B7 A4 oil change DIY

I decided since I was doing an oil change, why not just do a DIY for AR. Sure, I had one of my friends laugh at me for this idea but, hey it might help someone and sooner or later he won’t have the phone to save him from a physical conversation. :smiley:

Start with a little technical stuff. The 2005-2008 Audi 2.0T FSI has specific oil requirements for the type of oil that can be used.

It’s recommended that you use a SAE 5W-30 in the colder weather and then SAE 5W-40 in the warmer months.

The tools needed for this are simple and few:

Floor jack or hoist.

Jack stands - at least one, two would be better.

19mm socket or box wrench - The oil drain plug is 19mm

Oil filter wrench, or 36mm socket - for removal of the oil filter housing.

Flat head screwdriver.

You’re going to need a flat head for the belly pan. I don’t have a belly pan, as my car came lighter fighter style without one. So, if someone can provide a DIY belly pan removal that will be nice and I can add it to this thread.

Lets start with a reference picture to get us started.

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Before you do anything, pull the oil dip stick and see where your current oil level is at before you change the oil. This is a good idea to see if the car is using oil between oil changes.

When you’re checking the oil level, remove the dip stick, clean the dip stick and then reinstall the dip stick, wait about 2 seconds and remove. Upon removal, try to quickly put the dip stick in a horizontal position. If you keep the stick vertical some of the oil can start to run down the stick and give you an inaccurate reading.

Here is a quick reference on what you want to see on the oil dip stick. This picture shows the low spot for the minimum amount of oil and the maximum amount of oil. Then you can see the markings for the ideal amount of oil. Note the best level for the oil is shy of the max amount of oil. You want the oil in the range shown below.

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When you pull the dip stick to inspect it, there will be oil on it and this is what you will see. You want to note how far up the stick the oil is. Also look to see what color the oil is. Chances are the oil will be dark black, black oil indicates deposits, this is normal when you have had your oil in for over 3000 miles.

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Ideally, your car shouldn’t consume any oil between oil changes. If you notice you’re topping off the oil or that its lower then when you did the last oil change, now would be a good time to investigate why. Being this is a 2.0T, the first spot to look would be your PCV system. My car used to eat oil, until I changed and updated the PCV system.

Now that you have an idea on where your oil is pre oil change, you can move on. The next thing you want to do is to get the car in the air and far enough so you can get to everything. To do that you’re going to need to jack up the car.

The car has a spot for this. Put the jack on the spot shown and then put your jack stand (once the car is up in the air) in the location I have shown. Before you jack up the car make sure to pull the E break. Nothing is fun when you jack up the car and it starts to roll away or off the jack.

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You’re going to want to do this on both sides. I jacked up the back of the car just to make it level. You don’t need to do this but, here is what it looks like.

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Now that you have the car in the air, you’re going to want to take off the belly pan. As I said before, my car came lighter fighter style and didn’t come with a belly pan so, I’ll try to get a DIY on that or someone can help add one.

After you have done that, you can get your oil pan ready and start draining the oil. With the car now safely up in the air and the belly pan off. Look just on the passenger side of the motor, just in front of the sub frame. You will see the oil pan and the drain plug. You’re looking for this.

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The number one cause of people getting oil everywhere during an oil change is, not thinking to space the pan far enough back from the oil drain plug. The oil isn’t going to just fall straight down, the oil is going to actually arch and flow out just over a foot and a half back from the spot where you removed the drain plug. So, take this into consideration when you put your oil pan down to collect the oil. Here is an idea on just how far the oil will come out.

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While your oil is draining, now is a good time to move onto the next part of the oil change, removal of the oil filter. For this we go back up top and remove the coolant container to expose the oil filter housing.

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Once you remove the coolant container you’re going to want to take your oil filter wrench and loosen the oil filter housing.

If you don’t know what a oil filter wrench looks like, here is the one I use. It’s something that you can get at any auto store.

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Grab your oil filer wrench and slip it around the oil filter housing. It should look something like this. When you look at the picture you will notice I put a location mark on the housing. I used a permanent marker to put a line on the housing. The line is there to show how much the housing is spinning. Its hard to tell if you actually are moving the filter housing. When you’re trying to loosen the housing it will show it moving, and then again when you’re tightening the housing, it will help you see if you’re actually tightening it or if your wrench is slipping.

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Keep in mind, for removal of the oil filter you can also do this from under the car. The filter housing has a provision for you to put a 36mm socket on to help spin the filter housing. There is also a filter housing drain location seen below. The biggest issue for me was, I didn’t have good room to access these so, I choose to go from up top. Here is what it will look like from under the car if you choose to remove the filter housing from that location. For me there just wasn’t enough room.

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If you were to use the oil filter drain option, you would do that now. Since I’m used to just dropping the filter housing down, I just do it this way. When you’re doing the filter housing removal the way I do, you unscrew the housing. Once you feel the housing start to spin without much resistance, it won’t be too many more turns till the housing drops free. You don’t want to have the housing drop uncontrolled, as that’s a great way to make big mess. The oil filter housing will have oil in it, keep this in mind as you unscrew and lower the housing. Once the housing is free of the threads, lower it down a few more inches, move it over into the clear and bring it up and out of the motor compartment.

Carry the filter housing over to your oil drain pan, empty out the oil in the housing and then take it over to a clean spot to remove the actual oil filter. This is what you should be looking at.

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The removal of the oil filter is easy, simply pull straight back. The oil filter is pushed in and locks in with an interference fit. The removal is easy, it should look like this

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Once the oil filter has been removed, it’s always a good idea to inspect the filter for foreign materials that would indicate there might be motor trouble. Here is what everything looks like separated

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Due to the fact that I didn’t use the oil drain option on the oil filter housing, let me show you what it looks like.

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Now that you have the oil filter removed, it’s time to put in the new filter. The new filter just slides in and pushes all the way down to the bottom, till you feel it click in.

*** This is an advanced step that isn’t for everyone. I don’t like to have the motor starve for oil, even for a second on start up. What I do to prevent this is, I add some oil to the filter housing. I fill the housing about 1/2 way with new fresh oil. You need to be careful reinstalling the filter now because there will be oil that can spill everywhere if you don’t maneuver everything correctly. Doing this helps eliminate the lack of oil for the small window of time that it would take to fill the filter housing before delivering the oil back to the system. ***

Take the filter check to see that it’s in all the way, then go back and reinstall the filter housing back onto the motor. You’re going to need to lower the filter and housing from up top and then far enough below everything to maneuver the filter back up and into where you can start screwing in the housing.

Make sure to screw the filter housing in hand tight and then use your oil filter wrench to tighten it up. I usually tighten the housing till its snug, then a 1/4 turn. The specs on my cap read 25+5. This means tighten it to 25 and then add 5 more. Finish the housing, go back to your oil pan bolt and tighten that back up. I use the same method here on the bolt, if you don’t have a tq wrench. I go snug and 1/2 a turn. Now you’re ready to get back up top.

Pull off the oil cap.

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I already know how much oil the car takes, but I do the same thing every time, just to keep it safe. I fill the oil with about 4 quarts, check the dip stick and add till the dip stick reads full. I then start the car, let it idle for about 20 seconds, this allows the car to pull the oil though the system and fills the oil filter housing. Once you do this (unless you pre oiled the oil filter housing) you will notice that the car has pulled about 1/2 a quart in, this will now reflect on the dip stick reading showing a much lower reading. Now add the last amount of needed oil

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Add the oil little bits at a time until you reach the best oil filling range. Make sure to check the level a few times and then you’re ready to start cleaning up. At this point, I always like to check the sub frame bolts. For whatever reason mine are always loose. It’s also a good idea to check most of the suspension and break components before you put the car back together and back down.