Request: DIY oil change for TSI engines

I've got a 2009 GTI with the new TSI engine. I've been looking everywhere for a good guide to doing oil changes. I've never changed the oil on any vehicle before but would like to do so for my new car, since the dealer is only giving me free oil changes ever 10k miles and I'd really prefer to have them done every 5k.

So, if anyone with a TSI is doing an oil change soon (or has done one) would you mind posting up a quick guide? Pictures would be fantastic, but a well written guide should suffice. From what I've read it's supposed to be quite easy.

I've done some reading already and it looks like I'm going to need a few tools in addition to the oil itself. I stopped by Autozone tonight and picked up the following:

• Funnel
• Oil Filter "B" Wrench (read another post here that said this was necessary...not really sure what it attaches to but I'm sure I'll figure it out)
• 1 Quart of Castrol 0W-30 (German Castrol and yes, I know I'll need more than this but Autozone has a rewards program based on $20 purchases, so I'll make another couple trips there so I can get more credits)

I know I'll also have to pick up an oil filter and drain plug. I'll probably get these at the dealership although I may pick it up on ecstuning if they try to screw me on the price. Is there anything else I'll need, other than a drain pan? I'm not sure what sort of hand tools are required but we have a good assortment in the garage, and worst case scenario I can probably borrow whatever I need from my neighbor.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out...I'm looking forward to taking care of my car!

Edit: Forgot to ask if I'll need ramps or a jack and jackstands. Don't have any of these right now, but I read that it's possible to do an oil change without lifting the car up. I've been eying a jack and stands set at Sears but it hasn't gone on sale since the holidays. There's no way I'm getting underneath the car supported by just the widow maker (friend of mine nearly got crushed under his F-350 when the stock jack failed on him) and I'm a bit scared of driving over a set of ramps.

I have an 08 TSI. I doubt they would be much different.
I have got to say this is the easiest car to change the oil in ever! I have done oil changes on about 20 different cars and this one takes the cake. Everything is easy to get to and I don’t have to take off the whole under tray to get to the drain.

This is what you will need.

Plastic ramps, don’t use jack stands, it will take you longer to jack the car up and down than to change the oil.

18mm socket and a ratchet. My cheap socket set didn’t have this in it, I had to ues an open end wrench. Of course my huge toolkit had a 18mm socket, but was 20 miles away at so oops on my part.

Drain pan, funnel , and a few rags.

Piece of old carpet to lay down on and plastic bag to put under whole area, so you don’t have to use cat littler to collect any spills you may encounter.

You only need the filter. You don’t need a crush washer anymore. There was a captive washer on the drain plug, leave it there.

Rubber gloves and you may also need leather garden type gloves, the oil filter will be a little hot when you go to take it off.

When you get ready warm up the car with a 20 min drive.

Have a helper guide you up onto the ramps. Place a small piece of 2x4 in front of and behind the rear wheels, to keep them from rolling. Also set the parking brake.

Open the hood. Don’t loosen the oil cap at this time. Look under the car, you should see a plastic under tray under the engine. Where this ends there will be a black pan and a black drain plug, it will be near the center of the car, just to the right, when looking from the front.
Place the plastic bag under your drainpan and get the 18mm ratchet. Use a short extension on the ratchet, this will help you keep the oil off your hands when you loosen the drain plug. Now losen the drain nut, do it slowly. Be ready for it to come off. try not to lose it in the drain pan, and try not to get sprayed with too much oil. it will be hot and it will shoot out in an arch towards the back of the car.

After you get the drain plug off, then you open the oil cap, this will help the oil drain faster. To get to the filter it is easiest if you pull the cover off the top of the engine. It is held on by 4 rubber grommets. Gently pull up on it. You have to have the oil cap off to do this. Once you get the tray off place it to the side. You should now be able to get the filter off use the “B” wrench here. I didn’t need to move the noise pipe. Take the filter off, don’t worry, it wont leak.

Put a little bit of oil on the rubber gasket on the new filter, and spin it on. I didn’t torque it down, I only went hand tight.
The oil should now be drained, so you can put the plug back on, clean it before you put it back on. Be extremely careful not to over tighten it. The pan seems to be some type of alloy or plastic. So don’t over tighten it or else!! I don’t know what the torque spec is, but you may want to also get a torque wrench for this part.

Put the engine cover back on, make sure you get the little rubber ring that goes over between the oil cap and the head cover oriented the correct way. The engine cover should just press back on.

Fill her up, I used almost 5 quarts. Start her up, check for leaks. If all is good take the 2x4’s out of the way and back her down. Let it run for a few min, then shut it down and check the oil level.

It took me longer to write this than it would take you to change the oil.
Any other questions just pm me.

Thanks for the write-up, Six... I'll bear it in mind when I change my oil in a few thousand more kilometers.

Fantastic, thank you so much!

I'm going to call the dealership this week to see how much they charge for the filter. Then I'll either swing by to pick one up or order it from ECS tuning.

I'll see if I can get pictures when I do mine, although it won't be for another few weeks. I'm only at 3k right now and am planning on doing it at 5k. I just wanted to get a head start on collecting all the tools and supplies that I'll need. Guess I'll have to go out and get a set of ramps. Either that or build one at work.

Dealer prices for filters range from $14 to $17.50 based on calls I have made. ECS is a little cheaper but unless you are buying in bulk or ordering many items, it won't be worth your while b/c of shipping. My dealer charges $7/liter for oil, again a good deal even compared to online prices.

As for ramps and such, not that I recommend it but I have changed the oil on my past cars by driving one side onto a curb or such in order to fit the drain pan underneath. It's not major surgery, you just need to have access to the drain plug. Whatever you do don't use the jack in your trunk, it's not safe for under car work. IMO, I would invest in jack stands and perhaps a jack rather than ramps. They will serve you well and can be used for more things than ramps.

Good luck.

blackmagic08 said:

Dealer prices for filters range from $14 to $17.50 based on calls I have made. ECS is a little cheaper but unless you are buying in bulk or ordering many items, it won't be worth your while b/c of shipping. My dealer charges $7/liter for oil, again a good deal even compared to online prices.

As for ramps and such, not that I recommend it but I have changed the oil on my past cars by driving one side onto a curb or such in order to fit the drain pan underneath. It's not major surgery, you just need to have access to the drain plug. Whatever you do don't use the jack in your trunk, it's not safe for under car work. IMO, I would invest in jack stands and perhaps a jack rather than ramps. They will serve you well and can be used for more things than ramps.

Good luck.

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Thanks for the tips. I think I'll avoid driving my car up on the curb...the ones near my house are all kind of tall. There's no way I'm getting underneath the car supported by just the widowmaker. A friend of mine and I were working on his F-350 once when the stock jack collapsed and nearly killed my friend. I'm hoping that the jack and stands set that I've been eying over at Sears goes on sale before I hit 5k miles. Otherwise I'll probably get a set of ramps or build some at work.

I'm planning on putting in Castrol 0W-30 (German Castrol). From what I've read it's pretty good stuff. Very expensive though at $7 / quart.

Finally got around to doing the oil change today. About 4900 miles on the clock. Like Sixgunz said it's a piece of cake. Thanks again for the instructions - they were spot on!

Couple of notes, since I ended up using a floor jack and stands rather than ramps. Didn't trust myself driving up the ramps and I've heard they can be a bitch to get lined up right. It was a good excuse to buy a jack anyway, since now I can do my own rotations without much hassle.

The stock jack point is where the reinforced pinch welds are just inside the four markings on the side skirts. The problem with this is if you're using a jack other than the stock jack, you will likely mangle the pinch welds over time if you don't use some sort of adapter. If you look at the stock jack, the car is meant to be lifted from either side of the pinch weld, not from the pinch weld itself. You can buy an adapter online for about $20-25, but I ended up making one out of scrap wood. I took a one inch thick piece of wood and cut out a 3.5" x 4.25" block. Then I cut two blocks about 4.25" x 1.375" and glued them on top so I had a channel about .75" wide and 1 inch deep to fit the pinch weld in. I put that sucker in a vice for about an hour (crank it as hard as you can since you'll be putting your car's weight on it and you want to make sure it's good and sturdy) and then let it dry for about an hour and a half. It fit perfectly around the pinch weld. Do note that if your car is lowered you may have to use slightly thinner pieces of wood or a low profile jack. Either way, the channel should be at least .8" deep.

Other than that the only other anomaly was that my oil filter actually did leak a bit. It wasn't a lot, but I wasn't prepared for it and I ended up getting some oil inside the engine bay and on the front of my car. Not a big deal since it's easy to wipe up, but I'd recommend having a plastic bag or rag to wrap it up with when you pull it out.

My car ate exactly 5 quarts. It's on the higher side of the dipstick, but I figure that's okay as long as it's in the range. Since the dealer does maintenance every 10k, I won't have to do this again until 15k. Thanks again to Sixgunz for the excellent instructions.

Edit: Forgot to mention that if you're in NJ, go anywhere but Princeton VW to get your filter. I paid over $20 with tax for my oil filter. Should have known they'd rip me off - they tried to do the same when I was buying the car.

its just like an oil change on an fsi, except the filter is on top instead of below.

1. remove drain plug and drain oil

2. remove filter housing and replace filter with a new filter.

3. reinstall drain plug

4. fill with 5 qt of 5w30 oil. check oil level and fill accordingly

go to www.griotsgarage.com and get yourself one of their oil extractors. you have to use the small tube that it comes with to fit into the dipstick tube, down into the oilpan, but it works awesome. it'll take a little while to move all the oil since its a small line, but I literally didn't spill a single drop of oil when I did mine. I just sucked the oil out, then swapped the filter, and then refilled with motul x-cess 8100 5w40 synthetic oil (real synthetic)

Is the drain plug reusable or must it be replaced every time on the CCTA TSI (I've seen both stated in these forums)? This will be my first ever car diy so I want to make sure I have everything I need. Thx.

its reusable.. there's usually a copper washer on it that people say to replace, but you can reuse them for a while

pretty basic man

Just bought a TSI equipped Jetta.

So how does this top-mounted filter not leak when replacing it? Or does it drain when draining the engine oil.

Most vehicles I've worked on have either bottom or side mounted screw on filters. The bottom mounts usually result in messy spills while the side-mount always does!

Planning at least a filter swap and oil top-off at 5k miles, despite the recommended 10k intervals.

Edit: this post says the filter has a check valve. Fancy!

mine doesnt spill a drop

Is there oil in the filter once removed? Or does draining the engine oil drain the filter?

That's pretty damned cool that changes are this easy.