ENGINE & DIFF OILS

1

For the engine oil to be drained, we had to remove two undertrays, which are both secured with 8mm bolts. Surprisingly, all of the bolts were straightforward to undo (most are wound into spire clips). The insides of the trays were mostly dry!

2

The undertrays may be largely dry, but our sump isn’t. Luke at Mer-tech traced the oil leak further up the engine and suspects the oil cooler’s seals may be to blame, which takes roughly 10 hours to fix! We decided to clean the sump and inspect it again in a few weeks.

3

After undoing the 13mm oil drain plug, we drained roughly 8.5 litres of engine oil. We renewed the sump plug and washer with new parts from Febi – they stock two types of sump plug, so we ordered one of each to ensure we had the right one.

4

While the oil was draining, we renewed the oil filter, which is accessed from within the engine bay and needs a suitablesized cup to undo the housing. Once undone, we could extract the housing and the filter together.

5

The new oil filter from Febi can be fitted either way inside the housing. There was a new seal included with the filter, which was fitted around the thread of the housing. We then refitted the housing and new filter, tightening it to the recommended 25Nm.

6

Millers Oils supplied us with their Nanodrive 5W30 fully-synthetic for our engine, which promises to reduce engine friction and improve performance. We’re keen to see if it makes a noticeable difference.

7

After pouring 8.5 litres of oil into the engine, we ran the engine to check there were no oil pressure problems or leaks, then switched it off and rechecked the level on the dipstick, adding a little extra to ensure the reading was at the halfway mark.

8

The gearbox oil was renewed in 2016, but we don’t have any information on the rear diff oil. After undoing the inspection plug with a 14mm Allen key, we dipped a finger inside and found the fluid was clean and up to the level.