nburd
Well-Known Member
I did mine myself. That oil filter location sucks! Thanks to all for warning me. I did get it off after spilling oil all over the rack and pinion while even using the plastic baggie (at least 80% of it was contained). It cleaned up OK. The sway bar is an issue but it only gets a drip on it. Also that filter was pretty tight, my end wrench (with swivel and extension) kept slipping on the end but it finally freed with a lot of upward pressure. Just a royal pain. The new filter is a wrench off, K & N. I hope that makes future changes easier with a 1" wrench. I went with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum. Any oil that gives you a 15 year 500K warranty must be good. It was on sale at WalMart for $24.00/5 QTs. My dealer charges $89.99 plus tax for a generic synthetic change so I am way ahead of that cost.
So I finished mine in 1/2 hour or so. My son's 20 warlock has 6K and since mine went pretty well and I bought enough Ultra and filters for 2 changes I offered to be the nice dad and save him $90. I regret that offer. My first ram was a '13 hemi Express 4x4 and I could do a change on that in 15 minutes. Everything was very accessible. Oil filter was big around and easy. Now they have the same filter as GM, a little one and must have moved the location a little during a redesign.......
The oil drained real easy, no sway bar to wipe after, but the filter! Worse location that the 20 DT, closer to the rack. I could not get my end wrench and swivel adapter on the end. Too tight to hand off, I tried my C type Fram wrench, that poked a hole in it, bathing me in oil and still would not budge. Then 4" Channel locks with a full opening, that just dented more and would not spin in. A 1/2" regular screw driver punched all the way through just tore the filter when I tried to rotate. The filter was so thin the metal ripped like paper. After all that, a rag and 2 hands hand on the sharp metal could not do it. Finally, a shorter phillips driven into the upper part of the filter (no thread contact) and it moved a little. After 1 hour, it finally came off. It must have been installed dry with an impact wrench at the factory. I installed another wrench off K & N for future ease of changes. At least the metal of the K & N is nearly twice the thickness of the MOPAR filter. I have never used them and wanted to use a WIX but that wrench off will be a time saver.
I would have taken pictures, but this was the messiest oil change I have ever done and my hands, shirt, floor, hair, face were too oily to touch the camera. I guess I have some of my undercoating done already. It's nice to save $45.00 each but I am reconsidering my planned 5K vs factory 10K change intervals.
So I finished mine in 1/2 hour or so. My son's 20 warlock has 6K and since mine went pretty well and I bought enough Ultra and filters for 2 changes I offered to be the nice dad and save him $90. I regret that offer. My first ram was a '13 hemi Express 4x4 and I could do a change on that in 15 minutes. Everything was very accessible. Oil filter was big around and easy. Now they have the same filter as GM, a little one and must have moved the location a little during a redesign.......
The oil drained real easy, no sway bar to wipe after, but the filter! Worse location that the 20 DT, closer to the rack. I could not get my end wrench and swivel adapter on the end. Too tight to hand off, I tried my C type Fram wrench, that poked a hole in it, bathing me in oil and still would not budge. Then 4" Channel locks with a full opening, that just dented more and would not spin in. A 1/2" regular screw driver punched all the way through just tore the filter when I tried to rotate. The filter was so thin the metal ripped like paper. After all that, a rag and 2 hands hand on the sharp metal could not do it. Finally, a shorter phillips driven into the upper part of the filter (no thread contact) and it moved a little. After 1 hour, it finally came off. It must have been installed dry with an impact wrench at the factory. I installed another wrench off K & N for future ease of changes. At least the metal of the K & N is nearly twice the thickness of the MOPAR filter. I have never used them and wanted to use a WIX but that wrench off will be a time saver.
I would have taken pictures, but this was the messiest oil change I have ever done and my hands, shirt, floor, hair, face were too oily to touch the camera. I guess I have some of my undercoating done already. It's nice to save $45.00 each but I am reconsidering my planned 5K vs factory 10K change intervals.
