Oil Drain Question from a newbie

damon_h · #1 07-04-2006, 10:49 AM

I dont have much experience with car matainence , and any help would be greatly appreciated. I have never changed the oil myself in my 05 silverado. Can someone please describe to me where the oil drain plug is, because i dont want to screw someting up, and i cant find it. If someone could psot a pic that would be great too.
thanks

jasonb01 · #2 07-04-2006, 01:41 PM

Dude, I hate to say it, but if you don't know how to find the oil drain plug, then I wouldn't mess with that new truck too much. It is easy though. It is on the bottom of the oil pan underneath the engine. JUST MAKE SURE YOU DRAIN THE ENGINE OIL AND NOT THE TRANNY! You have 2 pans under there. The engine pan is, of course, the one to the front of the truck. Change the filter too while your down there. Don't forget to put a little used oil on the filters rubber gasket before you put it on and don't overtighten. You will catch hell next time if you do. Good luck!

Ape0r · #3 07-04-2006, 11:22 PM

It's the bolt on the bottom rear of the oil pan. As above, if you can't identify the engine oil pan, best to take it to the dealer for service. Don't forget to grease the zerk fittings and reset the OLM while you're at it.

sportin83 · #4 07-04-2006, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ape0r

It's the bolt on the bottom rear of the oil pan. As above, if you can't identify the engine oil pan, best to take it to the dealer for service. Don't forget to grease the zerk fittings and reset the OLM while you're at it.

i have never seen any grease zerks on my truck. where are they? i have a 2002 ext cab 5.3

Ape0r · #5 07-05-2006, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sportin83

i have never seen any grease zerks on my truck. where are they? i have a 2002 ext cab 5.3

Lower ball joints, upper ball joints, inner tie rods, outer tie rods, and 3 on the pitman and idler arms, for a total of 11.

http://gm-trucks.com/home/content/view/123/25/

wrparks · #6 07-05-2006, 11:29 AM

Gonna warn you man. If your oil pan is like mine, it's a b*t*h. Easy to get to, easy to remove, but man, I can never get the oil to land in my bucket. Who the bright guy engineer at GM was that decided to put the oil plug on the side of the pan, I'd like to meet and kick. Five quarts of oil spurting out at that angle can (and does, just ask my wife about the concrete) shoot about 2.5 feet. It was quite a mess. My old blazer oil plug was at a slight angle, but not so much that it shot out that far to the side. I think to change the oil on mine you need a bucket with a 4 foot opening so you don't have to keep sliding the pan over to catch it as the pressure drops.

Anybody else have this problem?

damon_h · #7 07-05-2006, 12:26 PM

Thanks for the input for the input guys. I have'nt changed the oil yet but plan this weeked if it will ever stop raining here in southeast texas. Does anyone know of website where i could find some detailed diagrams of the the engine and undercarriage of the 03 thourgh 06 silverado for future reference.

Ape0r · #8 07-05-2006, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wrparks

Gonna warn you man. If your oil pan is like mine, it's a b*t*h. Easy to get to, easy to remove, but man, I can never get the oil to land in my bucket. Who the bright guy engineer at GM was that decided to put the oil plug on the side of the pan, I'd like to meet and kick. Five quarts of oil spurting out at that angle can (and does, just ask my wife about the concrete) shoot about 2.5 feet. It was quite a mess. My old blazer oil plug was at a slight angle, but not so much that it shot out that far to the side. I think to change the oil on mine you need a bucket with a 4 foot opening so you don't have to keep sliding the pan over to catch it as the pressure drops.

Anybody else have this problem?

Get one of these.

http://www.autobarn.net/usm11838.html

Got mine at Wal-Mart for like seven bucks. NEVER had trouble since! The thing is a good 2' wide.

Elbert · #9 07-05-2006, 10:18 PM

if you have never done this before.....don't learn on your new truck... find one of your friends who knows a little about cars. Its not really worth messing with yourself anyway. Texaco Quick lube and other places offer some compitive prices for this type of service, and even some dealers....

Go by one of the local bookstores and pickup one of the shop manuals (cheaper versions) or get the good GM shop manual from helms...$$$

Find a friend who can show you the way to do this before you just read a book and go at it....

guumbah · #10 07-06-2006, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elbert

if you have never done this before.....don't learn on your new truck... find one of your friends who knows a little about cars. Its not really worth messing with yourself anyway. Texaco Quick lube and other places offer some compitive prices for this type of service, and even some dealers....

Go by one of the local bookstores and pickup one of the shop manuals (cheaper versions) or get the good GM shop manual from helms...$$$

Find a friend who can show you the way to do this before you just read a book and go at it....

Yes, get a manual, and yes, be careful with your new truck, but I disagree with it not being worth it. Those places' prices are misleading, you can put in full synthetic, with Mobil 1 filter for what they are actually charging you after the environmental fees and such. Plus, most of those places try to pressure you into unneeded markup services, which an inexperienced person who's asking for help on where to find the drain bolt might be more likely to say yes to out of lack of knowledge. So your $20 oil change turns into $30 with fees, then turns into $50 for the 'flush' they'll tell him he needs on his new truck ($4 chemical you can dump in yourself from auto parts store), etc. Past experience makes me avoid 'professional' oil changes. Like the time they stripped my dad's pan bolt using an air wrench (yes, that actually happened), left all the dust shroud clips off the bottom of my wife's Passat, so it fell off on the freeway, claimed my sister needed a new air filter, even though I had JUST changed it for her the week before, tried to charge my friend $25 (plus parts) to change his wiper blades. I could go on.

jasonb01 · #11 07-06-2006, 05:56 PM

I 100% agree with the post above. You never know what they are putting in your truck and you can usually run full synthetic for what you pay for a basic oil change and it only takes 15 minutes. And everyone has heard the stories of Wal-Mart and other places that have the morons making 5 bucks an hour that drain all of the tranny fluid instead of engine oil. Happened to my buddy at Sears. His transmission went out on him. Pulled over and checked the fluid, there was none, checked the engine and their was 10 qts.

Elbert · #12 07-06-2006, 10:04 PM

yea I've heard all the horror stories....any type of mechanic work can be screwed up... I still get my oil changed at either the local GM dealership or the texaco quick lube place on my truck, and the honda dealer for my car. To top off the story I played mechanic for about 3 years or so....
by the way what do you do with the old filter and oil? For about $25 its not worth it to me to screw around with oil changes, I don't see the risk factor being that high...its true that often times if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.... but that applies to people who know how to do it right in the first place.

chaning oil is not complex / servicing your vehicle, in fact is about the most basic thing there is to do on a vehicle...

I know you can do it cheaper if you just factor in the filter and oil you bought....you are not factoring in the "pain-in-the-ass" part though.... disposal of the oil and filer, the potential mess, the aggrivation of climbing under the car....etc.. the time when the oil filter decides its not going to come off easy..

If you want to change your own oil....plow on! My comments were that you should get some hands on experience before you start becasue you could be making the same mistakes you read about others doing... Overfilling the oil, leaving the drain plug off, leaving the oil filer loose, putting the wrong fluid in the wrong location...etc... there are a number of things that potentially a "green" person could screw up. Like I said before....your new truck is not the vehicle to learn on.

IF you want to equate dollars to your labor then you need to be realistic...how much is your time worth and how long is it really going to take you to do this?

At least where I live the texaco quick lube place does a good job and so does the GM dealer...I've used both and observed both at work and they charge about the same price and it takes about 30 min to complete the process.

Simply put its worth it to me for "them" to have to deal with the mess and not me.

So I guess you'll be investing in some basic hand tools if you don't have them already, and oil filter wrench, a grease gun, a drain pan, a funnel..etc misc wrenches and some sockets...etc.

For $25 an oil change I'll continue to pay someone else....

JCL82 · #13 07-06-2006, 10:24 PM

I would go to autozone and get a book on your truck on how to change the oil...

Does anyone else though have a problem changing the oil filter ? It's a pain on the 02 4.3L . The damn thing is right next to the oil pan. It's probably half inch off the pan. Sometimes i wonder who design that idea.

guumbah · #14 07-06-2006, 11:17 PM

Once you do it a few times, most people can do it at least as fast as those quickie places. Especially if there's a line of cars ahead of you. And especially on these trucks - compared to some vehicles I've done. If you do it right, the filter is not going to be stuck, nor is the bolt, when you do it the next time. Around here at least, disposal is no problem. For an extra $2.00 I bought a large pan that seals up to transport the oil, and the local Kragen takes it for free. I just take it when I buy the new oil & filter and dump it into their collection bin. As for my time, I ENJOY working on my truck. Maybe not when it's some emergency fix of something broken

, but for maintenance, and upgrades, the time is my hobby time, so however long it takes, it's fun time. And, for the record, I can do mine in about ten minutes

(if the engine is warmed up). I'm sure in some places and for some people, getting it done by somebody else is no problem, and worth the time, but not for me.

Oh yeah, and for those guys who get sprayed with the oil when it first comes out, myself included, get a spill pan. It's a larger, aluminum, shallow pan that can catch whatever spills faster than you can move the drain pan. Holds up to a quart I think. Then just soak up the spill with sawdust, or kitty litter, and your driveway (and your wife) will thank you.

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