When you aren’t excited about task at hand, any struggles will cause you escalated anger. Which is exactly what we don’t want when are trying to enjoy car time. With all that being said let us take a look a few of my favorite tools to help you enjoy a headache free oil change.

Since my very first car to today I have always been a person to change my own oil. It gives you a bit of satisfaction knowing you are keeping your engine healthy and well. But what can we do to make it easier and maybe even enjoyable. These are a few of my favorite tools to help accomplish the task at hand.

Tools

Gearwrench 3/8th extended length ratchet: This has become my favorite ratchet after purchasing it. The longer throw makes loosening drain plugs and any other bolts so much easier. It has an adjustable angle neck to help you clear obstacles in your way so you don’t tear of your knuckle skin.

The Gearwrench next to my other favorite wrench, my Armstrong. You can see the extra length the Gearwrench has which makes loosening drain plugs easier.

Gorilla Grip dipped gloves: These are a recent newcomer to my oil change ritual. They are breathable on the back with the special coating on the palms to get your grip tight even when that oil makes it on to your hands. If you do end up soaking them in oil you can rinse them off or throw them in the washer for cleaning for next time.

Newcomers to my tool kit but these things are great. They allow your skin to breath a bit but help keep your hands clean and slightly protected.

Ares Subaru Oil funnel 56017 This is one of the worst parts of the Subaru oil change, holding the oil can and using a generic funnel to get the oil into the engine. Well, if you are tired of that like me you can use the Ares Subaru oil funnel for easy hands free use.

You know you will have to add some oil sooner or later, so let’s make it an enjoyable experience.

The lower portion is basically a Subaru oilcap that threads and seals into the oil neck. Making it spill proof! If you are into watching your oil flowing in, it comes with a neat clear viewing window!

AST oil funnel: This AST funnel threads in and gives you a very large area to hold oil in without spilling it over. It fits any and all engine but….

The Assenmacher oil funnel screws right into most Subaru oil fill necks. It allows you to pour that oil quite a bit faster without worrying about spills. Shown on a FA engine.

Pops right into place on this Ej motor too.

Lisle oil filter clamp: When you are looking up past your exhaust manifold trying to decide which part of your arm you will burn this time, don’t! Using this claw and a moderate extension you can break the oil filter free with breaking a sweat or singed arm hair. With it broke free allow the oil to drain out , now you can spin it the rest of the way off.

The Lisle oil filter clamp will help you remove stubborn filters. Once attached to a extension or ratchet you can easily rotate the filter loose.

Hopkins 15 quart oil pan: I have used this over the last seven years of oil changes and it works pretty darn well. My only issue is with the fact that Subaru uses such big drain plugs, if you don’t have the center plug in the right spot or flow blockage near this drain. It can overflow. This has only happened to me once, when the flow of oil hit it and spun it shut and oil just brimmed over the edge before I had time to fix it. Otherwise it has been a great pan for catching any all fluids that come out of my car. Though be careful of fluid splatter if the fluid is dropping for a good height.

Here it is in action. Make sure that center plug is locked in the up position or you may see a bit of oil spillage.

Oil

Rotella T6 5w-40: Was my go to oil for the last seven years of oil changes. There are many different choices when it comes to oil but this one has been a best bang for the buck oil for a long time. It has been known to have lots of additives that our turbo motors enjoy and a great resistance to oil shearing. Oil shearing is basically when your oil drops a level of protection due to heat and the breakdown of the oil, which T6 is known to stay as a 5w-40 throughout your engine change oil interval.

The old standby. It has treated me well over the last 7 years of my Subaru ownership.

Motul 8100 X-cess 5w-40: After many years of Rotella I decided it was time for a change and this is it. Rotella T6 underwent many changes a couple of years back and while the formulation is similar it isn’t exactly the same. With that info I decided to give Motul a try. So far in the Forester it has been very stable and with 125k miles on the motor I haven’t seen much oil usage. The Forester will be my test mule for it with typical street miles and the STi will use it under auto-crossing conditions to see what it is made out of.

Replacing the Rotella T6 was a tough choice but I wanted to try something else for awhile.

Pennzoil Platinum Euro Full Synthetic 5W-40: Well my time spent with Moitul wasn't all that long. While it is a great oil I kept searching for what was the best for the money and I landed here. On YouTube it scored extremely well on Project Farm's oil test and had countless great reviews on bobistheoilguy.com. I look forward to it protecting my engine for many years.

Oil Filters

Subaru 15208AA12A Oil Filter : This has been another staple of my Subaru car ownership, both the Forester and Sti have ran these for many miles without concern or issue. They have the proper pressure relief valve in them at 26 psi to keep everything in check. It isn’t the old Toki Roki filter but it gets the job done for both of my turbo motors.

My subaru filter snuggled up tight with my Map El header.

Mazda N3R1-14-302 Oil filter(Tokyo Roki equivalent Subaru black filter): As stated above this is very similar to the old Tokyo Roki black filter Subaru used to use. They have since moved on to Honeywell blue filters that are listed above and thus lost a bit of capacity. These are made to the precise specs that will keep your oil clean flowing properly. Next oil change will see these going in place of the good ol’ blue Subaru filters. You can generally find these for much cheaper than the Jdm black filters, thus making it an easy choice.

Once my Subaru filters are used these will be the replacements. This is the old Toki Roki filter Subaru used to sell, but has since switched to the smaller blue filters.

Drain plugs/washers

Subaru engine crush washer 11126AA000: What is a Subaru oil change without one of these? A failed one. This one time use crush washer helps keep your oil in place in the pan and your drain plug snug and happy. If you are using a Subaru drain plug and pan without these guys, you may have a few drips on your garage/driveway soon.

This little gasket helps your drain plug keep the oil inside. A new one is necessary every oil change.

Greddy magnetic drain plug turbo ej oil pans: Watching and reading from a few shops and engine builders made me quite curious in these. The idea that any metal that is in your engine is just floating around doing whatever it feels is less than ideal. These will trap any of those magnetic metal particulates and hold them tight til it is time to drain your oil. Metal isn’t the ideal thing to have in your oil pan but it is better on a magnet than floating around.

Replacing your factory drain plug is this GReddy unit. Helping keep the metal out of the oil supply and stuck on the plug.

And those are a few of my favorite products to use in my Subaru oil change regiment. Helping make my time spent under the car quicker and less stressful to get me back into the driver’s seat for some true enjoyment.

Questions, comments, thoughts? Leave them below!