How To Change the Oil in 2000-05 Chevy Impala 3-8L

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In this video we're going to show you an oil change on this 2002 Chevy Impala with 3.8 liter. This oil change procedure is the same for a whole bunch of different GM vehicles with this 3800 V6 in it. The tools you're going to need are an oil filter wrench and a 15mm wrench and obviously, an oil receptacle. On these vehicles, you probably can get away without jacking the vehicle up. Right here is your oil drain plug, it's a 15mm bolt, and then right in here in the wheel well is your oil filter. If you did want to jack up the car, you would want to jack underneath the aluminum sub frame right here. It's a good place to put a jack right there, and then if you jack there, you'd want to put your jack stand for safety in the same spot as my lifters here. With that, you want to remove your oil drain plug, 15mm wrench, counter clockwise as you look at it from the other way actually. Speed up through there and I can just let the oil drain for a while. My oil draining is slowed to just a trickle, so I'm going to put the drain plug back in and I'm actually going to turn my attention to the oil filter but I'm going to put the drain plug back in and I'm going to tighten it. I always tighten my drain plug no matter if I even if I know I'm going to pull it out again later because you don't want to not tighten it and then not pull it out again later and not tighten up later. Every time you put your drain plug back in, tighten it up.

Now, we'll turn our attention up to the oil filter. Using the oil filter wrench, we'll remove the filter. This is an adjustable wrench, you set the wrench and then as you tighten it, it tightens around the filter. On this vehicle, you push it back towards the rear of the car that loosens the filter up. After it's loosened up, you can just spin it with your hand. You'll see oil start coming down. It's get a little messy. This is where the gloves definitely come in handy. One though, you can do this when your engines are warm, it's actually a little better to do it when it's warm but you have to be very careful not to burn yourself because the oil can be up to 200 degrees. Just a good idea to start it up and warm it up for just a little bit, that gets the oil just a little more viscous and it flows a little better, comes out a little better. We'll pull, finish spinning the filter off, pull it down and then dump it out. There's actually oil in the filter so you dump that out and then you can see a little line of oil coming off the filter mount, so we'll let that drain down for awhile too. After we've let that drain for a little bit, just reach up in there with a rag or paper towel. You want to make sure it's somewhat of a lint-free rag or paper towel is usually better. Just wipe down the filter surface or the mount surface as much as you can, get as much of the old oil off as possible. Wipe down the CV boot and the frame.

Your new filter, put a little bit of oil around the edge, just to coat that rubber gasket and then put it up in there and then spin it right on. Tighten up a little bit, we'll grab our wrench and we'll get it pretty much hand tight, and then take your wrench. You are just going to spin it maybe another half to three quarters of a turn. You don't want to go extremely tight. You just want to give a really good snug. We do it about another half turn there. Back, just pull out the plug again and let any other oil that just settle down under the pan out. After letting it drain for a little bit, we'll pull our plug up and in. Wipe down the pan a little bit. Just make sure, on your bolt, there is a nylon washer just make sure that's not cracked or broken or anything. We'll tighten up the drain plug, 15mm wrench again. You want to pull it nice and tight. Don't go crazy but you want to get it, good and tight. Worried about waste oil? I have a nice arrangement; one of my friends has a garage with a waste oil heater, so I just give it to him and recycles it. You can also, either your local transfer station will take the oil or most garages will take the oil, or some will charge a small fee.

Now, we want to refill. I've already removed the cap there. Remove the cap in the oil, pour it in slowly, and try not to spill any. If you spill any, have a little rag laying around so you can wipe it down real quick. What you want to do is for this engine, you want to add four quarts of oil and then check it, and you should see that the oil is full at that point. Then you want to start up and run your vehicle for just a minute or two. Let the oil circulate, it'll fill up the oil filter. Check your oil again, you should find it's about a half a quart low, and you can either choose to fill it, that half a quart or you can leave a half a quart low. It's not going to hurt anything as long as it's in the operating range. You can see right here, on your dip stick, those four dots are basically the operating range so you want to fill it until you're within those four dots and like I said, four quartz will get it right halfway in between. Put your dip stick back in and put your cap back on and you should be all set.

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