Oil and gear oil change

[coacha]

I decided to do it myself for the first time. I learned some lessons:

1. Changing oil up on the jack ends up fairly messy for me. The jack bars and such, get in the way of the draining oil, so I ended up with a nice big pool of used oil on the floor. Oil dry to the rescue.

2. The oil fill cap is a PITA to get off if you don't have the "special" tool as the service tech told me via phone or a big honking screw driver. Had to go to Sears and get the Big Dawg and use some channel locks with it to loosen the thing. Tech told me that was so nobody can mess with your oil fill when you are out. WTF would I do if I needed to put oil in on the road???? Guess Big Dawg and the channel locks go with me now in the side bags on long trips.

3. The final gear oil is a PITA to fill. I used a funnel to get it into the opening but didn't have it in far enough (I've heard that before!) so everything started to spill out the edges. Finally got it in deep (again, heard that before) and got enough in.

What should have been a 30 to 45 minute job turned into 2 hours. At least now I know what NOT to do.