Hi people.
I plan to change the motor oil in our 93Protege DX 1.8L; has about 240K miles on it. This will be the first time I've done a change on this car, and the first time in many, many years on any car. Your advice and guidance would be appreciated.
(These questions may have been asked before, but I didn'tfind any responses after my lazy-butt 5 minutes of searching, sosorry if this is repetitious.)
1. Will I need a special wrench or any other tool to remove the oil filter?
2. Is the oil filter easily accessible from underneath the car?
3. What kind of oil plug washer is recommended metal? or does it need one at all?
4. To about what torque (ft-lbs) should the oil plug be tightened?
5. Is there anything peculiar about changing the oil on this car that I should know about (eg, oil plug is susceptible to cross-threading, brand X filter is lame-o,etc.)?
Thx!

 

first off with 240k I recommend useing the same type of oil its been running. an oil filter wrench is helpful when the filter is tight but not always need. I am not familar with the location of a Protege filter but most oil filters are accessible under the car or under the hood on the front of the motor. more times than none you will reuse the same plugand torque it to about there with a 5/8 drive ratchet. as for a filter I have not had problems with Fram, mobile, wixx or K&N. although It's been known to happen that K&N filters leak sometimes due to a crappy weld.I have not experienced this yet.

 

i have always used fram filters and had no problems. the filter on your motor should be on the side of the motor facing the firewall. just jack the car up pretty high and get under it to remove the filter from the bottom. you can see it from the top, but it is impossible to get to it from there. i have a giant pair of channel locks that i just grab the filter with and destroy it while it is coming off. you won't need it again, so there isn't any point in being gentle in the removal. i have tried using filter wrenches and the screwdriver method, but this is my favorite. the plug can be re-used, but you should change it if there is damage. a local auto parts store will have a replacement.

 

Thank you so very much!