It must be nice to have a dealer that you can trust.

 

I HAVE to change my own oil. I think it's an OCD thing. I have an older set of ramps that are actually a little too steep. The chin touches the incline before the tires get there. So far I've used a short stack of 2x4's. I keep lots of short-ish scraps for cribbing and such. With a stack of 2 on each side I can get under from the front pretty easy (no creeper tho). With only a stack on one side, it's a little tight - me being fat and all that.

 

I bought the rhino ramps and they look kind of tall. Are you sure they will work with stock S197 GTs? I don't have any suspension mods.

Do I have to do anything special while driving up/down the ramps?

 

Make sure you get a wedge to put behind the rear wheel. Also, make sure you can see the ramp (if you are alone) and don't drive off the end.

 

Another vote for ramps here, but man I do NOT like driving up on those things.

 

Go up using the clutch and no gas until the car starts to lose momentum, then SLOWLY apply throttle untlil you're on the flat part then push the clutch in FAST and yank the ebrake

 

Don't drive over and off of them!

Just go slow, and another person to give you hand signals when you're close helps too.

 

Walmart has the motorcraft filters plus they have the 5 qt motorcraft 5w-20 oil for $10-&11 bucks, I think it is around 16 bucks for all.

 

Our engines need at least 6 qt of oil.

 

I used the Rhino Ramps and they worked pretty well, except when I had to drive up and down the ramps. The ramps started to flipup and hit my front bumper cover. Remember that this is a 110% stock GT with the stock front fascia and stock suspension.

How did you prevent it from flipping up? I think it is because of the rubber pads flexing.

 

Something else that makes oil changes a piece of cake is a fumoto oil valve that replaces the oil pan bolt. Makes it a tool free operation that takes 5 minutes. Also easier to sample oil if you want an oil analysis.

 

The valve wouldn't solve the problem of accessing the drain plug. I simply cannot fit underneath the vehicle without using ramps or a jack.

 

I have used ramps for a long time and my solution to avoid driving off is I bought one of those cheap 3 foot long door mirrors (if you have a teenage daughter or sister, you have one already!!!!) and put a small triangular piece of wood behind it (glued it on with gorilla glue). Put it in front of the car where you can see it. like off to the left side, and you can see how straight and how far you are up the ramps. It saves you from making a mistake and smashing your underbody. Most times I work on the car when everyone is gone and it is quiet around here so I do not have an extra set of eyes to help guide me.I also use the mirror to take a good look at the underbody for leaks, cracks, whatever. I got the idea at a car show where the car owners show off their chrome work. Using the mirror saves me the time of crawling way under and getting a stiff neck. Hope this helps.

Believe me, it may sound crazy, but once you use the mirror to watch the car go up the ramps, you will never go up the ramps blind again.

 

Will the rhino ramps work with a cdc classic chin spoiler?