mx-5 oil change

[swansea v6]

How F@@?#ng annoying is an oil change on a 1.6 mx-5.....i usually service my cars myself and i can honestly say this has the been the hardest to change the oil on.....first off the sump nut was welded on!!!! had to place a spanner on the nut, lower the jack, jamming the spanner against the floor and pushing the car backwards to break the seal..........that was the easy part!!!! the filter itself is buried on the MOST awkward part of the engine bay, i could not even get my hand on it. So off came the strut brace and lots of swearing (in both welsh and english) later i finally got it off, what a pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyway rant over........

[GHW]

It's a fun game, isn't it?

I've got it down to about 10 minutes now... undo the intake manifold end of the strut brace and lift it out of position, then slip (squeeze, scrape) right hand in under the intake manifold and get a hold of the filter, unscrew, get covered in hot oil, try to withdraw hand without dropping filter, etc, etc, etc

lovely.

[anonymous-user]

When you've tried changing the oil filter on a 156 V6 you'll realise what a dream the MX5 oil change is.

[swansea v6]

I'd love to see that engine bay, to see how hard it is........why cant all cars be like my ex bmw 325i, filter was in housing at front of engine, undo one bolt and voila.............

[steve bowen]

Is the 1.6 alot different to the 1.8? It is awkward but by no means difficult you can reach in beside the inlet manifold and lift the filter out the top or if you go in through the wheel arch its really easy.

[juzzyp]

Nah! Do it on a Kia Mentor, then you really have a game, OK it's Korean but boy is it annoying.

Having done 2 or 3 oil changes you find a way round it somehow, once you've cooked your hands on the engine, you've been initiated.

[chimmo]

I agree with this chap!

The location is a b*tch, I had similar probs with the sump nut.
Got a massive gash on my arm trying to get the filter on and off and then started the bugger up and it blew it off! 4 litres all over the garage! I had to get two new filters as it appeared the oil line treads were damaged.. luckily they were but what was meant to be a 60min job actually took about 6hours and thats not including cleaning up the mess!

[anonymous-user]

steve bowen said:

Is the 1.6 alot different to the 1.8? It is awkward but by no means difficult you can reach in beside the inlet manifold and lift the filter out the top or if you go in through the wheel arch its really easy.

The 1.6 is supposedly easier than the 1.8. Perhaps I just have the arms of a vietnemese child labourer...

[swansea v6]

really? the 1.6 is easier than the 1.8????? bet thats fun.............