Servicing Your Own Car: Oil, Filters and the Ryco Numbers You Need

An oil and filter change is the one job on a modern car that has not really changed in forty years, and it is still the one that does the most for the engine's life. It is also the job where the mistakes are cheap to make and expensive to discover: the wrong oil, the wrong filter, a sump plug done up by feel. Here is how to do it so that it is worth having done.

What is actually in a service?

A basic service is engine oil and the oil filter, on the interval in the handbook. A full service adds the air filter, the fuel filter and the cabin filter on their own schedules, and a look at everything that wears: brake fluid, coolant, belts, hoses, tyres, brake pads. If you are doing it yourself, do the basic service properly and honestly check the rest, and let the workshop handle the things you find.

Which oil

The grade is on the oil filler cap or in the handbook, and it is a specification, not a suggestion. A 5W-30 and a 10W-40 are different oils for different engines, and beyond the viscosity there is the standard the engine was built to — an API or ACEA rating, or a manufacturer's own approval — and that matters more than the brand on the bottle.

Two cases where the wrong oil does real damage. A modern diesel with a particulate filter needs a low-ash oil made for it; a conventional diesel oil will block the filter over a few thousand kilometres and the repair is not small. And a petrol engine with a timing chain and variable valve timing is fussy about viscosity, because the oil is also the hydraulic fluid that moves the cam phasers; too thick and it rattles on cold start, too thin and it wears.

The Penrite range covers most of what drives around the peninsula, and Penrite publishes a lookup by vehicle that gives the grade and the approval; use it rather than guessing from the shelf, and bring the result in if you want us to match it.

Which filter: finding the Ryco number

Ryco filters carry a prefix that tells you what they are: Z for oil filters, A for air, R for fuel, RCA for cabin. The number after it is specific to the vehicle, and there are two easy ways to find yours. The first is the number on the filter that is on the car now, which is usually printed on the canister. The second is the fitment on each filter's page in our Ryco filter range, which lists the vehicles it suits; search the site for your existing number, or for the make and model, and check the engine and year against the listing before you order. A filter that screws on is not necessarily the right filter — the thread and seal diameter are shared across a lot of parts with different bypass valve and flow ratings, and the wrong one can starve an engine of oil on cold start.

Doing the oil change

• Warm the engine first, five minutes of driving, so the oil drains fully and carries the sediment with it. Not hot — warm.
• Drain completely. Let it run to a drip. Half the old oil left in the sump is half the benefit lost.
• A new sealing washer on the sump plug, every time. It is a crush washer and it is single-use, and a reused one is the source of most of the oil drips on driveways.
• Torque the plug, do not lean on it. A stripped sump thread is a new sump.
• Filter: hand tight plus a bit. Smear clean oil on the new gasket, spin it on until the gasket touches, then a further three-quarter turn or so, by hand. A filter done up with a strap wrench is a filter that comes off with a chisel next time. Pre-filling a canister filter is fine where it mounts upright; on a cartridge filter fit the new element and the new O-rings in the housing.
• Fill to the dipstick, not to the book. The capacity in the handbook is for a dry engine. Put in most of it, run the engine for a minute, let it settle, and top up to the mark.
• Look underneath after the first drive. Then reset the service reminder.

Old oil goes to the council depot, not the drain and not the bin.

How often, honestly

The interval in the handbook assumes normal driving. Most driving around here is not normal by the makers' definition: dirt roads, short trips, towing a boat, and long hot summers all count as severe use, and the handbook's own fine print usually halves the interval for it. The air filter in particular lives a hard life on gravel; look at it every service and replace it when it is grey rather than when the schedule says.

Where to stop

Oil and filters are a sound afternoon's work. Brake fluid, coolant, a timing belt, a diesel injector service, a transmission flush — those want the right tools and the right procedure, and doing them wrong is worse than not doing them at all. Spark plugs sit somewhere in between, and our guide to car spark plugs covers what to fit and how.

The rest of it we do at the Kadina workshop through automotive servicing and repairs, on cars, utes and four-wheel-drives, logbook services included. If you have done the oil yourself and want the brakes, the coolant and everything you were not sure about looked at, ring 0412 532 984.