Oil change trick

mommucked

mommucked

Endeavoring to persevere
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Location
Rural Apex n.c.
I do oil changes in my driveway (gravel) I use ramps and a large, open plastic pan w a spout. I save large pieces of cardboard from work to lay on and slide under the vehicles .I wear nitrile gloves to keep the oil off my hands. The oil in a hot engine can be too hot for the gloves and I've about burned my finger/thumb removing the loose plug.I used to get the plug out and instantly remove the glove w the hot oil on it. I've saved old cotton tshirts and socks for rags for years. I recently had a bag of them ready to do 2 oil changes and I had an idea............I put an old sock over the nitrile glove on my hand and removed the hot plug. The sock kept my fingers from the heat of the oil and the hot plug as I unscrewed it. While the oil drained I grabbed the hot filter and unscrewed it w the sock still over the glove. The sock insulates the heat from the hot filter and gives a good grip on the filter, even if it's got oil on it. Pull the sock off and wipe the glove off w it and the glove can be used again to install the plug/filter when the oil has drained. I pull the gloves off and blow them back inside out to use them again and not get any oil on my hands.
 
Use a similar trick when dealing with hot meat off the smoker... Nitrile gloves over top of cheap cotton gloves. Insulates almost as good as the big thick gloves, but still easy to work with tools/meat.
 
I found if I unscrew the plug fully, while holding in towards the threads, then quickly pull the plug out and away, you get nearly no oil on you.. though I find it a pain to try to reuse gloves.. my hands sweat badly in gloves, and you won't get them back on easily with wet hands or glove insides..
 
I still change my oil & filter, but Not with it hot. I do warm it up, or if I've been driving it, I get it on the ramps & let cool down. Recently switched to the thicker nitrile gloves. Haven't tried Hot stuff yet, but they don't tear, like the thin ones do, & I can re-use them several times. It's Worth the dollar or two, more! Harbor Freight!
 
rodney eppes said:
I still change my oil & filter, but Not with it hot. I do warm it up, or if I've been driving it, I get it on the ramps & let cool down.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it. My oil change trick is to not change the oil when it's too damn hot.

If the drain plug is too hot, spin it off with the loose socket that you used to break it free in the first place, because I guarantee you'll spin the plug out before the socket heats up enough to be uncomfortable. It will also give you some distance away from the plug, to prevent getting any used oil on your... um.... disposable gloves.
Drop oil, take off glove. Put on new glove. Continue with oil change.

Any old shop rag or blue shop towel works as an insulator if the oil filter is hot, but I suppose an old sock would also be something that you could use for that instead.....

I don't reuse disposable gloves. Because disposable, and they're hard to reuse if they fit properly. At $10/box for Microflex DiamondGrip latex or MidKnight nitrile or SAS Raven, they get thrown away. If the gloves tear too easily, get better gloves instead of thicker gloves. Or, get better gloves that are also thicker.

I bet @a_kelley has probably used every brand of glove out there; what's the glove of choice?
 
Last edited:
I always change my oil when the vehicle is cold.
 
You guys wear gloves when you change oil?
 
I prefer the microflex black midnight.. tactile, thin, but don't tear too easily. Been using the black nitrile gloves that advance sells, but they tear more easily than the Microflex. (Don't recall right of what brand) I don't like the HF gloves, way too thin or way too thick.

Edit: advance carries derma-pro nitrile gloves.. 5% of the time I'll rip them trying to put one on, but usually don't rip unless I catch them on something once I've got them on.. actually reduces my number of scratches/cuts received, believe it or not.
 
Last edited:
shawn said:
It looks like that one is metric. Do they have an SAE version for American cars?
Click to expand...

Yes, it comes up when you Google left handed monkey wrench..
 
Fabrik8 said:
Beat me to it. My oil change trick is to not change the oil when it's too damn hot.

If the drain plug is too hot, spin it off with the loose socket that you used to break it free in the first place, because I guarantee you'll spin the plug out before the socket heats up enough to be uncomfortable. It will also give you some distance away from the plug, to prevent getting any used oil on your... um.... disposable gloves.
Drop oil, take off glove. Put on new glove. Continue with oil change.

Any old shop rag or blue shop towel works as an insulator if the oil filter is hot, but I suppose an old sock would also be something that you could use for that instead.....

I don't reuse disposable gloves. Because disposable, and they're hard to reuse if they fit properly. At $10/box for Microflex DiamondGrip latex or MidKnight nitrile or SAS Raven, they get thrown away. If the gloves tear too easily, get better gloves instead of thicker gloves. Or, get better gloves that are also thicker.

I bet @a_kelley has probably used every brand of glove out there; what's the glove of choice?
Click to expand...


That's good advice, but both of the cars I'm changing the oil in have the drain plug facing away from the front. I can barely slide under them from the side and the ramp is in the way, much easier access from the front. If I was to use a socket I'm sure every other time the plug or socket or both would fall in the drain pan and might splash oil on me.I use box wrenches to loosen/tighten the plugs.
 
Last edited:
mommucked said:
That's good advice, but both of the cars I'm changing the oil in have the drain plug facing the away from the front. I can barely slide under them from the side and the ramp is in the way, much easier access from the front. If I was to use a socket I'm sure every other time the plug or socket or both would fall in the drain pan and might splash oil on me.I use box wrenches to loosen/tighten the plugs.
Click to expand...

Dropping the plug happens. So does the odd oil splash from the oil stream into the drain pan.. Just fish it out after the oil is done draining and clean it off.
Put it this way: One of my Subarus has a fumoto valve. The other Subaru has a frequently dropped drain plug. Fish out the drain plug before changing your glove, move on.
 
Last edited:
rodney eppes said:
That is an option. But I've also heard you may get a sludge buildup, around the plug area. The pumps, don't get all the areas.
Click to expand...
heck, I've seen sludge built up in a 5.3 pan with a groove in the sludge that draining hot oil made over the years.. to bad I used chlorinated cleaner, it dissolved all the sludge before I could show it to my customer.. but, I figured that the next one I could spray 3-4 cans down the dip stick tube into a drained motor with the plug reinstalled, leave it sit awhile and drain, rinse with a quart of oil and refill. I've verified that works, at least when it's not inches of sludge, but for sure enough to cause pressure drop to 0 when hot from it clogging the screen.
 
rodney eppes said:
That is an option. But I've also heard you may get a sludge buildup, around the plug area. The pumps, don't get all the areas.
Click to expand...

If it's built up that bad it needs to be gone through or blow any way.
 
Yeah, I found it interesting he refers to this as an amazing new design, but this has been around a long time. Although the actual valve attachment mechanism is slightly different.

There's also this style
https://www.amazon.com/EZ-EZ-106-Oi...5BJ6BGCF1N0&psc=1&refRID=CF6TRQB3T5BJ6BGCF1N0
Which is nice for $24, but I'd want to be sure that handle is in a place where it is protected. Maybe ok on a car where it's not likely to get rubbed n anything, but I'd want it behind a skid on anything that goes offroad.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Yeah, I found it interesting he refers to this as an amazing new design, but this has been around a long time. Although the actual valve attachment mechanism is slightly different.

There's also this style
https://www.amazon.com/EZ-EZ-106-Oi...5BJ6BGCF1N0&psc=1&refRID=CF6TRQB3T5BJ6BGCF1N0
Which is nice for $24, but I'd want to be sure that handle is in a place where it is protected. Maybe ok on a car where it's not likely to get rubbed n anything, but I'd want it behind a skid on anything that goes offroad.
Click to expand...

That's a China knockoff of the Fumoto valve, with one or two minor changes. I've had a few Fumoto valves and like them, but it's down to placement of the drain plug on the pan, and your comfort level of what level of danger is going to be. I'm generally more concerned about the extra bulk of the valve body hanging down instead of the lever accidentally getting flipped open.
 
Back
Top