Since I moved into a house I've been able to change my own oil (Condo
association Natzi's didn't let people change oil in the association). In
changing my own oil I've discovered some problems with Dakota's, as they are
NOT the most oil change friendly vehicles in the world.
#1: Because of the clearances involved, wrenches are very hard to get on the
filter, making getting the damn things off a real challenge (finally found an
articulated wrench that works well: the end cap and band style wrenches
sucked...)
#2: Removing the filter throws oil EVERYWHERE! Ugh! This is WAY too messy.
I've never gotten this much oil running out of a filter as I unscrew it...
yuck. Bad Dak! No biscuit!
#3: Funnel required... Daks and their darn hoses and harnesses everywhere;
don't let you dump oil in very effectively from just the bottle. Bought a
small, wide mouth funnel and viole', no spilling.
#4: Doggie pads a good idea! Buy some dog potty training pads for large dogs
and lay it down before you start your oil change. They soak up a ton of oil
and are plastic on the bottom so it never reaches your driveway or street.
#5: Synthetics clean up much easier than dino oil. Original oil in truck
stained everything (intake manifold leak until Dealer fixed it) it touched.
Switched to Mobil 1 and no more stains. Even splotches on the driveway go
away after time. The dino oil ones haven't faded a bit! Wipe up on the truck
a breeze too.
If I were to want to go to a larger filter, I'd get one of those "Oil
Filter Relocation Kits" and just move the whole damn assembly! You'd never
have to worry about filter size (could even get them that use diesel engine
filters: huge monsters!) and you can mount it in an easy to get to location.
This make's it so that you could almost do an entire change from ABOVE the
engine. Good thing, but you'd have to worry about bursted hoses from then
on... there's always a catch...
Shaun H.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:14:06 EDT