[dngrous_dime]

I've got a 97 5sp, and I was planning on changing my own oil, until I saw that my oil filter is directly above the engine crossmember. What's the best way to avoid making a huge mess with that? It's no big deal if I hafta take it in to get it changed, there's a place locally that'll do it all for $15.... My 2000 Cavalier has the 2.2 engine in it, and I can't even reach it, the way it's mounted... Has anyone used those oil filter relocators, and if so, have you had any troubles with them? Advice, anyone???
P.S. - Will it cause any trouble if I switch from dino to synthetic at 63,000 miles????? (I just bought the truck less than 1,000 miles ago)

 

[CustomS10]

go get a filter wrench the adjustable one that goes on a socket not the strap kind. That tool rules!! 2ndly. I'm not familiar with pre 98 2.2s but on mine it has a "funnel" so to speak that the oil travels down u'll see it near the drain plug. brb i'll go take a pic for u

 

[CustomS10]

it's dark out and i can't really see well but i think this is it.

 

[VictoryRed]

I have seen a post somewhere about putting tape near the underside of the filter. Then when you loosen it the oil will drain down the tape.

I'd stick with regular oil. Seems a lot of people "find" more leaks when they switch to synthetic.

I justed looked at mine the other day. 2k miles and time for a oil change. Wasn't sure but that was my first guess, oil filter funnel...

I wish more vehicles had similar setups. My 98 Camaro always made a mess on the steering rack.

 

[dngrous_dime]

My 2000 Cavalier has the filter located directly above the flex pipe in the exhaust.... Made it nice and smoky after every oilchange I did myself....

I'm not sure if my truck has the oil filter funnel, and it's too dark outside to go look... Thanks for the help, guys!

 

[snowpunk1986]

I dont wanna sound lyke a smart ass or something but the reason people find more leaks with synthetic is because it has the consistancy of water. . .(I work at a custom motorcycle shop here in East Peoria) the high end $40,000-$50,000 bikes such as bourget used to actually stamp mobil 1 on their oil cap but since then they did some research and it will work spectacular in cars (for the most part any engine) but in a small V-twin bike the bearings will actually skate and if you did not use sythetic to begin with and there is a lot of build up (which I doubt there will be at those kind of miles if the oil was changed on time and he wasnt really hard on the truck) if there would happen to be leaks that should explain most of it. Hope this helps a little.

 

[dngrous_dime]

So, stay with dino?

 

[snowpunk1986]

Well, if the previous owner babied the thing then synthetic will probably be alright and you may even see a lil improvment in throttle response. I'm not saying sythetic is bad (I use Mobil 1 myself and have after the 1,500 mile mark) but its probably not going to make a huge difference of nething.

 

[TwisterS10]

On the synthetic issue, I changed to Mobil 1 Full Synthetic at 78,000 and had no problems then. And I don't know abou the rest of you, but I dog the crap out of that truck, especially on the highway and I now have 105k and I have experienced no problems since. I have noticed though that the oil comes out alot cleaner than it used to.

 

[hotrods95s10]

synthetic oil is "so they" only suppose to be in newer cars that have less than 10,000. But I think thats a bunch of crap. I work in a auto parts store and we sell more synthetic oil than any other oil. I know that theres more older cars out there than just a few. I use Castrol Synthetic in my truck and I started using that when I first got it and it had 35,000 and its got now 70,000 and its a 95 2.2l

 

[SummerWolf]

well, synthetic oil has the tendency to find cracks in older gaskets and start leaking mildy.....not a big deal, but an engine that has had dino oil in it forever suddenly switches to synthetic and starts leaking oil....not too too uncommon on higher mileage vehicles....

and hotrod what auto parts store do you work in that sells more synthetic than anything, when I worked at advance and or autozone we sold the shit out of our store brand and valvoline and some synthetic here and there, but definitely not mostly synthetic

Caleb

 

[Futuresweets10]

go through the passenger side wheel well to access the filter

 

[dngrous_dime]

Accessing the filter isn't the problem... Draining it is.