HiHy Engine Oil Change

[Patrick Wong]

The HiHy is three years old and the basic warranty expired so I decided to start doing oil changes myself instead of having my local dealer do so. Quite easy to do, no need to lift the vehicle for access to the engine oil drain plug at the back of the oil pan. Ensure that the old drain plug gasket is not stuck to the oil pan, and install a new drain plug gasket before replacing the drain plug.

You must remove a black plastic engine undercover held on with 10 fasteners to gain access to the engine oil filter. Use a small flat-blade screwdriver to pry up the head on the two black plastic fasteners, then remove each plastic fastener by hand. Note that two of the bolts are self-tapping, those mate with black rubber clips attached to the undercover. The remainder of the bolts have a normal thread.

I backed the car out onto the driveway using electric power only so the engine did not start. Interestingly, the side-mounted oil filter, when removed, was totally empty of oil (hence, the oil must fully drain out of the filter after the car has been sitting idle overnight). This makes it easy and neat to replace without old oil dripping everywhere on the side of the engine. I used a band oil filter wrench to remove the old filter.

Oil capacity is 5 quarts. I found that the oil level was at the top dimple after adding the specified amount, glad that the dipstick dimples and the oil capacity spec correlate better with this engine.