Oil Change Advice For European Cars

Here is some advice for when you are doing oil changes on imported cars. This includes BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Lexus, etc. These cars are nice to do because the profit on them can be a lot better than your average vehicle and can be a pleasure to work on under the right settings. But mistakes are costly for these vehicles, parts are harder to get, and fixing a mistake can be very expensive. Keep in mind that several major quick lubes have a policy of not working on these types of vehicles just because of this.

If you do decide to do them here is what you need to do to make sure the job pays well and everything goes smooth. Keep in mind I may just have to buy one of my longtime customers since 2005, the owner of a 2003 Volkswagen Eurovan, a new oil pan because of a mistake that I may or may not have made. So I know from experience what I am talking about.

European cars call for synthetic. Its in all of their owner's manual if you check. The proper oil to put in 95% of these cars is 5W-40. These engines cram a lot of power into a small amount of engine and sludge can easily build up if you use regular oil. Europe makes their cars, unlike the US for some reason, to run on synthetic oil and if the customer does not want to pay the extra amount for this type of oil than do not do the job. They are cheap and if they cannot afford the proper oil change they should never have gotten that type of vehicle. I've only had that problem once though.

Almost all European cars come with a cartridge filter. Rarely, besides some Lexus' and Saabs, do these vehicles have your typical spin on filters. This is good and bad. Its good because you can charge extra for these special filters. Some people mark these filters up 50%. Its also good because you do not have to crawl under the vehicle to mess with the oil filter. The cartridge or canister filter is located on the top of the engine and as long as you have the right tools its easy.

These canister filters were an absolute pain until I bought the right tools to take the filter cap off. You need to go to NAPA and purchase their 3 pc Oil Filter and Canister Socket Set. Its a little kit that gives you three oil filter cap wrenches 27mm, 32mm, and 36mm that make changing the oil filter on any European car an absolute breeze (unless the canister oil filter is upside down under the vehicle like a Volkswagen Toureg).
I should warn you that although Pennzoil and Fram do make canister filters they do not always fit. In fact I have found that half the time they do not fit. They are either too big or too small no matter what the book says. Go to the dealer and buy the filter if you can. It will be more expensive but its worth it. Just charge more to cover your time and cost. I have found this to be especially true on Volkswagen vehicles.

Now here is some more crucial information about doing these vehicles. Extract the oil whenever you can. I will say it again: when doing these vehicles always, if you have the system, extract the waste oil from these vehicles to avoid messing with the drain pan plug. The plugs on these vehicles and the pan are highly sensitive. The slightest over torquing can causing stripping either to the plug or the pan. The oil pan on a lot of these vehicles are aluminum and this even compounds the problem more if something were to go wrong. You really need a torque wrench if you are going to mess with the plug, and extra cooper washers, but they are expensive and you would need many of them. The dealer has them because they work on hundreds of these cars everyday but its not worth it for an oil change business who may do 5 of these vehicles per month to buy them. So do not even mess with the drain pan plug! Do not touch it! Get the vehicle nice and hot and extract the oil.

The oil change lights on some of these vehicles are almost impossible to re set. They make them like this on purpose I believe. I have a manual that tells me how to do each one, have followed the directions to the letter, and have still found myself unable to re set some oil lights. Go figure???

I can't blame you if you do want to do these cars and I cannot blame you if you do not. Do not do these cars for cheap though. If you do not net $50-60 on these cars in your market than you are opening yourself up to a lot of liability for nothing. Doing oil changes are easy on these cars with the right tools but there are a lot of little things that can go wrong and cost you.