My Firsts couple of DIY Oil and Filter Changes

The local stealership gives them to me when I buy the oil filters. To the OP- if there's a stealership around you, the filters are only about $6 straight from the parts dept. Too many knock offs being sold through the african river company, fleabay, market place, ect..

As for oil, I've been using the Mobile 1 High Mileage oil. The 2.7 seems to be happy with it.

 

I do my own oil changes. Try to get to around 7.5k mile intervals. For the oil I just bought the mobil1 fully synthetic oil and using the same OEM filters you linked. Also got a fumoto valve sometime ago and haven't had any issues with it. Pretty comfortable with my process but not familiar or DIY enough to check all the other fluids that might need changing or topping off. For my tire rotations I take it to a local Jiffy Lube, I'll usually ask them to check my other fluids but they give me a hard time since I'm not getting my oil changed there. Debating if I should start doing my own tire rotations, would need to buy a jack and some stands.

 

Checking the other fluids are just as easy as checking your oil. That said, all you can check is your brake fluid, power steering fluid and washer fluid. Your trans, diff and transfer cases aren't something you can just casually "check" when popping the hood. Jiffy Lube isn't checking those. But, luckily those are sealed units and unless they're leaking you shouldn't have a concern that the fluid level is low. Just do the fluid changes per the manufacturer interval and you'll be good to go. But stay away from places like Jiffy Lube, find yourself a more trustworthy shop or learn to do it yourself.

 

MITYVAC 7201, Kirkland 5-30, and a D3 filter. Oil change done in about 10 minutes and no need to ever touch the drain plug.
Yes, pump takes out all of the oil.

Pays for itself in a few oils changes if you have vehicles with east to access oil filters.

Mityvac 7201 Manual Fluid Evacuator Plus with 2.3 Gallon Reservoir; Evacuates or Dispenses Fluids with Push Button; Evacuate Through The Dipstick Tube

$124 Mityvac 7201 2.3 Gallon Fluid Evacuator Extractor and Dispensing Pump, Push Button, Manual Operation, Chemical-Resistant Polyethylene, Automatic Overflow Prevention, Quick-Drain Spout, Large Base

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002SR7TC

 

I'm due for a change so maybe I'll read up on the other fluids. I saw a vid a few years ago on brake fluid and it was little more involved than just topping off and maybe that scared me off other fluids.

 

Sounds like you saw a video that put you on the wrong path. To top off the brake fluid you remove the reservoir cap, add fluid until the "max" line and then put the cap back on. Easy peasy. Fluid change is more complicated than a basic drain and fill like you'd do for the engine oil, but it's still a simple process.

Diffs and transfer case are very similar to changing your engine oil. Plenty of tutorials out there. The real notable difference is that you can't fill them from the top of the engine bay and you need to add fluid to a "fill hole" that you access from below. There are multiple tricks on how to do this. I did mine fairly recently and they were all just as easy as engine/trans fluid changes I've done on all my other vehicles. My only issue was the front diff drain bolt was stripped a little and I needed a friend with a better tool in order to get it off. We replaced the drain bolt so it won't be an issue last time.

Auto trans fluid is definitely more of a task and likely something you'd want to hire out.

 

This should make all you guys super happy - OEM oil filter installed.
My engine seems to like it as well - runs smoother with less vibrations too!