I just changed mine. Yes it helps to take that plate off from under the engine. Mine was held on with three bolts in front and four zip ties around the rest. The oil plug on my 2003 S-Type V-6 was easily accessable from the right front by scooting under just in front of the right tire. For the filter By scooting under just in front of the left (drivers) front tire. I took put the front end up on jack stands for ease of "scooting" and because I had never done this before on this car, took off the front drivers tire. You don't have to. However I am glad I did because I noticed my brakes needed new pads. you might want to drape something over the silver hoses under the filter to keep the oil that spills out from coating them. I didn't this time and wiped them off as best I could. I will drape next time....

 

Do I twist the oil filter to the left or right to remove it? I know they are switched sometimes.

 

91stealthes, righty tighty, lefty loosey on the oil filter. Nothing special about it.

 

Thanks Thermo. I just went with my gut and used brut force to get it off. Left it was.

 

Yeah, I worked at a couple "quick change" places in college. The alcohol was flowing freely pretty early in the morning and I've seen all kinds of horrendous work. Wrong weight of oil, wrong amount, using the air wrench to resecure the drain plug. I'll spend the 20 minutes and do it myself to make sure it's done right. Plus when I'm under the car I can spot any potential problems.

I've just purchased my X-type, so this weekend will be the first oil change. Looking forward to it.

 

Harvey....you'll either love it or hate it....personally, i can't imagine owning ANY other car...every time i have to go out its pure pleasure

 

I use one of these for oil filters - Sealey, great bit of kit:

 

Oil = changed. Really easy, not difficult to access the drain plug or the filter at all. Although it appears my air scoop is long since gone.

 

Thanks to all you guys!
Good Luck in your Quest!!!
Stu

 

Anyone who is in business for themselves understands how much it costs for Jiffy Lube (
or whoever) just to be there. If the oil change is $20 wtf are they putting in your car? Do it yourself with good oil and a premium filter.

 

Unless you live in a cool climate..I can only recommend that you replace that pastic air-scoop ASAP, as it will extend the life of the Transfer Case by quite a bit.

 

Bumps this;

in case anyone is looking for the Transfer case Cooling duct...

DUCT-COOLING - Terrys Jaguar Parts - C2S18834

 

I've had my car up on jacks many times, but every time I lift up the front end, I second-guess my jacking point.

To raise the front-center of the car. What do you guys use as a jacking point? And, once up in the air, where are you placing your jack-stands?

Thanks,

 

I am changing my oil because I took it to a lube shop and they could not get the drain plug out. The last shop tightened the drain plug so tight it is unremoveable. So beware, maybe they make it too tight, maybe too loose, not drain the old oil enough to completely remove....no body takes pride in their work anymore....so do it yourself.

 

The first time I changed any oil filter myself, ever, was on my 2002 X-Type about a month ago. So my experience and perspective is that of a total neophyte.

That being said, having gone to several auto parts stores after looking at the lack of clearance around the X-Type oil filter I decided to go with a strap oil filter wrench that I purchased from Autozone (Part No. 25079) for US$6.

I had never heard or seen these before (but again, I knew nothing about oil changes before this) but I am extremely satisfied that I went this route.

As another person mentioned, I too went with the K&N HP-2009 - K&N Oil Filters, Oil Filter for quick changes in the future. So despite my extreme satisfaction with the strap oil filter wrench that I used, I'll probably never need to use it again (at least not on my own vehicle)

With one hand...rather a few fingers, I was able to get the strap around the filter in about 30-seconds, and then use a half-inch driver to twist the metal to tighten the strap. This one-hand operation was especially noteworthy since I didn't have the X-type jacked off the ground at all, merely secured its wheels.

The most important thing to remember with this type of tool, due to its particular nature, is that 90% of the force (my estimation) is going to try to crush the oil filter (i.e. tighten the strap). And perhaps only about 10% of the force is applied to the twisting force needed to remove it. If your can oil filter shows the slightest sign of being crushed, then you need to move the strap down as I describe.

All I had to do to avoid this was moving the strap to be down toward the bottom edge of the oil filter (the end closest to the ground)... versus trying to "strap twist" in the middle of the oil filter itself.

At least this tool is so light and compact it doesn't take up much space in my toolbox in the trunk.

The biggest advantages to doing this yourself?

Before my oil changing, I had always taken it to the dealer.

However this was:
1) expensive, and
2) I would end up delaying my proper maintenance cycles just because of the hassles of taking it somewhere.

Even being new to automative maintenance, I still knew enough to avoid the potentially sloppy (and thus potentially damaging work) done at those corner "oil change" places!

Aside from the warm and fuzzy feeling, and inspiration to actually do other maintenance myself (versus spending a lot of money, or simply not getting it done at all) was the fact that now even just some of the money I save can by applied more resourcefully, such as switching to full-synthetic, which I regret not having done from Day 1.

Of course at the prices that the oil-change shops charge for synthetic, I can almost not blame me??

Bottom line, I'll trust my own thoroughness of research and implementation versus someone who gets paid a modest wage and maybe has more "experience", but who ultimately has very little personally at stake.