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What Is The Easiest And Safest Way How To Change Your Cars Oil?
If you are looking to be able to change your oil in the safest way possible I’ve outlined the different steps I think you should take to stay safe when changing your own oil to make changing your own oil as safe as possible. How do you change the oil in a car?
Why Do You Need To Change The Oil In A Car?
Over time the oil in your car’s engine will start to break down. As engine oil starts to break down it turns to sludge which as you may or may not know is bad for your engine. That is why it’s important to change your oil at regular intervals. To find out how often your vehicle manufacturer recommends changing your oil you can consult your owner’s manual or do your own research online.
How To Change Oil In A Car
To change the oil in your car you are going to need some basic hand tools, car ramps or a floor jack, a container to drain your old oil in, and a replacement oil and oil filter. You don’t necessarily need a funnel to pour oil into your engine but it makes the job easier.
The Easiest Way To Change Oil In A Car
The easiest way to change the oil in a car is to put your car on car ramps that way you don’t have to mess around with jacking up your car and putting it on jack stands. Car ramps also typically can get the front end of your car higher in the air than you would typically be able to with a floor jack and jack stands.
Another tip to make your oil change easier is to buy an oil container that makes it easy to dispose of your old oil. You don’t want a container that may spill oil so it’s important to use a container that can be sealed so that oil doesn’t accidentally split out when you are transporting it to dispose of it.
Using Car Ramps to Lift Your Car
If you are planning on using car ramps that is fine but you may want to have a spotter that can guide you on to the car ramps if you have never used car ramps before. You first want to make sure that wherever you are planning on lifting up your car that you have a sufficient amount of space in front of the car ramps so that when you pull your car onto the car ramps your front bumper doesn’t crush into your garage wall.
I usually back up my car and get it in place and make sure that my two front tires are pointing straight. I will then get out of my car and set the car ramps in front of my two front tires. I’ll then hop back into my car and slowly drive up the car ramps.
It’s important that you just don’t punch the accelerator and that you slowly drive up the car ramps otherwise you are going to go off the other end of the car ramps. You will have to give it a bit of gas though to get up the car ramps. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a spotter with you the first couple times that you attempt this until you feel comfortable enough to do this on your own.
Once you get your car to the top platform of your car ramps you should feel a bump at the end of the car ramp that would indicate that you should stop and put your car in park. Once you have successfully put your car in park on top of the car ramps you would also want to engage your parking brake before letting off of the brake of your vehicle.
Once you are out of your vehicle you would want to place wheel chocks behind both of your back two tires to ensure that your car will not accidentally roll backward off of the car ramps. You would then want to place jack stands on the front end of the vehicle to make sure that if one of the car ramps were to fail that the jack stands would catch the vehicle before it fell on your face.
I cannot emphasize enough that if you value safety that you want to make sure that you use jack stands and wheel chocks when you use car ramps. There have been many reviews online saying that their plastic car ramps failed on them and if they were underneath the car ramps then they believe that they would have been crushed.
If you use jack stands as backups to the car ramps you have the added security to keep the vehicle from falling on you if one of the car ramps were to crack or fail completely. To learn more about which car ramps I would recommend for oil changes click here.
Best Car Ramps For Oil Changes – Article
Using a Floor Jack to Lift Your Car
If you are planning on using a floor jack to lift up the front end of your car to change your oil you would also want to use jack stands in conjunction with your floor jack. You always want to make sure to set whatever vehicle that you are working on to jack stands so that the weight of the vehicle is not supported by the floor jack only. 
If you do support the weight of your vehicle on your floor jack just know that even if it does not fail on you that you are causing more stress to the floor jack than it was intended to have applied. It may not fail on you at that very second but if you consistently do this it may eventually wear out the hydraulic arm of the floor jack and it may not lift your car any at all.
In terms of the safety aspect of raising your vehicle up in the air using a floor jack may be a bit safer than using car ramps as you don’t have the chance of accidentally messing up the underside of your vehicle by driving off of the car ramps. If something does go wrong while you are lifting your vehicle up in the air with a floor jack your vehicle would just fall back onto the tire that you were lifting up in the air.
One disadvantage to using a floor jack over car ramps would be that you have to lift your vehicle significantly high in the air to get the same clearance as you would if you were using car ramps.
When I use car ramps to change my oil I have plenty of clearance underneath the front end of my car and my tires are lifted at least 6 inches off of the ground. To get the same sort of clearance with a floor jack I would have to extend my floor jack to almost it’s maxed position. If you are interested in learning more about floor jacks and which floor jacks I would recommend checking out my other article about floor jacks.
If you are wanting to be as safe as possible when changing your oil with a floor jack you would also want to use wheel chocks to make sure that your vehicle does not roll backward when you have the front end of it lifted in the air. When using wheel chocks your vehicle will be less likely to be able to roll back as it will act as a bumper to keep your back wheels from moving backward at all.
Jack Stands
Like I mentioned above it’s important to always use jack stands when you have your vehicle lifted up in the air. Jack stands will act as an extra safety barrier between your face and your vehicle so you will be glad that you were using them if something went wrong and your vehicle was tumbling at you.
When you are using jack stands you want to pay attention to the weight capacity of the jack stands that you are using versus the weight of the vehicle that you are going to be suspending in the air.
If you have a small vehicle you should be fine with using 2-ton jack stands but if you are going to be lifting up a truck or heavy SUV you would probably want to get 3-ton jack stands just to be safe that you aren’t overloading the jack stands.
If you would like to know more about what jack stands that I would recommend for you to use based on how much your vehicle weighs I’ve written an in-depth article about jack stands and the different ones I would recommend.
Wheel Chocks
Wheel chocks are another safety measure to use when changing your oil. When you use wheel chocks behind your back wheels when you have your vehicle lifted in the air your back wheels won’t really have any place to move so your car will be less likely to slip off of your jack stands.
You may want to give your wheel chocks a bit of wiggle room in between your back tires otherwise when you go to remove your wheel chocks later on when you are done with your oil change you might have issues being able to pull them from out under your tires.
Oil Drain Pan
Another key item that you will need if you are going to be changing your own oil is an oil drain pan. If you don’t have a way of disposing of your own oil you would want to use an oil drain pan to catch all of your old oil that you can then transport over to your local auto parts store. To see which oil drain pans I recommend check out my other article about oil drain pans.
Your auto parts store will take any of your old oil-free of charge so that you don’t have to dispose of at a hazardous waste site. You never want to dump your oil in your backyard or in a stream as that can kill the local wildlife and can seep back into your drinking water.
How To Select The Best Oil Drain Pan – Article
Nitrile Gloves
Now, this part doesn’t really have to do with the safety of changing the oil in your vehicle but it does have a lot to do with the cleanliness aspect of changing your own oil. If you have never changed your own oil without gloves before you do not know how much dirt and oil can get stuck under your fingernails that will be tough to clean off of your hands when you are done.
It’s much easier to just use nitrile disposable gloves when you are changing out your oil and discard them when you are done with the job. Your hands will come out as clean as they were before you started changing your oil and you won’t have to worry about having to clean the oil and dirt from your fingers and fingernails when you are done changing your oil.
Related Questions
Can I just add oil to my car? You can keep adding oil to your car if it is burning through oil but you would eventually want to drain all of the old oil and replace it with new oil. If your car is burning oil it doesn’t hurt to add a quart of oil here and there. It’s not uncommon for higher mileage engines to burn a quart of oil in between oil changes.
What happens when you don’t change the oil in your car? If you don’t ever change the oil in your car it will eventually turn to sludge and start to affect the performance of your car’s engine. Engine oil is designed to be used for a certain mileage and then be replaced with new engine oil.
Engine oil is designed to provide lubrication to the moving parts inside of your engine. Over time engine oil will start to break down and turn to sludge which increases the viscosity of your engine oil which you don’t want. Eventually, the old engine oil would turn to all to sludge and render your engine useless.
How long can I go without an oil change? How long you should go without an oil change depends on a few factors. The main factor determining how long engine oil is designed to last is if the engine oil is synthetic or conventional.
Conventional oil is not designed to be used for long periods and typically has an oil change interval of 3,000-5,000 miles. Synthetic oil is designed to last longer and typically has oil change intervals of 7,000-10,000 miles.
What are the signs that your car needs an oil change? If your car is equipped with an oil life indicator then it should tell you when your oil life is getting low and needs to be changed. If your car did not come with an oil life indicator then your best bet is to change your oil at intervals recommended by your vehicle manufacturer. It’s best not to determine if your car needs an oil change by the performance of your engine.
Does oil go bad in a car? Yes, your car’s engine oil will start to break down and go bad in a car. Both synthetic and conventional oil will start to go bad in a car over time. Eventually, the engine oil will start to turn to sludge which you don’t want as oil sludge is hard to remove from an engine.
Can I drive my car with 0 oil life? You can drive your car with 0 oil life but you should probably change your oil as soon as possible. Driving your car past the 0 oil life indicator can cause your engine oil to break down and turn to sludge over time. It’s best to change your engine oil when your vehicle manufacturer recommends which is what the oil life indicator is designed for.
How long does synthetic oil last in a car? Synthetic oil will last longer than conventional oil, however, your best bet is to still change your oil when your vehicle manufacturer recommends. My vehicle was designed to be used with conventional oil and I use synthetic oil because of the better performance of synthetic oil. I still pay attention to the oil life indicator and change out my oil when the oil life indicator gets down to 10-15% oil life left.
How To Change Oil In A Car – In Conclusion
If you are looking to change your oil as safe as possible you would want to make sure that you follow all of the safety guidelines that I mentioned in the article and use all of the proper equipment that I mentioned in this article. Hopefully, now you will be confident enough to tackle changing your own oil without having to be worried about the safety aspect of the procedure.