Nice writeup. I am apparently much..."thicker". I couldn't slide under with much room to work. I had to jack and use stands to move around. I'm a mild claustrophobic so that may play into it as well...but I'm thinking power lifting and a love of cookies doesn't helpI finally did the 1st change today. The Bronco just clicked over 5,000 miles. The Oil Life System claimed there was 35% remaining. I will probably follow it for subsequent changes, but I wanted to do the first one at 5K because of the break in.
I didn't lift the vehicle. I was able to perform the whole service parked on a level floor. Dropping the plate was no issue. I did like I said I would up-thread, and used the jack to hold it. I didn't jack the car this way, just to hold it up while removing the bolts. I lowered the jack and the plate balanced and dropped no issue. It's actually not that heavy, but this took the awkwardness out of it. The 13mm... oh boy they are hard to turn with that Loctite. I can't imagine all that is required to stay put unless you planned to attach the plate and never remove it again. The T30 Torx seem way too beefy. Don't overtighten them, despite the massive size. They just hold the plastic lip down. If you don't have a Torx set, don't buy it for this alone, this job doesn't require it. Even a 1/4" T30 bit or socket will get this done.
Despite the photos posted before, I was a bit dismayed by the filter location. In fact it does overhang the plastic lip of the shroud by roughly 1/2. Just drop a rag and accept that oil from the filter will hit it. If you pull the drain bolt and let it go, it also feels like the initial flow would catch that lip. I held it up just in case. Straight on from underneath, plastic at the top:
This location also made the strap wrench almost useless. I took almost 15 minutes of awkward attempts to get it to move the filter. And brother, was that factory filter on tight. Maybe they are just testing the filter port to see if it shears off, because no one is ever again going to tighten a filter that much. I put filters on 1 turn after contact and that is tight. I will get a cap wrench to break it, but the vertical filter means as soon as the seal releases, oil is coming down. I wear a latex glove for both grip and clean up.
In my opinion, the filter should have gone behind the pan, and the drain could also face backwards. Would have avoided the lip for both, made removal easier and probably would not change the machining design that much.
You can't go by "look" really, but in my amateur opinion, that oil is used up based on look:
Putting a pour spigot on oil bottles is a PITA so I just use a funnel. If you can't tell from the rest of my comments, I am a neat freak when wrenching. I don't want any stray oil on the engine to build up crud, or worse, spots on the precious engine cover!! This lets you pour and walk away if you're intent on getting every drop of liquid gold out.
I've used Mobil 1 products for decades with great success whether due to the oil or just fortune, so either way, I plan to keep doing that. The Ford 910S equivalent I found was the M1-102A. Side-by-side they look like they came out of the same press brake.
I am sure everything is fine, but the one thing I did was re-attach the plate before filling. I guess I wanted the plate out of the way. Then I realized it makes checking for a leak, um, challenging. So maybe leave the plate off until the end... I reversed and used the jack to raise the plate nearly to position and then put in a bolt to locate the position. With the bolts hand tight, I tool the jack out and wrenched them down. Protip; put everything in loose before tightening the first one.
If you start the vehicle, use the steering wheel control to select Menu>(down x3) Settings>Oil Life> Hold OK on percentage screen. Way easier than my last one which involved pressing the gas pedal and turning the ignition key in the right sequence. I put in 5qt. of oil. The spec calls for 5.5 even though the stick shows full top. The stick is a little weird too with the read being right at the end. My intent is to take a short ride and let the filter and gallery fill and then check it again and most vehicles usually drop a small amount.
great pointsFor skinny people without access to a jack - I just slid a box with a piece of wood under the badlands shield. Loosed rear and removed front bolts and dropped shield onto the box, Pushed it out of the way and continued on to change oil and filter. To re-install shield slid box back underneath. Tip noted above is rear bolts slip into slots on shield so it's pretty simple to do with car in ground - if you are skinny.Nice writeup. I am apparently much..."thicker". I couldn't slide under with much room to work. I had to jack and use stands to move around. I'm a mild claustrophobic so that may play into it as well...but I'm thinking power lifting and a love of cookies doesn't help
NiceFor skinny people without access to a jack - I just slid a box with a piece of wood under the badlands shield. Loosed rear and removed front bolts and dropped shield onto the box, Pushed it out of the way and continued on to change oil and filter. To re-install shield slid box back underneath. Tip noted above is rear bolts slip into slots on shield so it's pretty simple to do with car in ground - if you are skinny.
rub it in pretty creative. I tried, it was close. I got to the loan point of the skid plate and that was that. Minor inconvenience. Helps me justify tire rotations at home
I had one on my Golf R (5 qt) and the drain time is much longer. I would say the extra time spent waiting for the drain is offset by the reduced time cleaning up. Given the horizontal nature of the drain plug, I have never been able to cleanly drain the oil with a horizontal plug. The Fumoto makes it a no brainer.
Is that the alternator down there? I hear the ECM is on the otherside just as low. Waterfording my butt. And I have mine in order.Not sure if there's much information for BL. I finally did my first oil change at 7000 miles. The bash plate was a pain to remove because of its heft and needed a socket wrench to remove. I also need to remove 4 torx screws that attached the bash plate to the lower edge of the front bumper. I think the oil filter itself needed a 72 mm Oil Filter Cup-Style Wrench to remove. I didn't have the exact size (I had a 74 mm cup style wrench) but managed by putting a rubber glove to tighten the grip.
I was worried at first that oil from the oil filter might drip onto the plastic bumper, but it didn't (see photo below). I saw a video in youtube that showed the oil drain plug pointing to the back of the car. For the BL, it points to the front.
Yes, that is the alternator. Some have waterforded up to the bottom of the doors without issue on a Badlands as shown in the attached link.
