Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

I (foolishly) offered to change the oil on my Mom's '05 4WD Envoy SLT (the 4.2 6 banger). Wow, what an experience........finally figured where they hid the oil pan and drain plug, no problem with that but DAYUM!!!!!!!! The oil filter is one biaaaatch to remove/replace.

Does ANYONE have any experience with these and how NOT to drown yourself/cover the undercarraige & garage floor with oil? Please?

I looked on this site's "truck" area but they seem to deal only with full sized or the SSR/Trailblazer SS versions.

Help please?


I did get it done, was just hellasiously messy is all and I would like to avoid that in the future when I get recruited to do it again.

Tranzor

Heh... that's like changing the oil in my wife's CR-V. What a crappy experience that is. The oil filter is way up high on the back side of the engine block, I have to work my arm up past the suspension parts to get to it... and then when you remove it, oil runs all down the side of the engine block and down into the holes on the k-member, and also onto the catalytic converter!

What kind of morons put an oil filter where oil is going to get on everything, including the cat??? Don't they know the oil's gonna burn up on that cat... can we say fire hazard?

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, after discovering the hidden panel covering the oil drain plug and the extremely recessed oil filter, it was a MESS!!!!! The dran plug was fine, it was removing the filter that was a disaster.

Anyone???

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

My Colorado was fairly similar, they'd actually even designed a thing into the front suspension cross member that was there to collect oil and channel it down off the cross member when you removed the oil filter. It was pretty much impossible to change the oil without making a huge mess.

The GTO is nice, other than having to remove the 30 lb, 1/4" steel skid plate just to get at the drain plug and filter.

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

Have to unscrew a plate (part of the offroad skid pan protection I presume), remove the plate and then unscrew the drain plug....no problem. BUT the filter was up almost 8-10 inches and wedged in between the oil pan and the frame and sway bars and other susp pieces. Made a huge mess all over my new floor.

Are there no msg boards for these vehicles?

Jon A

Here's one:

http://chevytruckworld.tenmagazines..../forum.asp?527

As for the filter--yes, you're going to get dirty. No way around it.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

So is it a hard plastic skid plate like my Colorado had? Or is it metal? The one on the GTO is like tank armor, sucker is heavy... but it offers a lot of protection to the oil pan and filter. You'd have to hit a huge rock at high speed to even phase it. Once it's off, though, the filter and oil drain are a lot easier to access than the F-bodies are.

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the link and thanks ( ) for the bad news.........figures. Stupid GM.
There was a huge *** metal skid plate protecting the entire engine area and this piece had two big *** screws that undid (but it wouldn't come off completely, just move out of the way) and if memory serves, it was metal as well......scratch that, the moveable plate was a very sturdy plastic-type substance now that I think about it.........very strong, but not metal. The rest of the skid plate stuff was metal, go figure.

The oil drain plug was RIGHT THERE when I moved that piece out of the way but the filter is up about 10 inches and there are a couple immoveable objects between it and freedom.......meaning that the oil drips all over everything when you take it off.....and this was after taking off the "oil fill" cap AND having already drained the pan itself.

Not too mention the ***-monkeys who did her 1st oil change decided to put that filter on with the strength of a thousand men............NO way to get a filter wrench up in there and get any kind of grip on it........so that was fun.

Rokko

iTrader: (2)

Next time, just pick it up and drive it to Jiffy Lube, done deal!

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

**** Jiffy Lube and their fucked up practices and their fucked up ways of leaving the radiator cap unscrewed so all your coolant spills out and **** them and their high prices.

But thanks for the advice.

HitmanLSX

Just be glad it's not one of the 06+ non-turbo/non-H6 subarus... the exhaust manifold wraps around the oil filter and there's barely enough room to get a pair of filter pliers in there.... so guess who's hand gets burnt to **** when they have to tighten it they had a good design for years why'd they have to change it!!

Tranzor

It was the same way with my wife's CR-V. The oil filter from the factory was on there fuggin' TIGHT. No way I was getting that outta there without a filter wrench, and the strap wrench and filter pliers I have didn't fit... so what I did was get one of those cap style filter wrenches. It fits over the bottom of the filter snug, and you use a 3/8" ratchet turn the filter. Works like a charm...

Rokko

iTrader: (2)

Wow, I do believe we found something that gets the retired po-po all wound up.

How about Q-Lube, or take it to the dealer. If that nightmare was mine to do the oil changes on I'll tell you what, it'd be somewhere else for that nasty chore besides my garage or driveway. Drive it somewhere you trust and let them deal with it. Money well spent in my book.

Ackattack1

iTrader: (7)

my tahoe is kinda stupid too. It's not hard to get to, but the filter is on at an angle (has an oil cooler too) so when you take off the filter, oil just pour right onto the front drive shaft.

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, Jiffy-Lube and all the "quick oil change" places have a special place in hell with me.

I would rather do this for my Mom then have her waste tons of $$ at Jerky-Lube or any other place. I just gotta get a pan for my garage floor so it doesn't get stained. I was lucky yesterday.

You said take it somewhere I trust, well that is the key word, I DON'T trust any of those quick change places one bit. No biggie, just lookin to see if anyone had any ideas on how to remove the filter without wearing half a quart of oil.

HitmanLSX

I work at a quick change place lol well Carter Quick-Lube hehe just the quick lube portion of the dealership but still lol

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

Sorry dude but I still hate them with the passion of a million men. WAY too many problems that never needed to happen as a result of places like that...........I would rather lay on freezing cold and wet pavement and do it myself then pay one of those hack places to ever touch my car. Just the last 2 times they left my radiator uncorked (and there was to be NOTHING done to/with the radiator in the 1st place) and the other time they "forgot" to tighten the drain plug snugly and I was down to about 1-2 quarts of oil by the time I got home.......which was only a couple miles.

The radiator incident was with an aluminum LS1 and it was the day before the new owner was taking delivery.......and it only had about 1 quart of fluid left in it when I noticed the problem. ******** were pissed cuz I didn't want them to "flush" the radiator so they never recapped it after preparing to flush it prior to asking my permission in the first place.

Needless to say, those are just parts of only 2 stories but I will never go to another one of those places again if I can help it, regardless of who I know working there.

silversweetZ

iTrader: (11)

You can try www.trailvoy.com or www.envoystuff.com or www.envoyforums.com to find more info on this stuff....good luck!

Tranzor

So did you get oil on your face when you changed that filter? The first time I changed the oil in my wife's CR-V, I didn't anticipate a bunch of oil flowing into holes on the K-member... I was more concerned with keeping the oil off the cat and exhaust pipes. I made a pretty good shop towel barrier on those things, but the oil dripped on to the k-member (which I was prepared for and positioned my catch pan appropriately), but I forgot about the holes on the top of the k-member.

So, the oil flowed into that... and wouldn't you know, my head was a little further 'downstream', right under another hole. You guessed it... warm oil flowed all over my face, got a little in my eye, mouth, nostril, etc... and of course, it happened right when I got the filter completely off, so in my shock, bad taste in the mouth, and burning sensation in the eye, I dropped the filter... and of course, it's still full of oil. It clatters on the garage floor, and because my garage has an ever so slight slope to it, the filter rolls down the length of the garage, leaving a nice river of motor oil behind it.

But I'm in the same boat as you... I'd rather put up with that crap than take one of my cars a quick lube place. I especially cringed when I heard stories on the Honda forums about those knuckleheads at the quick lubes not putting the filter on right and having it come loose, dripping oil on the cat and causing a fire... sounded like that happened to more than a few of those people.

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

Thanks I will check those out.
Yikes.....I got a lil splash on my face, tons on my arms and a lil on the floor..........fortunately it could have been much worse........I got some good ideas from the forum 1st suggested but I will check out the others listed above as well.