Oil Change Info for 172’s

[ChavyBoy]

WooooHoooo I am famous

Seriously though I have just finished a simple write up of how to change the oil in a 172 thus saving yourself having to fork out a large wedge of cash and panel dents from Renault.

If you have any questions about this little article please PM about it.

Thanks to Jas for putting this on the site, maybe now we can stop getting ripped off by Renault and do some DIY ourselves.

You can get to the article from the main Cliosport.net webpage and then ARTICLES, DIY GUIDES, CHANGING THE OIL ON A 172.

Hope this is of help to everyone that has a 172 mk1/mk2 and Cup.

Feed back welcome.

Ivan

 

[rockport]

Ivan, "YOU THE MAN"

And thanks for all your help with flushing my rad saturday.... Thinking about it we should have taken some pics and posted in a "how to artical"



Thanks again mate,

James.

 

[ChavyBoy]

No worries mate. Glad I could help

 

[Zidan]

Is there actually any need to take the entire plastic cover off? Mine has a little circular plastic cover over the sump plug which you can just twist to remove.

Also, some people may find that getting the oil filter off is easier if you remove the heat sink that covers the fuel injectors. You just need a long reach socket. Makes life a lot easier.

 

[ChavyBoy]

Zidan,

The reason for removing the sump plate and not just the plug is it saves you dribbling oil onto it and any oil you spill putting the filter on around the engine can be wipped off.

 

[Zidan]

Good point Chavy. When I did mine I had a puddle of oil swilling around in the drip tray. Lucky for me my next door neighbour was away on holiday at the time and he has a nice sloping drive which came in very useful for drainage! You should have seen the mess! When they got back the chap was furious but fortunately he believed my story that our plumber must have been responsible as hed been parking his white van on their drive!

 

[ChavyBoy]

Ya cheeky devil

Anyway I hope more people will try it themselves as it is dead simple and stop throwing money away at Renault.

BTW didnt know about the heat sink.. cheers for the info matey..

 

[Tom]

lol

 

[KDF]

Nice one ChavyBoy

 

[ChavyBoy]

My pleasure...

Next week I have a workshop on how to make a turbo out of a bog roll and double sided sticky tape, antone interested ?

Ill will get a blue peter badge even if it kills me...

 

[KDF]

I like the bit where you say dont drop the sump plug into the oil tray.

Been there, done that.. and yes an arm covered in old warm oil was messy, but kinda nice .. erm nevermind..

 

[Dansta]

THANK YOU! IM ON HOLD WITH RENAULT NOW TRYIN TO STOP THEM DOIN MINE FOR THE QOUTED £80 PLUS! WHAT OIL SHALL I REPLACE IT WITH!!

 

[ChavyBoy]

Yepp dipping your hands into the oil to get a bolt out is a pain, also getting oil on your hands can cause Dermatitis after prelonged exposure so a pair of disposable gloves is adivised.

Danny speak to Brun he is the OILMAN !! I just used 5w30 fully sythetic but there again I change me oil every 6000 miles..

COME ON BRUN you da man...

 

[Dansta]

brun? neone elses recommendations? or should i use what reno use?

 

[ChavyBoy]

Maybe PM him.

 

[Big Bash]

I dont see the point in replacing engine oil every 6000 miles.....99.99% of modern cars will die because of depreciation, rust, written off, head gaskets, gearboxes etc before an engine goes. Your engine will probably last 20 years before changing your oil every 6k will pay off, by then youll be 6-7 cars down the road. Whats the point for all that additional expense?

 

[telford_mike]

Quote: Originally posted by Big Bash on 02 December 2002


Whats the point for all that additional expense?

I think youve answered your own question - paying Renault to do it is too expensive! Youre right to say that every 6,000 may be OTT on a modern car, but a lot of folk do trackdays etc and I like to change my oil each time I spend a day on the track. CBs DIY guide will save me about £60 every time I do this - about £25 instead of £85!

 

[ChavyBoy]

Quote: Originally posted by Big Bash on 02 December 2002


I dont see the point in replacing engine oil every 6000 miles.....99.99% of modern cars will die because of depreciation, rust, written off, head gaskets, gearboxes etc before an engine goes. Your engine will probably last 20 years before changing your oil every 6k will pay off, by then youll be 6-7 cars down the road. Whats the point for all that additional expense?

Additional expenses !!!! £25 every 6-7 months .... That is 3/4 of a tank of petrol... £25 is cheap for peace of mind.

If you are going argue a point make sure you have a point to argue about first !

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Hey Big Bash ....remind me never to buy a motor from you!?

I see two main reasons for changing your oil regularly:

1) Peace of mind on track days due to abnormal sustained high revs / high engine stresses / rich fuelling as Mike has alraedy explained.

2) On the other hand, if youre like me and do lots of short journeys every day, the engine is running richer most of the time and the engine/oil never really heats up properly. Fuel and moisture therefore mixes with the oil and does not evaporate fully. This all ends up in the engine oil (as it should if the detergents are working properly) hence why your oil turns darker. This slowly reduces the oils protection. Granted, synthetic oils are better but not completely infallible.

On the other hand if you are doing around 50 miles non-stop trips on the motorway at lean burning cruising speeds with everything running at correct temperatures, the engine oil is likely to last much longer. I reckon this is probably deemed an "average driving" pattern these days with so many people commuting reasonable distances to work and why oil and car manufacturers are increasing the service intervals. Also under these conditions ECUs and fuel injection systems are providing very accurate metering, reducing the deposits in the oil.

Anyway, here endith my thoughts on the matter ...for what theyre worth

 

[ChavyBoy]

Good call FS...

 

[Big Bash]

Okay Flying S, why is it recommended by the manufacturer of the engine to only have the engine oil replaced every 2 years or 12,000 or in the case of the non 172/V6 models only 18,000.

I fully agree with the track day scenario, but 99.9% of all people never take their car on a track.

 

[ChavyBoy]

Bash,

Yerr but this is based on the fact that about 20% - 30% of us do track days and 1/4 miles. These are guide lines that work for me and a majority of the other.

Quote

I just used 5w30 fully sythetic but there again I change my oil every 6000 miles..

At no point have I said everyone else has to, this works well for me and as posted before £25 for peace of mind every 6-7 months is cheap at that price.

BTW the oils in 172s are recomended to be changed every 18,000 miles now under normal driving conditions.

 

[Big Bash]

Okay, but there is no way 30% of this forum tracks their cars, or even 1/4 mile it as you put it, why would someone want to 1/4 mile their car I do not know, unless you are a serious modder and I mean serious like HardcoreSax.

 

[ChavyBoy]

I said 20-30% as a rough guess but more and more people are running 1/4 miles and track days as they are getting very popular and publicised alot more. Anyway this is getting away from the discussion at hand anyway.

The recommended manufactures estimate is based on Joe Average running up the miles but as most of us put our cars through non Joe Average miles I would like to decrease any chances of damage to the engine through lack of protection.

Anyway to see if mods work you need a base line figure of the pre modded car first and what better way of doing that and having fun at the same time than 1/4 miles.

 

[Big Bash]

The manufacturers guidlines are actually designed to be the worst case scenario (bar tracking your cars), if it were the best youd need not change the oil for even longer.

Why the hell would someone do 1 1/4 mile test to see if there mod worked as itd be different everytime due to conditions of road, driver etc. Surely theyd take it to a rolling road station wouldnt they?

 

[ChavyBoy]

Quote: Originally posted by Big Bash on 03 December 2002


The manufacturers guidlines are actually designed to be the worst case scenario (bar tracking your cars), if it were the best youd need not change the oil for even longer.

Why the hell would someone do 1 1/4 mile test to see if there mod worked as itd be different everytime due to conditions of road, driver etc. Surely theyd take it to a rolling road station wouldnt they?

I am not saying 1/4 mile tests are at all accurate but you can get a general feeling of how the car is running and yes weather does effect it but then you would be stupid not to think when its bucketing down with rain you are going to get a good time.

As for the manufactures guide lines this changes depending on what oil you use due to polymer shearing and the flash point of the oil. They use a general guide line I like to personalise this.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

At the end of the day Big Bash it is purely down to personal preference. In the past 20 years of motoring I have dismantled several engines (mostly Ford crossflow and essex lumps) that have had "standard/missed" oil changes and other engines that had more changes than normal. The former ones generally had loads more kack deposited at the bottom of the sump, scored shells and in some cases had partially blocked oilways which is equivalent to blocked arterys in human terms ...and well, we all know what happens in these cases!

Manufacturer long service intervals (+6000 miles) are a fairly new marketing concept which is backed up by modern and better oils. Theres probably not enough really high mileage examples gone to the morturary yet. Its not the first time that Manufacturers have released long service intervals and subsequently reduced them later in range lifecycle.

My comments on this subject are now concluded.