The oil drain plug is 25mm, and you can do an oil change without jacking up the car at all. The only tool I use for an oil change is an adjustable wrench, but I would recommend a 25mm wrench or socket. Sometimes I've used a leather work glove to aide in removing the filter because the engine should be warm when doing an oil change.

Here's a tip my dad came up with to make it a little easier to deal with the filter. Take a large diameter metal coffee can and poke two holes about 1/3 of the way up the side, about 2" apart. Do the same on the opposite side. Then run a straight piece of coat hanger through each pair of holes so that you have two pieces of wire running parallel to the bottom and to each other across the middle of the can. Bend the ends of the coat hanger and snip off the excess. Now you can put the can under the car and when you spin off the oil filter, just drop it down into the can. The wires will hold the filter up off the bottom so that the oil will drain out.

Some other things that weren't mentioned:

Remove the oil filler cap on the valve cover before you drain the oil.

Once you get the old filter loose, try to spin it off quickly to minimize the amount of oil you spill.

Make sure none of the oil filter gasket is stuck to the mounting surface on the block. I usually just run my finger around to make sure it's smooth. If it's not, the new filter won't seal properly and will probably leak.

Put some oil on the new oil filter seal to help it seal and prevent it from sticking.

Pour some fresh oil into the filter before putting it on.

Hand tighten the filter. I usually put it on as tight as I can manage with my bare hand, and I've never had a problem removing a filter that I've installed, using just my hand.

You can reuse the copper washer on the drain plug, but they're very cheap to replace.


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