Thread: Engine Oil change?

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

10000km oil service just done the traditional way, bash plate removal and drain via sump plug. I was somewhat surprised to see how black the oil was after "only" 8 months, brought back diesel v6 memories. New genuine filter and just under 9l of castrol edge professional C5 0W20 went in. Still looking into the stahlbus valve modification.

Hi Eric,

Tell us more about changing the oil the conventional way, please

Was it difficult to remove the bashplate and "cardboard " belly cover to get to the plug? The bloke in the video made it look awkward and damaged the "cardboard"
Did you happen to take some measurements referencing the position of a potential access hole cut into the bash plate, relative to the drain?
How is the drain orientated; is it in the bottom or side of the oilpan?

I had fitted a Fumoto drain valve with a small covered access in the bashplate on my recently sold RRS and it was very simple to do an oil change without a hoist or even jacking.
My, dare I say on this forum, "proper" Defender is fitted with a Stahlbus which is great because I can control the oil flow with the drain tube from the horizontally orientated drainport

Edited

Pretty easy, both the front and middle bash plates come off, they are bolted in better than on the D4, take note of what bolt goes where, more for a head count than size related. There are two different sizes, one set for the front needs a 15mm socket, the other set for the middle needs a 10mm socket. The front plate drops down easily, (its aluminium so not as heavy as the 4mm plate i had on the D4 with ARB 'bar), then this gives access to the middle plate. Note there are a couple of hidden bolts that are covered by the fibre board panels. I used a trim clip removal tool to undo the fibre board only at the sides at the rear of the front wheel arches, then you can gently move the fibre board down and get a spanner or socket on the hidden bolts. No need to damage the fibre board panels. Once the middle bash plate drops away, youve exposed the sump. The plug faces down and forward on a leading edge of the sump which is nice. The sump is wrapped in a fibre panel folded panel, with a port to access the sump plug. I didnt remove this panel, its held in by trim clips into the sump. This does mean a dribble of oil may run down the inside of this wrap, but easily cleaned up.

Removed oil filter at the top of the block, opened up the oil fill cap and then removed the sump plug, luckily my oil drain pan holds 10l, it was nearly full by the time the sump was empty. Car was up on axle stands at the front, but sump plug sits low enough that all the oil drains well enough. I did put the oil pan up on a large block to reduce the drop height of the oil. The initial flow is quite fast, so positioning the pan correctly is vital to not get oil everywhere. I put the back edge of the pan at the plug, oil then jets forward into the pan. One flow slows, push the pan back a bit.

Re potential drain port, theres a perfect pressed out section in the bash plate that you could cut out to create an access port. I didnt take measurements, and I'm still in two minds whether to do this mod, I feel that exposing the sump and a drain valve to the risk of getting knocked and losing all the oil is worse than undoing a dozen or so bolts. It took me an hour start to finish to change the oil, including removing and refitting bash plates. Perhaps making a separate bolted smaller cover plate onto the larger bash platewould be best. A piece of alu plate, cut oversize and 4 to 6 suitable bolts into mating nutserts would be my idea.

I bought a 20l drum of Castrol Edge Professional C5 0W20, decanted it into a new 5l empty and filled the engine with 8l, started up and topped off to the correct level.

My access to my Stahlbus on the D4 is a round hole barely large enough to spin the cap off with my fingers.

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

Edited

I bought a 20l drum of Castrol Edge Professional C5 0W20, decanted it into a new 5l empty and filled the engine with 8l, started up and topped off to the correct level.

Because my L663 is a diesel, I used Castrol Edge Professional E-0W-30, which is ST JLR.03.5007 compliant
A few other ST JLR.03.5007 compliant oils for diesel I have checked out are:

Nulon Apex+ 0W-30 Eco Plus C2
APEX+ 0W-30 ECO-PLUS C2 (APX0W30C2)

Total Quartz Ineo FDE 0W-30
https://totalenergies.com.au/system/..._202009_en.pdf

Penrite Enviro+C2 0W-30
https://penriteoil.com.au/assets/pis...LL%20SYN.).pdf

Yep, I spoke to my castrol rep, i sent him the JLR specs and he came back with the actual item codes for 5, 20L, 200L and 1000L (IBC) for that spec oil.

Glad to see Penrite has compliant oils as well.

I’d be using any of the alternatives above before Castrol went back in my engine.

Entertainingly, no dealer I visited was using C1 in almost any D4/RRS that was Aus delivered as they don’t have a DPF (there is a very small window of a few that did)

I use an eBay electric pump for oil changes on our vehicles. Gets out the full quantity just have to jiggle the tube a bit towards the end.
very quick and easy.