2019 Ford Ranger, no thanks.

I wouldn't go through this to change my oil.

Changing your own oil is one of the simplest and most approachable bits of maintenance that you can do for your vehicle -- unless of course, the manufacturer for some reason decides to make the process a pain in the ass.
Unfortunately, according to a report published Thursday by The Truth About Cars, Ford made the new Ranger's oil filter nearly impossible to get at without removing one of the car's wheels. If this seems like kind of a dumb thing to do, keep in mind that the 2.3 liter EcoBoost found in the Ranger is slightly different from the one found in other applications.
In particular, the Ranger's enlarged oil cooler means that there isn't room for the filter to live down by the oil pan anymore, and instead, it was relocated up and into the side of the engine block, protruding at a right angle. Getting it off involves removing the left front wheel and unfastening nine push clips to remove an access panel in the wheel well.
But things don't stop there. To get to the oil drain plug, there is another panel in the vehicle's underbody tray that has four fasteners that need to be removed. Granted, having to access a drain plug through an access panel in an underbody tray isn't all that weird on a modern vehicle, but when added to the rest of the rigamarole, it's just annoying.
Clearly, this kind of inconvenience isn't the end of the world but in a segment that's already getting pretty crowded very quickly, will it be enough of an annoyance on the off-road forums to push someone away from the Ranger and toward the Chevy Colorado or Toyota Tacoma?

Had I not seen this I would have had no idea. I imagine that's how it would be for most people. If you are the do your own maintenance kind of person you likely wouldn't find out until you stared cussing after you bought your oil and filter, and crawled under to see the setup. If you're not the do it yourself person you find out when you start cussing about the sticker shock from the local lube shop. Ethe way, I assume most people would not know until suppreised at the first oil change.

Oil filter location is a kinda a PITA on our Diesel Cruze.
I pull the RH tire when I do it, don't have to remove the fender liner though.

The fuel filter on my old 2002 DMax was a pain, but it was do able.

Considering the original panic article was from TTAC, it would seem hard to believe. Turns out it is. Former PUTC leader Mike Levine has cleared up the confusion on motor1.com by explaining only 3 of the fasteners need to be removed and then move part of the flap and gain access to the filter. I have a large cover with more bolts underneath my Fusion and it only takes a few more minutes.

Haters gonna hate.

98.7894% of todays truck buyers will never raise the hood to check the oil, much less change it on their own.

Its a non issue.

I read Mike Levine's article. I found Mike to be condescending when he said for all 5 people that change their own oil. Mike went from owning a pick up truck web site to a PR man for Ford, now he makes fun of people changing their own oil. Sold out to Big Business. Way to go Mike.

https://www.motor1.com/news/300071/ford-ranger-oil-change/

pup wrote:

98.7894% of todays truck buyers will never raise the hood to check the oil, much less change it on their own.

Its a non issue.

https://cashmoneylife.com/change-own-oil-worth-cost-savings/

Reader Poll: Do you change your car’s oil yourself, or take it to the mechanic?
I take it to a mechanic (44%, 622 Votes)
I change it myself (39%, 557 Votes)
Sometimes both (17%, 249 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,428 (poll closed – thanks for participating!)


We all knows polls are not close to being exact, but I would venture to guess they are somewhat closer to the number than 1.2%.
Most old people don't change their own oil, but a lot of young people do. I'm 65 and do all 5 vechile changes. On our small block in the neighborhood I know at least 5 of the 20 guys change their own oil. All are pick up truck owners, so I tend to think it is a demographics thing.

Jason,
I'm a truck guy, I like all trucks, they all have appeal.
On first reading about the new Ranger in Motor Trend, I thought the design was just crazy on changing your oil, then after more information I think it could be better, but not too bad considering what we were first told. I guess what got me going was the fact Mike Levine who most of us know from Pick Up truck forum, to me disrespected a group of people with his corporate response. He could have worded it differently by stated something along the lines of "yes, it will affect a small portion of DYI people. But, he made a joke of it in his response. My feeling is Mike Levine sold out to Corporate America.

I'm not saying changing my own oil is something I love to do, but several factors come into play for myself. No appointments, do it when I can. Not traveling to a dealership 20 miles one way to sit for and oil change, pay more for synthetic and then get the hard sell that it is time to change this, that and everything else they want to bang you for. My Acadia is under warranty, 2 Sonata's still under, my truck and the Honda Civic are out of warranty. Going to a quick change place, no one will tell you that they noticed some trans fluid or smelled anti-freeze. I like the fact that I have eyes on what is going on under the vehicles.

Hopefully Ford comes down on Levine for being obnoxious to Ford's potential customer pool. I'm not part of the social media scene, but I would guess it would be easy to send/tie that link for Ford management to get a bad taste.

I looked at the Levine's two twitter photos and the oil filter doesn't look very accessible. It's a deep reach. The 3 screws allow it to flop down but something has to hold it out of the way - possibly an extra hand. Maybe it's camera angle or photo cropping but the filter looks relatively far from the wheel well area. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to loosen the filter after the typical production monkey over-tightened the oil filter.

TheQuig wrote:

I read Mike Levine's article. I found Mike to be condescending when he said for all 5 people that change their own oil. Mike went from owning a pick up truck web site to a PR man for Ford, now he makes fun of people changing their own oil. Sold out to Big Business. Way to go Mike.

https://www.motor1.com/news/300071/ford-ranger-oil-change/

Mike didn't write that. That article was written by some dude named "Brandon Turkus" -- He does reference Mikes tweet, and Dawn McKenzie from Ford, but the "All 5" remarks belong to Brandon.

Your right. I have to take my time and read who wrote the article.

On my Duramax, I bought a flap IIRC from Merchant or Kennedy. I had to cut the skirt in the wheel well and install a flap. It helped, but was still a pain.

Report
2019 Ford Ranger oil change procedure: CORRECTION




CORRECTION: The Truth About Cars got this one wrong. A Ford representative reached out to us and said the procedure to change the oil and/or oil filter does NOT require removal of the wheel. Access to the filter is through an access panel in the wheel well. A Ford spokesperson told us that there are nine fasteners holding a rubber flap in place. Pull that off and the filter can be accessed. We regret the misinformation.


Wrong Information


Performing general maintenance on modern vehicles can be a serious pain sometimes. It gets even worse for supercars like the Lamborghini Huracan and Bugatti Veyron. Changing the oil on one of those is a full day's work and then some. The other day, The Truth About Cars obtained some documents detailing the necessary steps to swapping oil on the 2019 Ford Ranger.

To get at the oil filter, you're going to need to remove the left front wheel. This step isn't especially egregious or unheard of in the world of automobiles, but it is annoying. Typically, trucks don't force people to do this. In fact, not having to jack a vehicle up for an oil change is one of the biggest benefits of truck maintenance. Cars with less space up front might have you remove the wheel to get at a filter or drain plug.

Ford made some changes to the U.S. market Ranger that forced this move. An enlarged oil cooler for the 2.3-liter EcoBoost means there's no room for the filter to reside next to the pan anymore. Instead, Ford moved it up and into the side of the engine block, protruding at a right angle from it.

Once the wheel is off, there are nine push-pin clips in the wheel well that must be removed before access to the filter is granted. (Have fun with those nine clips after 100,000 miles of wear and tear.) Plenty of modern cars force people to go through these machinations to get to maintenance items like these. Shrouding, panels and other coverings are always needing to be removed to get to things — a lot of this is due to installation of under-car aero for better fuel economy or underbody protection. The Ranger is no different, as it also requires the removal of an access panel to get to the drain plug.

We'd like to point out that Ford's service intervals for most of its vehicles (non-staggered setups) recommends a tire rotation to go along with every oil change. There's no reason to expect anything different for the Ranger, meaning you're going to have the tires off about the time you're doing an oil change anyway. It's unreasonable to expect this regimented service schedule to be followed explicitly throughout the truck's life, so the tire removal could become annoying down the road. We point this out, because other mid-size trucks (Colorado, Tacoma, Ridgeline, etc.) don't require the same extra step that the Ranger does. It's hard to imagine this being the reason for anyone to get turned off of Ford's revamped pickup, though.

Haven't changed mine yet on the Cummins, but I have to go through the wheel liner on it too. Has a cutout there for it. Fuel filter/water seperator is along the frame rail and another fuel filter is under the hood.

Modern media has turned into a feeding frenzy of idiots who confirm nothing before they pick the skeleton clean. All about clicks, to hell with accuracy...and a correction issued a day or two later is just more clicks. I think they'd rather be wrong because of that. Snarky bastards who can't be bothered to spell correctly and refuse to be bothered with the actual facts.

While the Duramax is a good engine, I think the Cummins is the best. I think the best thing I did for my diesel was to put an aftermarket fuel filter on it before it reached the fuel filter that came with the truck. It was called a Nicktane, sold by a guy in California I think. It was double the size of the OEM fuel filter and was made up using Cat filter. It was a 2 micron filter. When I would buy the filter at the Cat dealer, the counter guy would bring out the repairmen and show them the system on my truck. When I would change the OEM filter, it could have been easily left on for another 25,000. At the time I was paying around $20 for the Cat filters.

Bought the wife a 2018 Equinox with 1.5T gas engine.
Comes with some free oil changes, I will not take it in for any of them.
Learned my lesson on the Cruzes when different dealers rounded off the drain plugs on both cars for the "free" oil changes.

I turn down the free dealer oil changes and do all my own with Mobil 1 since new. The Acadia is a pain in the butt to get the filter on/off.

TheQuig wrote:

On my Duramax, I bought a flap IIRC from Merchant or Kennedy. I had to cut the skirt in the wheel well and install a flap. It helped, but was still a pain.

My 07 is a pain, but I do it from the top, take off the intake tube and cram my arms in to turn the filter 1/10000000th of a turn at a time ! To me it's better than taking off the wheel and fender liner. By the time the bruises and cuts heal, its time to do it again !

I cut open every fuel filter from my Duramax to see how dirty it was. Once I put on the additional Cat filter I found the OEM filter could go 3 times longer than before. The Cat filter was easily twice the size and was a 2 micron filter.

TheQuig wrote:

I cut open every fuel filter from my Duramax to see how dirty it was. Once I put on the additional Cat filter I found the OEM filter could go 3 times longer than before. The Cat filter was easily twice the size and was a 2 micron filter.

How long did the Cat filter last?

I changed them every 25,000 miles, but they easily could have gone another 20,000 at least. I was just a fanatic about it, I was trying to keep the injectors from failure as the early models were prone to do that.

Did you add a lift pump to your Dmax?

No. A lot of people were putting in the lift pump but I never had the need. I towed a fifth wheel at the time and doing 70 up a steep grade was never a problem. My truck never gasped for fuel.

After I get my '06 up and running I want to add one of Kennedys lift pumps, high volume but low pressure. They are a centrifugal pump design not fixed displacement like so many others that dumps gallons of fuel over the pressure return and back to tank.

But, head gaskets first.

Head gaskets to be common in the early years. I remember Bill (Stretch) having to do one in his DMax. When I sold mine I gave him all my maintenance tools and fluids that I had. Almost 4 gallons of the Castrol Transmission fluid. I got it at cost at work so I change it very often early on. I wish all trucks came with a spin off transmission filter and drain plug.
I had bought from Kennedy a few times and found him to be a upstanding guy.