I recently tried to get an oil change in Southern California. Lets just say it was a mess. I visisted 6 locations and even Walmart for the service. No one would touch my car! I have done about 5 oil changes and it took me less than an hour. I no longer have a garage and laying under a car in 100' weather doesn't sound like fun. I mean really its not hard. I can understand if they popped the hood on my 4g eclipse with water-methanol and a huge shaft driven vortech supercharger (recently caught pep boys blitzing my car behind the garage = fired).

The reason is that none of them would look at my car because of the coolant reservoir and the tight space. One guy said he had to take off the intake, coolant and pcv valves to get to it. He tried then left all the lines disconnected. They did this on my SVT focus and left the oil cap off. It got sht all over. Valvoline heard my wrath as I stalled down the street. You should have heard this fool. " It has an aftermarket intake and a bunch of uh mods. I jus jus cant work on it!" I called him out on that and contacted the regional. lol

Why are mechanics that are certified so afraid of working on a car? The dealer just tried to quote me about $200.... Needless to say I will be under my car in scorching heat and changing my own oil. I have all the stuff but why dont people work on these cars ?

 

I know you may flame me but I love royal purple 5-30, I use it on my bikes and all my cars

 

I have a ‘07 MCS R-56 N14 and the only thing you need to move away is that one 10mm screw for the coolant reservoir to gain access to the oil filter housing….. VOILA! I don’t know why these technicians gotta make it so complicated

 

Moving the coolant is the easiest route, you can get it if you remove the intake tube from turbo to maf.

you can raise just the drive side front wheel just high enough for you to get a drain pan under there and get to the drain plug.

 

When the guy in the video says "move the coolant tank up and out of our way - be careful, don't put too much tension on the hoses" he means it! I was pushing the tank and the plastic tee snapped. I had to order the Turbocharger Return to Thermostat and Expansion Tank Hose.

My oil change cost me an extra $100 including replacing the lost coolant. The generic oil changers probably know the pitfalls. If they bust the tee, they would have to send your car to the dealer, and I don't have to tell you what the added labor would be to take off the intake tube and put the hose in. I did it myself. Lesson learned. It's happened to others.
See this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...hange-oil.html

I had similar balking from majors when i went to replace the battery on my Golf TDI. You have to take off the airbox cover with the intake tube and MAF just to get to the battery hold down clamp. So they will quote extra labor.

Now I have to chase a 29E0 and 37DE codes to find out what I missed putting the intake Tube back on.

 

There is a quick release fitting on the bottom of the coolant tank. You’ll lose a small amount of coolant by disconnecting it, but removing it completely make it MUCH easier to get to the oil filter.

 

That is definitely an n18 problem, n14 doesn’t have the T fitting. Broke the damn t on wife’s best friend’s R60 when we were down on the dragon, trip to lowes for the brass pex t and clamps, 6 months later no leaks still.

 

Thanks Nik. Next time I'm going to do that.