FINALLY did an oil/filter change after 14 months since the last one (but only about 5500 miles or so).
Trying out some of LiquiMoly's Molygen 5W-20 (for the winter/early spring) this go-round, along with my usual, trusty Fram ULTRA 3600 L-O-N-G filter.
Since I must worry about a Gestapo-like HOA fining the bejeebus out of me if I get caught doing this, I did the whole thing without putting the car up on jack stands, or even using a jack, at all!
I drained it the night before, in the dark by just reaching under the air deflector, and removing the drain bolt with the car on the ground, using a lower profile catch pan (see. a factory ride height car has some advantages, as I would NOT have been able to do this on a slammed ride!).
Let it drain for 4 hours, and buttoned it up, and poured the used oil into containers/cleaned this up at 3:00 AM when everyone was fast asleep, so they could not rat on me to the HOA.
Then in the AM, when less residents are here, I did the filter, which took me a solid 3+hours to accomplish, due to my hands being way too large to fit in between all of the lines, fittings, radiator shroud, etc. on the front intake side of our ride, and the filter being almost 'welded' onto the oil cooler face (and YES, I ALWAYS coat the gasket in clean oil every time!!), and not being able to fit any removal tools into that non-existent space.
I finally got it to budge, and then loosened it to the point of just before it leaks, and then hit the ground to blindly reach under the bumper/deflector and take it off while trying to spill as little as possible.
As a result of the above method, my hands and forearms look like I went 100 rounds with a rabid, vicious Wolverine on meth! LOL
Yup,
way too much of an ordeal for such a simple task, especially at almost 70 years of age, and paying for it with pain for days afterwards.
Next time I will find a shop that will do this chore using MY supplied products, and I will just have to overcome my OCD due to them putting the pan drain bolt back in while the dirty oil is still pouring out, since to them 'time is money', and doing the job correctly be DAMNED.