DIY Oil Change for LR4

I know there has been some debate on the "DIY" Oil change for the LR4, so I wanted to pass along a "how to" with pictures. Honestly, this is the EASIEST oil change that I have ever done on a car. It took all of 20 minutes, and that could be cut down to 10-15 the second time... I like to change synthetic oil ever 7500 miles, and the LR dealer charges $195 for that priviledge. Below, my total cost was $202 for everything, and the next time I change the oil, I will only need to spend $105 on oil & filter (savings of $90 for 15 minutes of effort!)

What you need: (total parts & consumables cost of $202)

1) 8 quarts of Castrol SLX 5w-20. This is the formulation for the Jaguar 5.0L engine, and can be purchased from Jaguar or Land Rover Dealers. My local Jag dealer was the cheapest at $9.95/qt.
2) Jaguar/Land Rover Oil Filter, Part #W0133-1891127. They are the same filter, but for some reason the Jag filter is cheaper! I paid $25 at the Jag dealer, and Land Rover tried to charge me $48!
3) Oil Filter Wrench - You will need to buy a "90mm, 15 flute" wrench. I picked mine up off Ebay for $2.99 ($7 total with shipping) from this vendor (http://www.ebay.com/itm/CTA-Tools-A..._Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr&hash=item2c5f4b1535)
4) Mity Vac 7201 - $90 at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Mityvac-7201-Fluid-Evacuator-Plus/dp/B0002SR7TC), free shipping and no tax. NOTE: The 7201 has a hand pump, whereas the 7400 has a pneumatic pump (needs external compressor). I think 99% of us would want the hand pump!

Steps (including pictures):

1) Raise the hood of the LR4
2) Find the big plastic cover over the center of the engine. You can lift the front up, and remove by pulling forward. It is connected in the back with two rubber grommets which act like hinges. Just tug forwardly slightly to remove.
3) Look for the Oil filter (on the left side of the engine under the removed cover -LIGHT GREY housing ) and the oil reservior (on the right side of the engine under the removed cover - BLACK cap with YELLOW lettering)
4) REMOVE the BLACK CAP with yellow lettering, and place aside. Grab the Mityvac (their directions are okay) and position it on the ground close to the oil reservior. Inside the oil reservior is a smaller inner tube positioned almost perfectly in the center. This is the tube to which you will connect your large plastic hose from the Mityvac. Just put that big Mityvac tube (plastic) over this inner tube (metal) (see PIC)

5) Make sure that one end of the big, plastic Mityvac hose is secured to the Land Rover's "Inner Tube" in the oil reservoir, and that they other is locked in place on the Mityvac.
6) "Close" the metal lever on the top of the Mityvac to close the system. This will enable suction (ask me how I know!)
7) On the side of the Mityvac is a pump system. On the pump is a switch (see pic) that says "DISPENSE" and "EVACUATE". When the button us pushed DOWN, it is in the EVACUATE postion. This will allow you to generate pressure to suck the oil out of the car.
8) Pump the Mityvac around 10 times. Almost immediately, the tube will turn black with oil as it sucks the fluid out of the car and into the Mityvac. Every few minutes, I needed to pump a few times to speed the flow. Total evacuation of the 8 quarts took about 10 minutes.

9) Now that the oil is out, time to work on the Oil Filter. Attach a socket wrench (3/8 for my oil filter) to the oil filter wrench. Rover does a great job by noting on the filter housing not only the direction to tighten (righty tighty), but also the proper torque (25Nm).
10) Remove the oil filter housing by turning to the LEFT (COUNTERCLOCKWISE). The filter is held inside the housing COVER by two compression clips (you can see those two black clips on the oil filter in the pic below). All you need to do is pull softly on the filter and it will pop right out.
11) Clean housing with a rag, and add new O-ring that came with the filter to the housing. Make sure not to allow the O-ring to twist. I also like to rub some new oil on the O-ring to lube it up a bit....
12) Pop the new filter in the housing, and then screw it back onto the car. Tighten to 25Nm. (NOTE: my torque wrench could not get into the space, so I hand tightened it. Be sure NOT to overtighten as you can crack the housing and those are $100 or so from what I understand to replace)
13) With oil drained, and filter replaced - now it is time to pour in the 8 quarts of oil! I used to funnel to prevent spillage....
14) Put cap back on oil reservoir & put engine cover back on engine
15) Start the car up, let the oil circulate - and when the engine is cold again, check it using the dash computer!
16) Dispose of the old oil, oil bottled and old filter & O-ring. Most auto parts stores will take the oil from you for free...

YOU ARE DONE!

(Pics of dirty oil filter and O-ring below)

Thanks for all your work on this post!

Nice writeup...!

Thanks for taking the time to photograph and post.

Nice write up!!! Nice that the skids don't need to come off.

Loosen the filter first. Then it will drain while you syphon the rest of the oil out. It makes things a bit cleaner and gets more of the old oil out.

Keanan said:

Loosen the filter first. Then it will drain while you syphon the rest of the oil out. It makes things a bit cleaner and gets more of the old oil out.

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I usually open the drain first. In that case it is more predictable where the oil goes too. And then I adjust the pan position to make sure that the oil jetting out of the drain will hit the pan, not the floor. Then I would open filler cap to make it drain faster... and filter...

rostov said:

I usually open the drain first. In that case it is more predictable where the oil goes too. And then I adjust the pan position to make sure that the oil jetting out of the drain will hit the pan, not the floor. Then I would open filler cap to make it drain faster... and filter...

Click to expand...

You are talking about a different style of engine. On an engine with no drain plug and a top mounted cartridge style oil filter (i.e. LR4 engine) I feel that it is best to loosen the filter first. This allows the oil in the filter to drain into the oil pan. Then you can syphon the oil out, once the oil is out you can replace the filter. The filter will have had time to drain and it won't be dripping with oil when you pull it out of the housing.
Even if you have a drain plug I feel that it is still better to loosen the filter first. If you drain/siphon the oil then pull the filter the half a quart or so of old oil that was in the filter gets dumped into your oil pan and mixed up with all the new oil.

If your engine has a drain plug and traditional oil filter mounted on the bottom or side of the engine you can do it any way you want.