Just bought a Mazda 5 and was looking for the oil filter. Can anyone tell me where it is located on the block ?

 

welcome to the forum, for your question have you checked the owners manual?

 

It is on the bottom of the engine, in the front (front bumper side). You have to remove the plastic access panel to get to it.

I did my first oil change yesterday (2k miles) and it is quite a pain. You have to remove the panel, remove the drain plug at the back of the pan, then remove the drain plug for the filter cover. Even after removing the filter plug, you'll still splash oil on yourself because of the "moat" design of the filter housing. I wonder why they even put a drain plug in it after looking at the design.

Matt

 

It took my service location (we're 50 miles from the closest Mazda retailer, so I go to Monroe Muffler Brake for these sorts of things) an additional 30 minutes (compared to an oil change on my Caprice) to figure out how the heck to do this...

I could have done it myself in the same time span... but I don't have the tools and I don't see how I could have done it for less than the 15$ I paid them.

 

Try loosening the black plastic housing untill you can just see the large 'O' ring and then remove the filter drain plug.
Allows for much better draining and less mess by far MD5.

 

Someone else suggested this. I'm sure as he77 going to do it, because it splashed on me this time.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Matt