Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozark Boy
HUGE THREAD! But it helped me for my 1st oil change  . My CM has 2 skid plates, stamped metal and the alum optional plate. Yes they were a pain to deal with (easy off - much harder to align and get back on). I solved this by using a 4 inch hole saw in each one and now I no longer have to remove them. I pluged the hole in the lowest (alum) skid plate with a stainless steel "pluming plate" I got at Home Depot, just put a backing bar and tighten it up. Keeps all the dirt and "stuff" out. I would not just remove the skid plates and leave them off as I belive they do provided protection from "road debris". As for the oil shooting out onto the tire, just use a folded up piece of cardboard to direct flow into drain pan. A Fumo valve will also work but I like the high flow rate when draining oil to carry out anything that might be in the bottom of the pan. Now oil changes are back to a reasonable 20 min!  |
I just completed my first oil change on my 07 DB TRD 4x4. Thanks to the great instructions, it was not that bad EXCEPT for the skid plate. I have the factory underbelly skid plate, plus the optional front aluminum skid plate. The mounting brackets for the optional skid plate attach to the front tow hooks and essentially capture the factory skid plate between them. This makes it almost impossible to slide the factory skid plate toward the driver's door to release the small hooks on the factory skid plate. While you can cut off the hooks (as others have suggested), I found that you can remove the driver's side tow hook and this will allow the mounting bracket to droop enough to slide the factory skid plate out.
Now that I've been through the process, I could probably do it all in under 45 mins and stay relatively clean. I'm seriously thinking about cutting off those hooks on the factory skid plate. They are pretty flimsy - they bent just from hanging without any support, but I was able to bend them back with just finger pressure.