DIY oil change (2019 GT350 oil light on is on)

[honeybadger]

Looks like most have covered the basics, but I wanted to address a few of your questions...

> The oil filter does not hold a quart of oil. How much the filter holds is irrelevant, and it's accounted for in the 10 quarts. 10 quarts WITH a filter change.
>DO NOT drain the oil and measure it. Drain the oil and filter, and then refill with 10 quarts. This is full. This is correct. This next statement is crucial -- After changing and cranking the car, look at the dipstick. This is the full mark for YOUR car. If it's at the top hole, great. If it's half way, great. Just remember that spot. DO NOT add oil to fill it to the top.
>If you're going run the engine to get it warm, do not start changing the oil immediately. Let it sit for a bit to drain completely.

This is good stuff. The oil change is 10 quart. Not the full capacity.

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[proeagles]

Good way to ruin a perfectly good engine. Too many instances of dealers not putting enough oil in, not putting the filter on correctly (less of a problem for 19+), etc.

I have a lot of respect for you but I respectfully disagree with you on this one. Novices are more prone to screwing up an oil change than a trained mechanic. The dealer would be responsible for his mistake as would the owner for his own mistake. One would be covered and the other not. I've never had a problem with dealers doing simple oil changes with any of my cars and I've owned a hell of lot of them in my 72 years. If you have to google how to do something as simple as an oil change, you have no business doing it. Just my opinion. I realize that in today's society we are not allowed to have our own opinions if they don't agree with whoever is pissed off now but I'm sticking with mine.

 

[460Fred]

I have a lot of respect for you but I respectfully disagree with you on this one. Novices are more prone to screwing up an oil change than a trained mechanic. The dealer would be responsible for his mistake as would the owner for his own mistake. One would be covered and the other not. I've never had a problem with dealers doing simple oil changes with any of my cars and I've owned a hell of lot of them in my 72 years. If you have to google how to do something as simple as an oil change, you have no business doing it. Just my opinion. I realize that in today's society we are not allowed to have our own opinions if they don't agree with whoever is pissed off now but I'm sticking with mine.

I here ya, but we all have to consider others life experiences.
I’ve had my butt chewed on this forum because I gave a life experience recommendation about franchise dealership body shops.
BTW... My wife’s Subaru SUV is the absolute easiest to change the oil. That said, you’d better look up the best way to change our GT350’s to learn from others mistakes.

 

[JAJ]

I have a lot of respect for you but I respectfully disagree with you on this one. Novices are more prone to screwing up an oil change than a trained mechanic. The dealer would be responsible for his mistake as would the owner for his own mistake. One would be covered and the other not. I've never had a problem with dealers doing simple oil changes with any of my cars and I've owned a hell of lot of them in my 72 years. If you have to google how to do something as simple as an oil change, you have no business doing it. Just my opinion. I realize that in today's society we are not allowed to have our own opinions if they don't agree with whoever is pissed off now but I'm sticking with mine.

If you've got a dealer you trust, that's fantastic, so carry on! But, please recognize that the skepticism that most Shelby owners have about dealers is based on experience, sometimes bitter experience. For instance, the oil change on a GT350 is unique. Different oil than a GT, different filter than a GT, different amount than a GT. A junior tech whose sole job is doing 20 changes a day only has to mess up on one of the three things to ruin your day.

There is a way to find out if your dealer actually knows what they're doing. It's a simple test. Check to see if the front splitter is installed properly. It comes from Ford in the trunk and the dealer has to install it during PDI. Many times, the tech doing the work takes a short cut and either doesn't get it fully engaged with the mounting clips or they leave out the screws that keep it attached at high speeds (or both).

Read through this thread and then check to see if yours is properly installed. https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...lded-under-the-car.142002/page-4#post-2913701

 

[nordique14]

This is the first car I have done my own oil changes on as I do not trust Ford dealers after hearing some of the horror stories. I do all sorts of other work on the car but fluid changes can be messy and usually not much more expensive to have someone do it. Take your time the first time and you will be fine. It is not rocket science. You will probably get oil everywhere the first time until you learn where the oil will spill from when you take off the canister. Second time should be cleaner.

One clarification on the oil filter. Some mentioned it comes with an small O-ring that is only used for Ecoboost engines. That is true of the old filters. The newer, more expensive versions are GT350 specific and only come with the 2 necessary O-rings. You can tell the new filters by the metal mesh on the inside.

 

[CANTWN4LSN]

Gonna second pro eagles comments. Think it's great if you want to change your own oil. However I think problems with dealer oil changes occur at about the same rate as blown engines from the standpoint of what gets posted on forums. As long as you tell them it's a GT350, requires 10 quarts of 5W-50, and the filter needs to be properly torqued without getting a blank stare or argument I think you'll be safe.

 

[Caballus]

I can't find the thread on doing the oil change on my own.

Really?

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/gt350-diy-oil-change-canister-oil-filter.83651/
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/2nd-oil-change-at-18-000-miles-and-diy-filter-funnel.85091/
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/diy-oil-change-lessons-learned.105800/

 

[honeybadger]

I have a lot of respect for you but I respectfully disagree with you on this one. Novices are more prone to screwing up an oil change than a trained mechanic. The dealer would be responsible for his mistake as would the owner for his own mistake. One would be covered and the other not. I've never had a problem with dealers doing simple oil changes with any of my cars and I've owned a hell of lot of them in my 72 years. If you have to google how to do something as simple as an oil change, you have no business doing it. Just my opinion. I realize that in today's society we are not allowed to have our own opinions if they don't agree with whoever is pissed off now but I'm sticking with mine.

Your opinion is perfectly valid. No reason to be down about it.

As @JAJ said, most of us pessimistic folks are the way we are from personal experience. My car has been to 3 dealers before I gave up - all 3 times it came back with issues. 2x they caused major issues for me. I just can't do it anymore. They're good people (in the service department), but they're typically very process oriented and under a time crunch - just not an environment I want my stuff in. Hell, the first time I went to get my oil change done (back when I wanted to keep my "forever warranty"), I had to argue with the damn parts guy that the GT350 took different oil, amount of oil, and had a unique filter.

In regards to your comment about novices - I am very much a novice. I'd never really worked on cars before my GT350 outside of an oil change or airbox. But I like to think I can follow the service manual, ask questions when I need to, and take my time to learn. With a good chunk of time on a Saturday, the right tools, and a beer or two, I'd argue literally anyone can change the oil in their GT350 better than most dealerships purely because they can slow down and take it easy.

 

[proeagles]

If you've got a dealer you trust, that's fantastic, so carry on! But, please recognize that the skepticism that most Shelby owners have about dealers is based on experience, sometimes bitter experience. For instance, the oil change on a GT350 is unique. Different oil than a GT, different filter than a GT, different amount than a GT. A junior tech whose sole job is doing 20 changes a day only has to mess up on one of the three things to ruin your day.

There is a way to find out if your dealer actually knows what they're doing. It's a simple test. Check to see if the front splitter is installed properly. It comes from Ford in the trunk and the dealer has to install it during PDI. Many times, the tech doing the work takes a short cut and either doesn't get it fully engaged with the mounting clips or they leave out the screws that keep it attached at high speeds (or both).

Read through this thread and then check to see if yours is properly installed. https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...lded-under-the-car.142002/page-4#post-2913701

Ironically as you no doubt already know, my splitter did come off but I also didn't buy my car from my local dealer as it was only available where I bought it. I appreciate everyone's skepticism about dealers, I just don't share it because I believe as a rule they do a pretty good job of taking care of customer cars, at least the dealers where I have my car serviced. Everyone makes mistakes now and then. It's a part of life. If I believed in everything I read about GT350 engines in the forums, I would have never bought one in the first place. Stuff happens. I also believe that if you are careful, do your research that you can do simple oil changes without issues. I put a E36 M3 engine in a E30 M3 back in the day and built my BMW race cars and serviced them back in the day before all of this online google stuff with no problems by just figuring stuff out.

 

[Rubyred17]

I have a lot of respect for you but I respectfully disagree with you on this one. Novices are more prone to screwing up an oil change than a trained mechanic. The dealer would be responsible for his mistake as would the owner for his own mistake. One would be covered and the other not. I've never had a problem with dealers doing simple oil changes with any of my cars and I've owned a hell of lot of them in my 72 years. If you have to google how to do something as simple as an oil change, you have no business doing it. Just my opinion. I realize that in today's society we are not allowed to have our own opinions if they don't agree with whoever is pissed off now but I'm sticking with mine.

I simply do not trust others working on my car. I had mine looked at because of the ticking sound and they changed the oil to see if it stopped. When I picked it up I asked the service manager to check a with the tech to verify the filter had been torqued properly.

he assured me it was. The first thing I did when I got the car home was to check the oil filter and it was hand tight- it took 2 turns of the filter to reach 18 pounds.

I am fortunate in that I have been turning wrenches for many years (as a hobby) so I am pretty knowledgeable and comfortable doing most things.

 

[460Fred]

My local dealership who I work for periodically, is really clueless about GT350’s. They may sell one a year and trade off their other allotments.
Cases in point and why I bought out of town from a dealership that sells around 30 a year.
They wanted 10K over invoice but if you were local, they’ll go “only” 5K over. I paid 5K under.
They do not carry any parts associated with regular maintenance including oil changes.
They had trouble looking up the correct filter and canister. They called me the next day with a $160 price for both.
These are the reasons I’ll do all the maintenance I can myself. I also have friends that will do the work I can’t once the warranty is up, they are master mechanics at high end dealerships. The rest will go to a dealership that has certification to work on our cars.
It’s really baffling to me how we have a ton of high performance Dodges and Chevys in town but GT350’s are as rare as hens teeth. My goal in life is to educate our city about these incredible cars albeit a bit late.

 

[jmn444]

Everybody has diff skill levels, and some should definitely let mechanics do the work especially when so much is at stake, but there are plenty that are far more careful and particular with their cars to blanketly state that the "trained" people at a dealer would be the better choice... I've build cars from bare frames so I'm not going to defer to a dealer for changing oil especially when I've been able to source oil for far cheaper than the dealer wants...

 

[460Fred]

Let’s not forget that someone can get a job at a dealership as an apprentice. They start in oil and lube just to be evaluated before moving onto other more meaningful projects.
I’ve seen good and I’ve seen bad. It’s a crap shoot unless you have a connection as to who will do the work.

 

[ZX3ST]

I have had only pleasant experiences with my local dealer from a sales perspective. I wouldn't let them service my lawnmower, let alone my 350. They way they parade around as if they're the experts and the only ones out there qualified enough to work on Ford vehicles just serves to raise my blood pressure. I can find much better ways to spend $140/hr.

Between me and my dad we buy alot of cars there. They give out 3 or 4 free oil changes with a new car purchase. We just give those coupons to the sales guy for his personal vehicles.

 

[Demonic]

Just to add, many socket sets have a 1 1/16 socket, which also fits the housing so you don’t need to buy a separate 27mm. The 1 1/16 is 26.99mm, and the tolerance on the housing allows it to fit. Also want to reiterate about watching where 10 quarts puts you on the dipstick. If you consistently try to fill beyond that to get to the top mark you may just be burning off excess.

Edit: 1 1/16, not 1 1/4 sorry

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