Ecoboost Oil Change + Cabin Air 3/5 Would Do Again

[Steve Urquell]

I did the first oil change today at 3300 miles. Meant to do it earlier but didn't get around to getting the filters. Switched to Mobil 1 synthetic and will have an OCI at 5,000miles.

I bought two 5qt jugs due to needing 5.5qts

Once the lower air dam is off it is really easy to get to everything.

Plug has a rubber gasket and a 15mm head

20ft lb plug torque. I would have never done this in the past but I haven't been a mechanic in 14 years and am not trusting the feel for torque like I used to.

Air filter housings are getting harder to open on my last few rigs. They like to tie stuff to them and you have to finagle the cover out. I blew this filter out since it had a few bugs in it. The routing into the housing is pretty straight and I had a huge intact moth wing in the housing. Probably 1.5"x2.5" wing.

Overall not terrible. Not a fan of having to mess with the air dam but whatevs, I'll keep doing it.

Factory filter

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[billbillw]

I did mine at 3900 miles this past Sunday.

Easy job. I used Penzoil Platinum and a FL400s filter. The extra oil needed for the longer filter is negligible. I found that 5 1/2 quarts was perfect up to the top circle on the dipstick.

 

[Steve Urquell]

Service #2 today went better. A couple 2x4s under the tires raised it just enough to let me get to the back belly shield screws easily. My Ryobi screwdriver was perfect for this.

I also bought a 12qt bag in a box from Walmart and saved a few bucks using it. I refilled a 5qt bottle I had already and filled the engine with it then refilled the bottle when I got done for next time.

A little sharpie on the bottle to help me grab the right tools quickly.

 

[Hot Runr Guy]

Great write-up Steve, thank you. A question, I'm not as skinny as I used to be, if I used a set of drive-up ramps, is the drain plug toward the back of the pan, so it would completely empty with the nose up attitude?

HRG

 

[Steve Urquell]

Great write-up Steve, thank you. A question, I'm not as skinny as I used to be, if I used a set of drive-up ramps, is the drain plug toward the back of the pan, so it would completely empty with the nose up attitude?

HRG

Thanks. Yes the plug is in the back. You can see it in the torque wrench pic above. Should drain well.

Meant to add: I really liked the slow screwdriver better than one of my drill drivers. Didn't have to worry about stripping the clips out plus it was nice and short to deal with the low height.

 

[RichardCranium]

Thanks for the write up. Very informative. I didn’t know Walmart had 12 quart boxes of oil. Will definitely look into that.

 

[Steve Urquell]

Thanks for the write up. Very informative. I didn’t know Walmart had 12 quart boxes of oil. Will definitely look into that.

It was $59 for 12qts. It would help to have a 5qt bottle to fill. Some people said they were a pain to use but I didn't have any problems. Same as a box of wine.

 

[RichardCranium]

Same as a box of wine.

Haha, that is exactly what I was thinking!

 

[Steve Urquell]

Haha, that is exactly what I was thinking!

The only hitch I had was that I couldn't find the spout. I had to open the box. The bag had shifted around in transit and the spout was halfway back in the box away from the spout hole. Taped the box closed and all is well.

 

[Montana]

lol 3/5

Would be 2/5 if you had the FX4 plates

Not sure who did mine before me but I suspect it was the CarMax I bought it from that stripped the bolts and broke the "nuts" that pair the two pieces together. My next change I'll replace them with the correct parts but at the time when I did it I just used a traditional nut/bolt to hold them together and now I have to drop both pieces at once. Either way, it's a stupid system. It should all be one damn piece. If I could find the plastic whatever material one like you have for cheap I'd try seeing if it fits on the FX4, but I have not bothered to look because it's just another expense at the cost of experimenting and I do prefer the metal one with all the dead animal parts on the roads up here. One reason I used to enjoy much higher sitting vehicles... No chance a piece of antler or bone is going to penetrate the underbody.

 

[Steve Urquell]

lol 3/5

Would be 2/5 if you had the FX4 plates

Not sure who did mine before me but I suspect it was the CarMax I bought it from that stripped the bolts and broke the "nuts" that pair the two pieces together. My next change I'll replace them with the correct parts but at the time when I did it I just used a traditional nut/bolt to hold them together and now I have to drop both pieces at once. Either way, it's a stupid system. It should all be one damn piece. If I could find the plastic whatever material one like you have for cheap I'd try seeing if it fits on the FX4, but I have not bothered to look because it's just another expense at the cost of experimenting and I do prefer the metal one with all the dead animal parts on the roads up here. One reason I used to enjoy much higher sitting vehicles... No chance a piece of antler or bone is going to penetrate the underbody.

Yeah I noticed today that the AC compressor sits low and the wiring is down at the bottom. Without a shield it is very vulnerable to debris. Snow buildup could rip it apart.

Do you think the clips could be replaced with rivnuts?

 

[Montana]

rivnuts

I've never considered rivnuts before. That might actually work. Sounds a whole lot better than what is currently used. I'll have to get under and make sure everything clears but I'm going to look in to that and give it a shot. Awesome suggestion.

I don't know about debris building up on the Maverick but on my previous Escape it was awful. Heavy ice would build up and it caused a single retainer to break which when driving would mean the ice built up on the top of the shield would slap back and forth. Took me a while to figure out what it was as I thought one of the rear wheel liners (which were also held in place by single clips and very flimsy) was flapping but once I got under it was obvious. Had to replace the whole shield because the tear was so bad I couldn't seal it together again and trust it to grab on the retaining clips. Anyways... From what I see it does look a little more sturdy on the Mavericks as far as the mounting locations. On the Escape it was basically two of those flappy plates meeting together in the middle rear. Also, that was worst case scenario in some very bad weather during last winter. That Escape was driven regardless of what was going on lol. I had no choice. Blizzard? Gotta get home.

 

[Hammer]

Great write-up Steve, thank you. A question, I'm not as skinny as I used to be, if I used a set of drive-up ramps, is the drain plug toward the back of the pan, so it would completely empty with the nose up attitude?

HRG

I use ramps and they work well with the exception of one issue. First time I used them I ripped a chunk off of my front mudflap ( The small factory one in front of tire attached to lower fascia ). It became caught on the ramp due to the steep angle of my ramps.
You may not have same issue with your ramps but I now put a 2x6 in front of the ramps before I drive up and that gives me the extra clearance needed to negate the issue.

 

[Hot Runr Guy]

I use ramps and they work well with the exception of one issue. First time I used them I ripped a chunk off of my front mudflap ( The small factory one in front of tire attached to lower fascia ). It became caught on the ramp due to the steep angle of my ramps.
You may not have same issue with your ramps but I now put a 2x6 in front of the ramps before I drive up and that gives me the extra clearance needed to negate the issue.

Thanks for the tip!

HRG

 

[G19Tony]

Good write up Steve. Answered all my questions, I'll tackle the next one myself. HF has some nice ramps I was looking at. I get a little claustrophobic, and having a little extra room under there would be nice.

What's your opinion of adding one of those quick drains?

Well done! See you over on GT.

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