Oil Change On A 97 Starlet

February 10, 2011

Changed the engine oil on my starlet the other day, so i thought id post some picks on how to do it.

I couldnt find any dminstrations on how its done when i went to do it, so hopefuly this might help someone out.

What you'll need;

New engine oil. get the oil spec from your car manual.(30 euro)

New oil filter.(5-10 euro)

New sump bolt washer. this is a metal gasket on mine, i didnt change it coz i couldnt find the right one so ill change it in the next oil change.(2 euro)

Set of ratchets

oil filter removel tool. I used a chain one.(10 euro)

Oil draining container. (i just used a basin)

First of take the car for a spin for 10 minutes to get the oil heated up so you can get most of it out.

Then you need to rais the car to access the sump. To drain the oil the car needs to be a level as posible. I parked mine on the curb then put the front on axel stands so it stayed level.

The sump is located to the front of the starlet on the passanger side. Its a roundish container that sticks down with a nut on the end.

Losen the sump nut with your ratchet first. Then position your container under the sump nut, then slowly unscrew the sump nut being carful not the get burned from the hot oil. To avoid this keep the nut pushed in while you unscrew it. Once you feel the nut is totaly unsrcewed pull it away.

Once the oil is flowing out open the bonet and unscrew the oil filler cap to allow the oil to drain more freely.

Let the oil drain for about on hour to get as much out as posible. I only let it drain for 30 minutes as i was in a rush.

I only just bought this car and it looks like it ant had a oil change in some time, its as black as the night.

Once the oil is drained clean the sump nut and take the old washer of with flat head screwdriver, being careful not to damage the threads.

Clean the sump drain hole also of dripping old oil and dirt.

Now its time to take the oil filter of. The filter is located at the front of the engine just behinde the radiator on the passanger side, took me a few minutes to find it.

Position the container under the filter. Some of the front bumper may in directly under the filter so you may want to put some old rags on it to stop oil from getting on it, this is what i had to do.

It is the round gray thing in this pic just to the right of the light in the gap betten the light and the radiator.

This is the oil filter tool which i used. It is just a chian which attaches to a ratchet.

Put you oil filter tool around the filter and turn it anti-clock wise to lossen it. once loss you can remove it the rest of the way by hand.

Clean the area around where the oil filter gose with a clean rag.

Wet the new filters rubber seal with some new oil to give it a good seal. Screw the new filter on and hand tighten only. There is no need to use the filter tool to tighten the new filter, by doing so you could damage it and make your next oil change a nightmare.

Make shure you dispose of your old oil and filter correctly, and dont just dump it, it is extreamly bad to the enviornment.

Make shure your sump nut is tight, then refil the engine with new oil. it sould take about 3l, if your not shure stop pouring every now and then and check the oil level on the dip stick. make shure it dosent go above the max level, if it dose drain some out trought the sump again ( this would be messy though).

Start the car and let it idle till the oil light gose out, this should only take a 30 seconds at most.

Now your all set and ready to go.

Hope this is useful to someone.

I accept no responsibility for problems. This is simply a demonstration on how i changed my own engine oil.