I found one thing I don't like about my truck today. The awful cluster**** of an oil filter location.
I knew my truck was going to be bad to change the oil on, which is why until today I had always taken it to a shop. Today I decided to do it myself to save some time and money...right.
First I hit up the stores. I needed a new drain pan, so I picked one up at Advance. They charged me for 12 of them, and I wasn't paying attention when the clerk swiped my card. I caught the mistake and got credited my $22 back, but of course since I used my card it's going to be a week before it actually goes back into my account. Funny how they can charge your account right away, but it takes days to get the money back when THEY mess up. I probably should have just demanded a cash refund, but I just wanted to get on my way. So I had my Motorcraft 5W20 and FL400s, one drain pan, and other odds and ends.
I decided to buy a set of those plastic ramp things to get better access to the oil filter which I knew would be hard to reach. Stupid things didn't look like much, but it said they can handle an 8,000 lb. vehicle, so I got them. I had to go to O'Reilly for those because everyone else was sold out of the 8,000 lb. ones and only had the more expensive 12,000 lb. ones.
So I had all my stuff and was ready to get to work. I looked to see if the filter could be removed from the top side of the engine. I after seeing the mess of lines, steering shaft, frame, and whatnot in the way I thought "no way." I drive the truck up on the useless ramp things to get to the filter from below. Suspicious of the tight gap between the starter and a heat shield that the filter would have to go through, I took out the new FL400S to see if it would fit. Not happening. I backed the truck off the stupid ramp things and started working my way towards the filter from the top. It wouldn't budge by hand, so I had to get it with a wrench. Unfortunately, I only have the cup style wrench that goes on a socket, and of course needs a lot of room to be used. Interestingly, the wrench would not go on from the top, but would go on from the bottom. I got it loose enough to turn by hand from below, then removed it the rest of the way from the top. I had to squeeze my hand between the hot exhaust manifold and steering shaft to reach it, then push the filter back behind the steering shaft and frame and up through Ford's ingenious maze of wires and whatever else they could cram into that side of the engine compartment.
Next, I oiled up the gasket on the new filter and tried to get it back down there. This was the real fun part. I was trying to get the filter down there without getting dirt on the gasket, which is nearly impossible when you have no room to work. I couldn't see the mount for the filter, so I just had to feel for it. The only way to turn the filter at all is to put your hand between the exhaust manifold and steering shaft, so of course my arm got burned and scratched the whole time. It basically looks like I was attacked by a rabid dog. Anyway, I had to put on a glove to finish tightening the filter, but I finally got it on after a lot of four letter words and pain.
Thankfully the rest of the job was fairly uneventful, but the filter was ridiculous. I have changed oil on a lot of cars, but this one has to be within the top five of the worst I've done. I've even changed the oil on Vulcan engine Taurii before, but with FWD it's not that hard. It's clear that the 3.0 was an afterthought in the Ranger.
Anybody want to buy some useless ramps?
I knew my truck was going to be bad to change the oil on, which is why until today I had always taken it to a shop. Today I decided to do it myself to save some time and money...right.
First I hit up the stores. I needed a new drain pan, so I picked one up at Advance. They charged me for 12 of them, and I wasn't paying attention when the clerk swiped my card. I caught the mistake and got credited my $22 back, but of course since I used my card it's going to be a week before it actually goes back into my account. Funny how they can charge your account right away, but it takes days to get the money back when THEY mess up. I probably should have just demanded a cash refund, but I just wanted to get on my way. So I had my Motorcraft 5W20 and FL400s, one drain pan, and other odds and ends.
I decided to buy a set of those plastic ramp things to get better access to the oil filter which I knew would be hard to reach. Stupid things didn't look like much, but it said they can handle an 8,000 lb. vehicle, so I got them. I had to go to O'Reilly for those because everyone else was sold out of the 8,000 lb. ones and only had the more expensive 12,000 lb. ones.
So I had all my stuff and was ready to get to work. I looked to see if the filter could be removed from the top side of the engine. I after seeing the mess of lines, steering shaft, frame, and whatnot in the way I thought "no way." I drive the truck up on the useless ramp things to get to the filter from below. Suspicious of the tight gap between the starter and a heat shield that the filter would have to go through, I took out the new FL400S to see if it would fit. Not happening. I backed the truck off the stupid ramp things and started working my way towards the filter from the top. It wouldn't budge by hand, so I had to get it with a wrench. Unfortunately, I only have the cup style wrench that goes on a socket, and of course needs a lot of room to be used. Interestingly, the wrench would not go on from the top, but would go on from the bottom. I got it loose enough to turn by hand from below, then removed it the rest of the way from the top. I had to squeeze my hand between the hot exhaust manifold and steering shaft to reach it, then push the filter back behind the steering shaft and frame and up through Ford's ingenious maze of wires and whatever else they could cram into that side of the engine compartment.
Next, I oiled up the gasket on the new filter and tried to get it back down there. This was the real fun part. I was trying to get the filter down there without getting dirt on the gasket, which is nearly impossible when you have no room to work. I couldn't see the mount for the filter, so I just had to feel for it. The only way to turn the filter at all is to put your hand between the exhaust manifold and steering shaft, so of course my arm got burned and scratched the whole time. It basically looks like I was attacked by a rabid dog. Anyway, I had to put on a glove to finish tightening the filter, but I finally got it on after a lot of four letter words and pain.
Thankfully the rest of the job was fairly uneventful, but the filter was ridiculous. I have changed oil on a lot of cars, but this one has to be within the top five of the worst I've done. I've even changed the oil on Vulcan engine Taurii before, but with FWD it's not that hard. It's clear that the 3.0 was an afterthought in the Ranger.
Anybody want to buy some useless ramps?
