[shibujp]

It was a fulfillment of a long standing desire that hailed back to the days when i had my 800. To accomplish a DIY oil change. Over the past two weeks I gathered up my resolve, did some research and got together the tools and parts for it. And finally today morning i did it. Here is a short account of the steps.

The tools and the parts.
27mm ring spanner - the 27mm box just won't fit. The space that Maruti has provided around the oil filter is pretty cramped. The ring spanner is the best that would work.
Oil - the usual Delvac Super 1300. MX was out of stock.
Oil Filter and O-Ring - MGP Swift Diesel oil filter. (Rs 376). The O ring is to be fitted on the filter container.
Funnel - An item that i forgot to purchase. No problem. Cut out the top of a mineral water PET bottle.
17mm spanner - Used to unscrew the sump bolt to drain the oil.
A container - This should be big enough to hold around 3 litres of oil. Borrowed my mother's spare vegetable tray.

Step 1 - Early morning and the engine was cold. Started it up and let it idle for about 5 -10 minutes to warm up the oil. Warm oil flows better. CAUTION : HOT OIL. Do not burn your fingers.
Step 2 - Remove the oil cap. This is the yellow cap by the side of the oil filter.
Step 3 - Place the tray under the sump bolt and slowly unscrew the bolt. Loosen the bolt using the spanner and unscrew by hand. WARNING : Take precautions to ensure that you don't burn your fingers on the hot bolt or the oil that gushes out. Next time i'm using a pair of gloves.
Step 4 - While the oil drains you might turn to removing the oil filter. The oil filter is housed in a container next to the yellow oil cap. The space is quite cramped and removing the turbo hose and the engine cover makes things easier as you can see in my photographs. A 27mm ring spanner is the best i could get working in that space.

The pictures below show how i placed the spanner. Loosen the container by slow build up of pressure. Initially I could unscrew the container only using the spanner due to an O-Ring on the cover of the container.

Step 5 - Once the cover of the oil filter container was unscrewed, I removed the oil filter. Have a plastic bag hand to ensure you don't spill the black gooey oil on your engine or car. I ran into my first mistake here. While taking the photo of the filter below I let oil drip all over the turbo housing. Don't look like any damage was done. Removing the filter triggered another spurt of oil flow through the sump, so ensure the oil pan is still there.

Step 6 - Proceeded to clean the filter container.

Step 7 - Replace the O-ring on the container cover with the new O-ring that comes with the new filter. O ring shown below. The O Ring fits into a groove in the container.

Step 8 - Placed the new filter into the container. The flat side of the filter faces up with the bottom end has a tube-like portion sticking out.

Step 9 - Screwed on the filter container. The O-Ring fits flush against the bottom part of the filter container. Took care not to over do the screwing else the plastic cover might crack.

Step 10 - Cleaned the sump bolt and screwed it back on. Again i first screwed it on by hand and then tightened it with the 17mm spanner.

Step 11 - Remove the dip stick.

Step 12 - Placed the funnel in the oil tube. (Sorry this is the best word I had. This this the tube that is closed by the yellow oil cap)

Step 13 - Poured the oil into the engine. Made my second mistake here. Opened the can and just upended over the funnel rather than pouring it slowly. Well, the oil flow was so high that it overflowed and a little spilled over the alternator. Lost about 100 ml I think. The car did not show any side effects so far. However inspecting the underbody for any sign of leaks after a drive, I noticed some oil around the alternator area. Cleaned the engine area with diesel and checked after a drive today morning to spot any possible leaks. Everything looks good.

Step 14 - After pouring around 2 and half litres of oil, I checked the level using the dipstick. Poured in the rest of the oil - took in a total of around 3 litres including the spill and all.

Step 15 - Inspect for any signs of leaks from the sump bolt.

So that's it. My first DIY oil change. Took two hours in all.

The Pics:

1 - shows the new oil filter with the top and bottom marked.
2 - used oil filter
3 - placement of the makeshift oil funnel
4 - what was used for the oil change
5 - sump bolt
6 - the turbo hose removed to make a little space. The oil filter container is the one with the hexagonal nut like top to the right of the hose.
7 - shows the placement of the ring spanner. removed the engine cover for more space.
8 - oil dripping out after the sump bolt is removed.
9 - the cleaned out oil filter container. There is a spring inside.
10 - the O ring on the filter container top.

Improvements in technique, wrong practices etc are welcome!!
Drive on,
Shibu.

[dkamath]

Hi, nice job! Am wanting to try this out myself as well.

On a side note, hoping your car is out of the warranty period. I was a spectator to a warranty claim argument between a dealer and a vehicle owner. As as per the service advisor, warranty was being denied since there was no record of the oil being changed at 30K kms at any of the service centres, despite the owner informing them he did so but at a local garage.

[Eddy]

Shibu,

One important question - How did you dispose off the used oil ?

[janitha]

Any body willing to post a tutorial for Vista? Sorry for posting here, I did not get any response in Vista thread even after a long time. Or will it be similar, the engines being same?

[nisarg86]

That was a nice DIY Oil change Shibu. Always wanted to do that by myself. As i am regularly change my bike's Oil myself.
But how did you find the Oil sump bolt ? exact location.and one cant go under the engine.
At MASS they put the car on RAMP and do the job.

[shibujp]

@dkamath, @Eddy - you guys have brought up two very valid points that I should have mentioned.

1. Warranty - My car is out of it's warranty period now. It's completed 41k now.

2. Disposal of used oil - Some workshops do take used oil. I'm hoping to dispose of it in that fashion. Else I need to ask the dealer workshops how they do it and do it accordingly. Definitely not pouring it out on the good ol' earth. Right now it's been poured into the emptied oil cans.

@nisarg - The sump bolt can be viewed from underneath the car on the drivers side. i raised the front right wheel with a jack and was able to access the nut lying on my back.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by shibujp

i raised the front right wheel with a jack and was able to access the nut lying on my back.
Shibu.

Isn't it really dangerous?

[skartik2]

Can somebody post information on Vista Tdi Please!!!!

Thanks,

K

[pramodkumar]

Originally Posted by shibujp

Disposal of used oil - Some workshops do take used oil. I'm hoping to dispose of it in that fashion. Else I need to ask the dealer workshops how they do it and do it accordingly. Definitely not pouring it out on the good ol' earth. Right now it's been poured into the emptied oil cans.

Shibu,

The oil will ultimately find its way to mother earth if you give it to a workshop. what you can do is use a fraction of it for lubricating rusty things, as in my case i use it for a rusty old sliding gate, due to frequent rains in trivandrum the rails and wheels of the gate get jammed. But no way you can use the entire 3 liters that way. best option is to give 500 ml each to your neighbours for lubricating their gates (best onam gift)

Pramod

[gpa]

Shibu,

Nice report and pics. A good info for the Swift DIY-ers.

Lying under the car when it is raised by a jack is certainly dangerous. No matter ho confident you are in the jack. It is best to use a jack stand if you want to get under the car for any reason.

Regards,
gpa

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

i use it for a rusty old sliding gate, due to frequent rains in trivandrum the rails and wheels of the gate get jammed.

Use grease,man. Not oil.

[ron_9191]

Brilliant post Shibujp!!! this is really cool stuff!.

[shibujp]

1000 kms into the DIY the car feels much smoother and the power is more linear. The turbo whistle is much more pronounced and boost kicks is perceptibily at around 2000 rpm.

I feel this is due to the amount of oil poured in. Earlier I used to get a sudden smoothness in power delivery around the 8.5k - 9k mark when the oil was close to the 10k change interval. I used to give it for service and suddenly lost that smoothness. Always confused me. This time there were two factors:

1. I let the oil drain completely till it was barely dripping out of the sump.
2. I mistakenly spilt around 100ml which meant that I may have poured in around 2.9 litres. I am now checking the oil once evry week to make sure it isn't too less.

The major difference i do feel is that right after the 40,000 service the car feels really smooth and nice to drive similar to the feeling I get as the car nears the 10k service mark.

Thanks guys for the encouragement.

Yep, I agree getting under a car propped up with a jack is dangerous. Am slowly working around to getting a pair of jack stands. Procastination you know gets in the way!!

@skartik2 - the Vista Tdi is not the same as the Vista Quadrajet is it? The Quadrajet has the same engine so I'm guessing the location of the oil filter and fitment should be similar. But look around carefully before you start anything. It's surprising what a few minutes of close observation can teach you. For my part I picked up a lot watching the mechanics change oil on my car.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[jkdas]

Good thread.
So its 10k between oil changes if you are using mineral oil and 15k if synthetic oil?
And since Fiat Palio/Punto/Ritz etc have same engine, all can follow the above rule?

Also, I did see the HP CoCo fuel station displaying banner saying free oil change.

[twistwrist]

We would also require the T45 bit tool to drain oil from engine.

Originally Posted by shibujp

Over the past two weeks I gathered up my resolve, did some research and got together the tools and parts for it. And finally today morning i did it. Here is a short account of the steps.

The tools and the parts.
27mm ring spanner - the 27mm box just won't fit. The space that Maruti has provided around the oil filter is pretty cramped. The ring spanner is the best that would work.
Oil - the usual Delvac Super 1300. MX was out of stock.
Oil Filter and O-Ring - MGP Swift Diesel oil filter. (Rs 376). The O ring is to be fitted on the filter container.
Funnel - An item that i forgot to purchase. No problem. Cut out the top of a mineral water PET bottle.
17mm spanner - Used to unscrew the sump bolt to drain the oil.
A container - This should be big enough to hold around 3 litres of oil. Borrowed my mother's spare vegetable tray.
Shibu.