When I first posted that I received my car about 5 months ago now several of you asked for details on how bad it was to change the oil. I know the car can go 5K miles with the synthetic (per Ford) but I've always been a every 3K type of guy so 4K was the best I could do before I just had to change it without going crazy. Short answer - maybe 5 mins more time now due to the splash shield under the engine now. Longer answer - To change the oil itself you DO NOT need to remove the shield. The oil pan sits right behind it. Very easy to get to and to drain. ***Warning/Tip - Not sure if the 05-09's have these but the 2010 uses a small O-ring to help seal the drain plug. Mine fell off when I removed the drain plug. I just happened to see it when I was moving around under the car. Not sure how often that actually happens but be sure to check it before reinstalling the drain plug. P.S. the bolt is 16mm (save you some hunting time hopefully). To change the oil filter you MUST remove the splash shield. It looks like it would be a pain but was very easy to do. It's held on by 4 (ONLY 4) 7/32 bolts. I call out that their is only 4 as their are several of these minature bolts under their but only 4 of them hold the shield on. Basically 1 in each corner. The bolts are fairly long for their size so be patient. My review of the car so far... I'm still super pleased with the car. I've used both reg gas and premium (92) for about 2K each. I got on average 1mpg better with 92 and it felt a bit stronger in the lower RPM's. The adaptive engine mgmt seems to help there but not sure the extra is worth it now. Average MPG with reg was 19mpg and 20mpg with the premium. Half highway and half city driving. Only have two not so pleasantry about the car to date at this point. First one is that it has developed a slight cracking sound coming from center console. This wasn't there before some spirited driving on my part around some corners. Now when I make a sharp turn I hear the "crack/pop" noise. I think it's coming from chasis flex so hoping some sub frame conectors will fix that. Worst case I have about $800 of dynomat extreme sitting in my garage from a project I was going to put it in that has been sold. That will fix it Second quirk is the brakes. I don't have a lot of confidence in the stopping power during spirited driving. May just be me as my other cars all have aftermarket brakes (corvette - $1500 in brakes and the 02 stang has cobra brakes). Seems as if they fade pretty quickly but for "normal" driving is not an issue. Nothing the track pack or gt500 brakes can't fix. Sorry for the long post but wanted to answer questions that I have been getting over the last couple of months about the car.
Thanks for the info, I've always been a do it yourself guy when it comes to the oil changes and I didn't figure the splash shield would be too big a hassle.
Ford calls for synthetic 5w-20 so that is what I used. Used 6 (maunal says 6 for the GT with a filter change) quarts of penzoil fully synthetic. Wal-Mart also had the motorcraft filters for only $3 so I bought a handfull of them P.S. - I forgot to mention this. If you don't already have a filter wrench GET ONE! The factory put this orginal on with an impact wrench apparently. I've never not been able to get one off till last night. Had to make a second trip for a wrench. It's either on to tight or I'm just getting weaker in my older age (hit 30 this year and still haven't recovered )
Do you have GT Premium and does Wal-mart have the "Impact wrench" for the filter? Ya-I much prefer to do my oil changes
Don't use an impact on a filter, you'll twist it off! It should only go on very HAND tight. Use a oil filter wrench to take it off. Also, make sure that the oil filter o-ring comes off. Sometimes they stick to the block and if that happens you get two on there and the oil may squirt out between the two. If this happens going down the interstate, You will be in trouble before you know it! (how do I know this?).
Yes, I have a GT premium. I don't beliee their really is an impact wrench for filters. That was just my sarcasim coming out. Was just trying to say that the factory filter was on WAY to tight! I had to use one of those rubber band looking wrenches to get the filter off and it was still hard with that. As the previous poster mentioned these only need to be "strong" hand tight.
black2010/exwifegotstang ok ya-sorry for that-I haven't had a car since 2nd year of college-but when my car finally gets delivered I'm def going to do my own oil changes. Its just been awhile since i've changed my own oil-I had an 1998 bonneville and it was such a pain to do the oil change on it. thanks for the info =D
