DIY Fiat 500 Oil Change

[rains]

Well, I had a friend who needed an oil change today, so I took some pictures and made a DIY guide for anyone else thinking of doing the same

Tools & Parts Needed

• 3/8, 1/2 ratchet
• 8mm, 10mm, 13mm (3/8 drive), 27mm (1/2 drive)
• flex joint (3/8 drive), various extensions (3/8 + 1/2 drive)
• new oil filter [will edit and drop in part numbers later]
• 4 quarts of 5w30 oil (synthetic or conventional, pick your poison)
• funnel for said oil
• trolley jack, jackstands.

DIY!

Step 1

• Open the hood, look down at the fancy engine cover. Pull it off. Just grab the edges and lift up, it pops off.

Step 2

• We'll be removing the three bolts, circled in red here. Use the 8 mm socket. Note, for the one at the back, I used the flex joint to grab it.

Step 3

• Undo the hose clamp here, again, 8mm socket. Remove said hose

Step 4

• Pull out this bolt here. The air intake tube pops out with little force.

Step 5

• Right beside the front right bolt there is a breather hose. Slide this off.

Step 6

• The whole unit should be loose now, move it towards the front of the car. There is a heater hose held on the back. Remove it from the holders. Then remove the entire air box assembly.

Step 7

• Now it's time to jack up the car! Some would have this as step 1, but it's much easier removing all the stuff up top with the car sitting not as high up I slide the trolley jack under the car, and mated it up against a big nut for the lower subframe. Once jacked up, I put jackstands at the appropriate spots as marked with an arrow on the sideskirts.

Step 8

• OH NOES! A SKIDPLATE! Whip out the 10mm socket, and remove the 6 bolts holding the thin plastic plate off. There are tabs up front, so if you pull the rear 2 bolts off last, you'll get less dust and crap in your face. Put the skidplate aside with the other removed parts.

Step 9

• Drain that oil! Grab the 13mm socket, and remove the drainplug. Position oil pan accordingly, prior to removal Remove the oil filler cap.

Step 10

• Using the 27mm socket (1+1/16 works as well), remove the oil filter cap. It's hiding down in the passenger side, up front. It's a bit of a funny angle, so I find seating the socket up first, and then dropping the 1/2 ratchet on works best (you don't want to strip/ break that cap!) ALSO, now you see why we had to pull the entire airbox assembly out of the way ... for room!

Step 11

• Remove oil filter. Try not to drip too much oil. Grab new filter. Remove oil O-ring. Install new O-ring, and filter. The old filter will pull out of the cap, you just need to tug a bit. New one will snap in and hold in the same way. Try and thread the filter by hand before you drop the socket on and start twisting. Again, this is because it's a bit of a funny angle. Don't want to crossthread cap!

Step 12

• Reinstall drain plug. I do this after the filter, as more oil will sploosh out when you pull the filter out. Wipe drippage off of crossmember. Reinstall the skidplate at this point. Make the bolts snug, but don't use a whole ton of force ... they're just holding a light plastic plate on!

Step 13

• Poor the OIL! She should take ~4 litres [will edit and confirm exact quantity]

Step 14

• Reinstall air box assembly. Reverse of removal. Make the heater hose sit happy. Pop intake hoses on, do up hose clamp and nut. Slip breather hose back on. Tighten down the 3 8mm bolts. Reinstall engine cover. Cover pops on, you can see where the grommets/ mounts are here.

Step 15

• Remove jackstands, lower her down.

Step 16

• Fire it up While running, check for leaks from both the filter area and drain plug. If all is good, let it run for ~30 seconds, then turn it off.

Step 17

• Check the oil level. If need be, top it off a wee bit.

Step 18

• our female friend is now happy

Comments/ Questions are welcome. I'll try and edit this later and add a bit more useful information. Hopefully someone finds this helpful