legacycentral bbs

This is really embarassing but I feel comfortable sharing my shortcomings with you all. Where do I find the oil filter on a BD5 RS legacy turbo. This is my first subaru and I want to do my first oil change. l had a good look under the hood but.............
Mark

Did you look from underneath the car? It should be pretty obvious when you're under it, if other Subarus are any indication. I don't think you'll be able to see the filter from above.

Underneath, between the timing belt cover and the oil pan.

Yes, but there may be a plastic shrouding that covers your view of it from below. My brother's BE Legacy has this piece, but I'm not sure about the BD. If so, you'll just have to find the little plastic screw/clip things to remove this piece of plastic. Good luck!

-Brian

Ya my Forester has the plastic cover underneath. It looks like a skid plate but it's not. It can be a pain to work with.

My XT has such a plastic cover, also the filter actually mounts on its side, unlike the newer generation that mount upside down. That means things might get messy

THANKS GUYS FOR ALL YOUR HELP. I USUALLY DO OIL AND FILTER CHANGES MYSELF AND AM RELUCTANT TO HAND MY CAR OVER TO A WORKSHOP FOR SUCH A STRAIGHT FORWARD (I HOPE STRAIGHT FORWARD) PROCEDURE.
MARK

Yeah, I don't blame you. I've heard stories from other boards of (get this) a shop draining the tranny oil instead of the motor oil. So they would send the car away with no tranny oil and waaaaaaay too much motor oil. Thousands and thousands of dollars of damage result. Apparently people are so stupid that they can't tell the difference between an oil pan and a tranny case...

No thank you, I'll do it myself

Yeah, there are horror stories...

My friend let a local Sunoco station change his oil... they turned the 17mm hex head drain plug into something that can only be described as an 11/16" dodecagon head. The oil filter was on so tight that I had to stab it with a screwdriver and turn it two full turns before I could loosen it by hand. There was no gasket on the drain plug when I removed it either...

Oh, and check this out when you have some time with RealPlayer:

http://cartalk.cars.com/Radio/Back-Trac ... 200044.ram

Wow that's crazy! I went to a jiffy lube for work to get an oil change on my utility van and they broke the rear brakeline right at the rear dif.,which they were in to check, and they got in a argument with me that I brought it in that way. I mean the brakes were perfect when I pulled in and when they were done there was no pressure at all! Brake pedal went right to the floor. It didn't end up in court and they paid to repair it but it was a heated conversation with the manager. The next time in on the same van they didn't clean the oil filter area and the new filter didn't make a good seal. So about 1/2 a mile down the road I look like a nascar driver that just blew the engine! More smoke then I've seen coming from a vehicle that wasn't on fire. I had to drive back to the shop with my head out the window. Needless to say the company I work for canceled their account after that. I have a hard time letting anyone work on my cars ie trained mechanics but the kids working at these quick lube places are seriously the same ones screwing up your order at the drive through!
If you can't trust them to hold the fricken pickles how can you trust them to work on your car?

Hi guys, thanks for the advice. The skid plate came off with ease and the filter was hanging down and after a bit of a wrestle came off. One of the easiest changes I have done. I had a Honda and doing a filter change on one of those is really frustrating. Thanks for the horror stories. Yet more good reasons why I prefer to do filter and oil changes myself. Mark