat on opposite side, so car is equally supported at front.
- Move floor jack to in between stands, jack to contact only, for redundancy (best place to store jack for the time being....).
- Remove RF wheel
- Remove belly pan
- Drain oil at pan with T55 Torx at drainplug. Drain ten minutes and reinstall plug.
- Move oil catch to under filter.
- Put strap clamp on filter at filter base, through narrow opening at sway bar and loosen.
- Continue to loosen by reaching through the side opening from forward of the drive axle.
- Let drain five minutes without completely removing filter.
- Fully remove filter, let it fall to sway bar and fully drain.
- Loosen four (two each side) 13mm nuts at forward swaybar mounts, and pull down.
- Remove filter.
- Install is reverse of above.

This probably took me a half an hour, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My biggest concerns were the amount of torsion put into the car by lifting three wheels off of the ground from the RH forward jack point. I think I will be buying another, aluminum floor jack so I can lift the front from each side simultaneously. I have always wanted one of the aluminum jacks anyway, the Snap-on I have is great - but it is an 80 lb tank of a jack. My other concern was supporting at the aft subframe mount. There is a clean surface there, and that is all I touched, but is this an acceptable support point?

I will still always try to do this on my friends lift, but this worked in a pinch. Surprisingly it was not that messy either, maybe because I wasn't in a hurry and let things drain.

I would appreciate feedback on whether I was supporting the car acceptably or not.

Happy Monday!

[Dmb408]

I agree the oil change thread is a little light but I change mine on race ramps and I am actually able to get my filter out without any wheel removal or sway bar dropping or anything. But my arms are skinny...

[DHall1]

Use 2 jacks at the same time. Rf and Lf

The rest of it you have spot on

[hahnmgh63]

Ok ok, I do have a lift to use and do all of my oil changes on a lift. And being Anal, I do let my oil drip, drip, drip overnight to get as much as possible out. But also being Anal, I always fill my oil filter with fresh oil, let it soak in, and refill before installation to cut back on the dry startup that you get even more so with an oil change than in the morning. Please always fill your filters, even for one that goes in at a right angle you can get quite a bit of oil onside.

[905084]

"Remove sway bar".....the rest of it is the way I've changed the oil on a hundred other cars a hundred other times.

[JSRS6]

I've always fished my filters through the wheel well. I can personally attest that it is possible. I do like the partially unscrew and let drain step though.

[NSU RS6]

Ok ok, I do have a lift to use and do all of my oil changes on a lift. And being Anal, I do let my oil drip, drip, drip overnight to get as much as possible out. But also being Anal, I always fill my oil filter with fresh oil, let it soak in, and refill before installation to cut back on the dry startup that you get even more so with an oil change than in the morning. Please always fill your filters, even for one that goes in at a right angle you can get quite a bit of oil onside.

Mark - I thought about adding oil to the filter prior to install, as I have always done that. But since it is mounted horizontally, I didn't bother. But being paper, you are right, you could probably get quite a bit of oil in there that would stay on install. Speaking of oil - you use Amsoil right? I put in 5W-40 VW 501.01,505.01 Lubro-Moly. My Porsche mechanic friend wasn't impressed with that. He says I should stick with the original spec Castrol, but that is not available anymore. It is now Castrol Edge 5W-40, probably pretty close to the same thing. Been looking at Motul Specific 5W-40. Thoughts?

[NSU RS6]

I've always fished my filters through the wheel well. I can personally attest that it is possible. I do like the partially unscrew and let drain step though.

You guys must be really good at puzzles.

There seemed to me to be no way to get it out, and dropping the sway bar was easy.

[905084]

You guys must be really good at puzzles.

There seemed to me to be no way to get it out, and dropping the sway bar was easy.

+1...too easy....

[DHall1]

OE spec Castrol is still avail.

I use the custom blended BND Quantum blue. Check out the oil analysis threads.

Mark - I thought about adding oil to the filter prior to install, as I have always done that. But since it is mounted horizontally, I didn't bother. But being paper, you are right, you could probably get quite a bit of oil in there that would stay on install. Speaking of oil - you use Amsoil right? I put in 5W-40 VW 501.01,505.01 Lubro-Moly. My Porsche mechanic friend wasn't impressed with that. He says I should stick with the original spec Castrol, but that is not available anymore. It is now Castrol Edge 5W-40, probably pretty close to the same thing. Been looking at Motul Specific 5W-40. Thoughts?

[ttboost]

As I recall, yes, drop the sway bar and it comes right out..15min job. Done it a few times.....messy, but definitely not hard. Might take a half hour with no lift. Just drive it up on ramps or put it on jack stands. Remove diaper, take sway bar completely off, don't just try to swing it out of the way. Remove filter and snake it out. Again, messy, but easy...

[kday]

Dropping the sway bar is easy, until it's not.
Then you get to spend some quality time at the lathe making a new stud to replace the one that broke...

I tried to fish the filter out through the wheel well and gave up. Had the filter removed, and in hand, but couldn't get it out through the opening. Maybe there is a variance from car to car?

[NSU RS6]

Dropping the sway bar is easy, until it's not.
Then you get to spend some quality time at the lathe making a new stud to replace the one that broke...

I tried to fish the filter out through the wheel well and gave up. Had the filter removed, and in hand, but couldn't get it out through the opening. Maybe there is a variance from car to car?

Yeah, nothing more frustrating than an easy job that goes SNAP and now you're fooked. Maybe some wrench gorilla that worked on your car in the past blasted it to the limit with an impact wrench.

The tightening of the sway bar nut probably justifies the use of a torque wrench because of this. If someone could look in Bentley and give me the torque I will update the instructions I put into the Oil Change DIY to torque these properly.

As far as the sideout filter removal, it was close, but not very. I flipped/rolled/twisted the dripping/pissing filter in the space to find a way out for about eleven seconds and then I knew I was done.