Do THIS for NO MESS oil filter change

[mirageman]

I've been changing my oil for 30+ years and I don't know how this idea has never occurred to me before. I hate splashing oil down my sleeve and arm and I don't like the idea of popping it before removal, which no doubt will be difficult and still oil up your tools. The idea popped into my head on the way home since I'm due for a change and I did it, and wanted to share it with you. First, drain the oil pan in your usual way. Personally, I do quick snapping turns of the plug and quickly pull my arm away. That works 99% of the time. NOW, after almost all of it is done dripping, with the old filter still in place, start the car. No worries, everything inside is still coated in oil and the oil pump is still primed. I let it run until the oil pressure light lit up, which took like 7-10 seconds and shut it down. I smiled broadly when I heard another strong splash of oil in my drain container. I was hoping for that audible confirmation that the pump would blow air through the oil filter and push that oil excess up into the engine. Now go and remove the now much cooler than usual oil filter and enjoy no oil splattering everywhere. I was able to turn my filter practically sideways before anything came out.

[remcafee]

i have never made a mess changing oil on a yaris, it is probably the easiest car to change oil on and i dont know how you always get a mess

[sh0rtlife]

i seriously would NOT advise doing that, by the time the light comes on your doing damage to parts of the system and oil doesnt flow thru this system well in spots as it is..IE the vvt is a great example..besides the fact the tollerances in modern engines is TIGHT

if this was an old 50-80s V8 id say yeah go for it the tolerances are wide and your probably not going to hurt it

i get what your trying to do, but honestly if your making a mess changing the oil your doing something wrong...and the yaris is one of the cleanest simplest ones to change..so much so that i drive mine up on a simple stack of 2 2x6's and change its oil without lifting it at all

the drain plug is simple enough press in while turning..once you feel the threads skip over themselves you know the plugs free..at that point lift up slowly and you wont even get any on your fingers

if you do a HOT oil change the filter should drain back some after 5 mins of sitting, yes its going to spill some so take 2 blue shop towels and fold them down till its a long 2-3 inch wide strip, and wrap it around the top of the filter..as you spin it off keep sliding the shop towels up....done right....again you wont get a drop on you

[mirageman]

Pffff....... it's fine. I do hot oil changes always. Unless you do it way cold, there's no way you don't spill oil when you loosen the filter. The filter has a check valve that holds a column of oil that will come out, man... you know that! Sure I would clean up in the past and hence not make a mess, but that's still making a mess... �� . A few seconds pumping out the remaining oil will do zero harm on a hot, wet engine. Peace!

[NYC-SE]

DO NOT DO THIS!!!

[ex-x-fire]

You are running your engine dry on oil just to make it less messy to change a filter? Crazy. You do know that the bearings need pressurized oil to prevent wear.

[ex-x-fire]

This is what I do after breaking the filter loose and letting it drain a bit.

[mirageman]

"You are running your engine dry on oil ..."
Nope. Wrong.

" Crazy "
Maybe a little.

"You do know that the bearings need pressurized oil to prevent wear."
To run continuously, yes. Cars that sit for days and weeks are started no problem despite all the oil settling. Think about it. When you change your oil, that first startup with no oil in the filter or channels does zero damage because all parts are still coated.

Jeez guys...calm down. I'm not driving to the store like this. We're talking seconds on a slicked up engine.

It's actually not even seconds, because it is still pumping out the remaining oil. Light comes on, shut down. Nothing runs dry.

[sh0rtlife]

by way of your logic, lets go at this an angle that maybe you will understand

your pumping out all of the oil....to the point that only a microscopic unpresurized layer is left
after that you have an empty filter

instead of having the oil passages primed with left over oil just sitting "ready", you have nothing but air pockets thru out the engine as you ran it "empty" and filled all of those cavitys with AIR

lets focus on the re-startup aspect
now youve got an empty engine, an oil filter full of air, an oil pump full of air so not only does the engine start up un-primed it now has to run about 2quarts of AIR out of the system before its re-primed

you have clearly over looked the fact that most engines stay primed for YEARS with the passages staying full of oil and as soon as the pump starts to turn the whole engine gets pressure even if it gets a few short bursts of air

[ex-x-fire]

Yep, every oil change he's getting two dry starts.

[mirageman]

Still wrong. #1, I fill my new oil filter with oil before putting it in. #2, after I fill the crankcase with oil, it will push up some of the air through the pickup before starting. That's the same unprimed tube as you get when doing a normal oil change, and so are the passageways after the filter no matter what. #3, that oil will blow that air out pretty darn quick. #4 upon startup, I had no longer wait time for the oil light to go out than previously. I looked for that, it took 2 seconds max.

2 dry starts? Only if I waited overnight before filling would I consider it somewhat dry. Further, I do minimum 10k oil change intervals... lets say I revert to the normal way of changing oil, that means I had 25 dry starts until now given my mileage...what about the guys who do 5k changes the regular way? Are they not getting 50 dry starts?...and nothing happens... because it's not dry. If you've ever removed cranks, cams, you'd see oil on the bearings. That oil is not disappearing and is totally adequate for startups. You have to be running for much longer than mere seconds to get damage. You are taking this waaay to seriously. If it were so immediate, everyone would have seized bearings if you did 3-5k oil/filter changes.

2 quarts of air? It's a Yaris! I doubt there's 3/4 quart of oil passage total.
You've overlooked that these passageways are still emptied with every normal oil change.

What else you got? :-)

[mirageman]

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generation-iii-internal-engine/1279023-any-damage-running-engine-15-20-seconds-without-oil.html

[NYC-SE]

Yes there will be a film of oil on bearing surfaces for a long time after an oil drain, even after doing what you're doing. And yes mostly likely your engine will survive for a short period if you forget to refill the oil like the example you referenced. However that does not mean it is a good practice. The engine is still subject to extra, unnecessary wear while running without oil pressure. Eventually the damage will show up. Not worth the risk.

Start up of an engine is when the most wear occurs. Large industrial / marine / locomotive engines have prelube systems which pressurize the oil galleries before start up. Most even have lock outs which will prevent you from starting the engine until lube oil pressure is present. The engineers who designed those engines put that system in for a reason. They know how damaging start up is. These are million dollar engines that are expected to last decades. The extra cost of a prelube system is an investment in ensuring that happens.

It's your car and your money, you can do what you want, but I respectfully recommend that you reconsider.

[bairjo]

I will never do this type of oil change to my car!

[remcafee]

this thread is peak entertainment!

[mitch9521]

This is quite possibly the stupidest thread I've seen in a long time here.

[mirageman]

Can you read a bit and comprehend logic before blindly calling something stupid? It's ok, I'm casting pearls before some know-it-all young 'uns and amateurs who pile on the "yeah!" bandwagon. Some will see and benefit from this. Others will pat each other's back at the attacks. Enjoy!

[bairjo]

No. Not doing it. If you are trying to keep oil from running down your sleeve, just crack your oil filter loose, slip a 1 gallon zip lock back over the filter and spin it off. Zip it shut and dispose of properly. As for oil pan drain plug, just use a pair of vinyl gloves.

[komichal]

Usually a vinyl glove and a rag are all that help me keep this job clean.

I am not an engine designer so I have no idea about whats going on inside.
I am just wondering why nobody else came up with this method yet. It is hard to believe that it would be so good and perfectly safe, yet unrevealed till now.

I am always grateful for all the tricks people share, yet it this specific case, I would stick to the traditional way of doing things as the number of potential disadvantages hugely superseeds the advantage.

[ex-x-fire]

Connecting rod bearings are under a lot of pressure, so when there's no pressurized oil there is wear.

[andulong]

You might think this is fine but do you notice a trend?...no one else thinks it is a good idea. I would not purchase a car from you sir!

[mirageman]

Perhaps a modified version of pulling the efi fuse and simply cranking for 10 or 15 seconds would ease some stress here ... or simply running it for like 5 seconds instead of waiting until the light comes on would be enough to get a clean removal of that filter. Yes, darn it... I know I can clean the mess or awkwardly contain it, but I don't want to oil up bags, or cups or wear gloves. What I also like is the idea of pumping out much more used oil than a regular change.

[Ecefour]

I change the oil when the engine is still hot. First I nearly break the oil filter seal by hand. I keep the filter on just tight enough that engine oil doesn’t start leaking out, but lose enough that i can spin the oil filter off with just my thumb. Then i use my thumb to loosen the filter more until the oil starts to leak out. I can quickly pull my hand away before it gets oily. Once the oil stops dripping i can grab the filter with a paper towel near the top, in an area that the oil didn’t touch. This way I avoid getting oil on my hands and down my arm.

I also tend to complete my oil changes right before my nightly shower, so getting dirty is irrelevant. Why would you risk your engine like this? To each there own

[Mister]

I crack the filter from the bottom and then spin it off from the top of the engine (Model T1 has enough space for this). So no mess for me. :)