Oil_Change_Lessons_Challenges

First time is always a pain, isn't it? Thanks for all the heads up, I have a socket type filter wrench that fits, oddly enough it is from my motorcycle days.

WTF!!! ???

Someone told me the 2014 engines were the same as the 2013, or something like that. Did they lie?

If the engines are essentially the same, then the oil filter should also be the same, and the filter should take the same cap-wrench as the 2013.



A very simple cap-wrench, available at almost every Auto parts store in town.

Then put it on a 6"+3" extension and finish it off with a 3/8" drive Torque Wrench.



I found the cap wrench just a tiny bit loose, so I lined it with several pieces of Duct Tape, which made it nice and tight. (guten tite)

Like everything else on the Soul, the Oil Filter does have a Torque Spec, for tightness.
The proper weight of oil is printed on the oil filler cap. Don't go crazy and use anything else, if you want to protect your warranty....and NOWHERE in any Kia documents is Synthetic Oil recommended. With regular oil changes, it's not necessary.

Cheers mates!
TechnoMage
In just 750 miles I'll be doing my 8th DIY Oil Change. Cant' wait!

Ok..... I just had to come back. Sorry bout dat!

The oil filter on the 2013 is sticking out there in plain site, like a red nose on a wino.

This is the 2.0L engine: (easily denoted by the large oil pan)


And, this is the 1.6L engine: (2013)


Everything is so easy to get to, that jacks and ramps are not even necessary to get to the filter and drain plug, although low ramps do make it a bit easier.

So what's changed? Pictures, anyone?

.......ask and you shall receive :fat:

The new underbody cowling is interesting - reminds me of Ford's CMAX hybrid. It will obviously provide better protection from road debris but I wonder how much it improves mileage.

I was slightly amused because one of the three punchouts on mine is stamped "oil drain plug" with an arrow, yet the oil drain plug isn't there (unless maybe KIA is referring to the transmission oil plug which might be tucked above that punchout). I use RhinoRamps which provide enough room for access.

Greg

Quick update...received the Lisle 15-flute 80mm socket and it fits very firmly and a heck of lot more easily. A few days after adding 4 quarts of oil, the dipstick was reading about 1/4 quart low, so I topped it off and checked the filter tightness using the socket (hand-tightened previously). Filter turned maybe 1/4 of an inch extra, so...she's good to go.
Greg

"QUOTE" and NOWHERE in any Kia documents is Synthetic Oil recommended. "QUOTE"

That's interesting. My dealer uses semi-synthetic oil on every oil change they do, right from the first oil change.
Guess it can't hurt.

JFYI......

There is a very specific torque spec on the Kia Oil Filter.

According to my Kia Service Manager, the correct Torque Spec for the filter used on all Kia Souls is:

11.8 to 15.7 NanoMeters
or
8.7 to 11.6 Ft/Lbs (foot pounds)

Most low cost Torque wrenches can't be set for such precise Torque setting,
so I just set mine to 10 Ft/Lbs and know that's well within factory specifications.

It does help if you have a Torque Wrench. They're pretty cheap at most tool stores.



My own 3/8" drive, Torque Wrench, all set up for my next oil change.*

* If you're going to Torque down your oil filter, to spec's, it's important to properly lubricate the rubber oil seal on the new filter before you install it.
I use DC-4 specified by Champion Filters, for their aircraft filters. It's much slickier than plain motor oil and prevents the seal from bunching up or tearing
against the aluminum casting of the engine. (when the filter is properly Torqued down)

Oh, by the way, after talking to my Kia Service manager a few days back, and asking about how they change the oil on the 2014's,
it sounded to me like they just remove the obstructing covers when they do an oil change.

Quite a bit of oil escapes from the filter when you loosen it and drop it down. I'd sure not want that spilled oil up inside a cover of any kind.
Complete removal of the cover, would be my own preference, when doing an oil change on a 2014.
There is NO such cover on the 2013 so oil changes are a real piece of cake.

Cheers Mates!
TechnoMage

My 2013 has the cover. It is a 2 litre.
Sorry to say you are wrong at least for my one year old Soul.

I always hand tighten my oil filter. Then when the time comes to remove it, I can usually (but not always) get it back off by hand. I use gloves with a nitrile palm for grip. That way my hand can grab it and twist hard enough to not need a torque wrench. The trick is to not "gorilla" them on. They are always harder to remove than they were to put on! One hand snug ON....one hand GORILLA off.
You take the old filter off and dip a finger in the center hole (cuss a little cuz its HOT) then rub that oil on the new filter rubber seal and threads before screwing it on (snug). That is all they need! It ain't gonna fall off. Real men let the hot oil run down their arm when removing the filter by hand... LOL.

grege -

Per the manual, the 2.0L engines in the 2014 cars require "4.23 Us qts" of oil. That is why you were low when checking.

I did my first oil change on my 2014 1.6L at 7500 miles, it's the second it's had in its life. The dealer did the very first one at 3000 miles. I went to remove the drain plug, and found it only a couple threads deep into the pan. The dealer forgot to torque it, so it had been leaking oil, and there was almost none left.

The dealer has a tendency to overtighten the filter, so I couldn't get it off without disassembling the underside of the front of the car. They use those pop-in screw + plastic anchors. Kind of a pain. Had to ride my bike to O'Reilly and pick up a strap wrench, and that only barely worked.

I think in order to use the actual filter removal port, you need an impossible combination of tiny hands, and superhuman grip strength.

I used a Wix filter and semi-synthetic oil. Wix should be of comparable quality to OEM.

Hi grege, I'm getting close to my first oil change too. I'm wondering if it would be possible to come from the top front, basically putting your hands down between the radiator fan and engine block? I was able to get my hands down and fully around the filter, but was only trying to put a mark on it so when I take it in next week I can make sure they really changed the filter (I know, that's ADD, but I've caught another mechanic once who changed only the oil but not the filter).

I supposed depending on how tight the filter has been put on (reefed or hand tightened) would make a difference. I will try to go out again for kicks and see if I can get a strap wrench on it, coming from the top.

Thanks for your great write up....I was wondering what the experience would be like.

At the risk of incurring someone's wrath over bumping an over year-old thread, I'm going to go ahead and do so anyway. :tongue: This thread IMO is one of the best oil change threads on this site, and I wanted to contribute to in in my own way.

I changed the oil to my "new" 2014 Soul+ that I bought with 12,500 miles. It turns out that the very small-time dealership whom I bought it from didn't do an oil change when the previous owner traded the car in earlier this month. How do I know? The oil on the dipstick was WAAAY too dark to have been changed recently. So, I went about doing it myself, like I do all of my vehicles. It is peace of mind knowing that the job is going to be done right.

I don't really want to get into a debate about how often you should change your oil. There are lots of threads in the forum that debate this point, and it's really all a personal preference as long as you change it at least as often as what Kia recommends (7,500/3,750 miles depending upon driving habits). I change the oil every 3,000 miles with conventional motor oil, and I change the filter every 6,000 miles. I've never had a blown engine in any vehicle that I've owned, and I've generally owned them anywhere from 160,000 to 340,000 miles.

My tools/equipment:

1. Cheap Walmart 5W-20 conventional motor oil
2. Kia OEM filter
3. 17 mm socket wrench for the drain plug
4. 80 mm/15 flute oil filter socket wrench
5. A large rubber band
6. Oil drain pan
7. A hydraulic jack
8. A clean funnel

Procedure:

1. Set the parking brake. This is important. You don't want the vehicle to move while you're underneath it!
2. Release the hood latch from the inside.
3. Raise the PASSENGER side of the vehicle with the hydraulic jack. I lifted the car at one of the two main bolts near the passenger front tire until that tire is about 1 cm off the ground. This is enough room for me to work under the car for this particular job.
4. With drain pan in place, loosen the drain plug with a 17 mm socket until it is free, and the used oil drains freely into the drain pan. For the 2.0 L engine, the drain plug opening is already open and ready to loosen the drain plug. For the 1.6 L engine, apparently you have to open the "oil" triangular opening of the plastic cowl on the underside of the engine.
5. Open the hole cover for the oil filter.
6. Slide the drain pan underneath the oil filter hole so that it is still catching the small stream/drip of the oil from the drain plug and will be able to catch the used oil from the filter once it has been loosened. If your drain pan is too small, then you can use a second drain pan or put the drain plug back in and then slide the drain pan over. Lots of different possibilities here.
7. The 80 mm/15 flute oil filter socket wrench is a little too loose of a fit on the Kia oil filter and will slip on the filter if the filter was tightened too much (which was my case) from the previous person who changed it. I added a rubber band around the end of the oil filter so that the gap between the oil filter and the 80 mm/15 flute oil filter socket is greatly diminished. As long as it doesn't slip, you're good to go.
8. Loosen the oil filter with a socket wrench. You may have to use a two-foot long PVC pipe to get good leverage if it's really tight -- the pipe is essentially a breaker bar. Once the oil filter is loose, used oil will drain into the oil drain pan. Unscrew the entire oil filter and turn upside down so that most of the used oil can drain out of it and into the drain pain.
9. Once the engine is devoid of used oil, put the drain plug back in and tighten to snug. With a clean cloth, clean up the used oil near the oil filter housing.
10. Take some new 5W-20 oil and with your finger coat the rubber gasket of the new Kia oil filter. Screw it into the housing and tighten it BY HAND. There's no need to use a tool to tighten it any further. If you want to make it as tight BY HAND as possible, you can use a rubber band around the end of it so that your hand doesn't slip while tightening it. You might as well leave the rubber band there, because you'll probably use it when taking it out in 6,000 miles. Close the oil filter hole cover.
11. Lower the hydraulic jack.
12. Open the hood and fill the crank case with about 4.5 quarts of clean 5W-20 oil using a clean funnel. Close the oil filler cap.
13. Start the engine and wait for the oil warning light to extinguish on the instrument cluster.
14. Check the oil level with the dipstick. Add more oil if you need to. I always like the level to be at the full mark, but I know people who like it halfway between the full and the low mark.
15. Clean up.

Congratulations. You're good for the next 3,000 miles, and when that time comes around, you can leave the oil filter alone and just change the oil.

EDIT: I hadn't realized that this thread was in the Generation 1 forum. My apologies posting about my 2014 Soul+ in the wrong forum.

^That's what happens when you use "cheap walmart 5w-20 conventional oil"^
You lose track of time, space and proper forums!

I thought I had it covered with this set of Cap Wrenches... It was my surprise to find none of them fit the OEM KIA Filter...!!!...??? I did take the one that was a little to small to fit, and give it one of them "Special Tool Numbers", and take my Dremel Tool to the Flutes to open them up abit to make a Tight FIT on the KIA Filter... Now its a "KIA Filter Cap Wrench"...
NOTE: On the SOUL 2.0 a Cap Wrench is the right tool for the job because of the Pan capped hole you have to work through... With the Proper Tuned Cap Wrench, the 2014 SOUL is Dream to do a Oil Change on...<)
NOTE: I did use he cap wrench to tighten the filter after screwing the new one on, because of the reach up in there...

End Cap Oil Filter Wrenches 4 Pc
4 Piece End Cap Oil Filter Wrenches

Just out of curiosity..... I am forced to ask....What on earth does the year of the car have to do with ramps?

Ramps are Ramps!!!! Buy or build a good set of ramps and you can ramp a Kia Soul, or a Buick Roadmaster, or even a HumV.

The wooden ramps in the attachment posted by Westslope, were a design I came up with several years ago, but I elected to go a different route with 18" wide permanent ramps, that will take any vehicle from a Mini to a two ton truck.

So, I repeat myself...the year of the vehicle should have no bearing on what ramps to use.

If you do use a Hydraulic Bottle jack to raise the car a little, and you're so afraid of it failing, then throw it away and buy a new one. In 55+ years, I've never had a hydraulic jack fail on me. But then I've never used an old, rusty and beat up jack to raise any car of mine. I have, however, seen both bumper jacks and scissor jacks fail with catastrophic results.

Raise the car just a little bit with a bottle jack and then use wood blocks instead of jack stands, which can and have also failed, to prevent the car from falling if the jack should fail. Cement blocks can crush and crumple, but heavy wooden blocks are much more reliable. I use them a lot.

Cheers Mates

I use the homemade wooden ramps that I built years ago. They have worked on every car I've owned.

acillatem - the G2 is slightly lower to the ground than the G1 and also it has the lower shroud covering. The only thing you have to watch on any production made ramps is the area in front of the wheel when you started to climb the ramp (I have some steel ones and its very close to touching the front lip before it starts to rise). I know some members on the G1 changed the oil without even lifting it off the ground, so it doesn't need much of a rise to do it. Please fill in your drive info so we know the details of your vehicle without having to keep back tracking.

here's mine up on my ramps

conwelpic - Thank you. That is why I asked the question I asked, and I not it sounded like a ridiculous question, perhaps. My wife's Mazda did just barely touch the ramps I have when going up them, but it was just the spoiler, and not enough to cause harm, That is where the wooden ones I saw here, made from 2x8's, would work better. I'll have to check it out.

On that note.....do you need a certain post count before you can edit your posts or??

Reading and Posting Messages

I don't have the option to edit my posts, do does anyone know what the time limit is, or whatever the rule is?

I just use the floor jack and a jackstand. The chances of both failing at once is pretty low. If that ever happens, then I guess it's just my time to go.