DIY oil changers ... question ...

I do it at every oil change. 5K miles or 1 year. Bought a bag of 10 for pennies.

 

Mine isbstuck to the bottom of the oil pan. I hit the mating surface of it and the plug with a rag, and snug everything back up. Never swapped the nylon one on my old 4runner in dozens of changes either, just made sure it was intact, and the mating surface were clean when everything went back together. That old 5vzfe was in great shape, did a couple blackwtone oil analysis of it over time, my last one at 249k and cha ge still showed very low wear metals, and no oil or coolant contamination.

 

Today's pot metal, or whatever they might be crush washers - every oil change unless I don't have one around, then I'll let it go, maybe twice.
The old copper crush washers I ran the life of the vehicle, or until I lost it during a change.

 

This afternoon was the 3rd time I've done mine, let the dealer over torque the heck out of everything at the free 10K mile change so it hasn't gone back.

I keep forgetting the oil flows out much quicker than other vehicles for some reason. This combined with the pan I use and not needing to lift the truck to get underneath, splashes the hell out of everywhere for a good 20 seconds before I'm able to set the pan just right. It's fun.

 

A whole mess of fun, right?

 

Never

 

No mas…. Fumoto for me.

 

usually every oil change but I have reused it once when it stuck to the oil pan. I don't think there is any problem reusing the blue coated ones once or twice but probably not the for life of the vehicle. I would caution you to be sure you don't put on a new one with the old one still stuck on there, doubling up gaskets can create a potential leak.