DIY OIL CHANGE FOR THE AIRSTREAM INTERSTATE

There are plenty of forum threads with chatter regarding changing the oil in a T1N Sprinter, including this one, so I won't recap all of that but will rather throw up a few basic pointer photos of this easy and quick DIY job.

Why even do an oil change yourself?  Well, according to my husband who did the main research on this issue, changing the oil in a turbo-diesel is a bloody expensive proposition and you can save about a hundred bucks over what a dealer would charge.  Additionally, it gives you an opportunity to examine for yourself an aspect of your vehicle's functionality.  Remember - nobody's going to care about it as much as you do.  

My husband chose Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel truck oil 5W-40, which is not cheap - about $25 per gallon at the time of this blog post (when crude oil itself was hovering around the spectacularly low price of $30 per barrel (bbl)).  The T1N takes about 9.5 quarts, which requires a 3-gallon purchase with some being left over.

These are the required tools - plus add nitrile gloves and paper towels.  That thing in the box at photo left is the new oil filter.  Both the oil and filter were available at common big box automotive supply chain stores.  

Notice that we put our Sprinter up on stackers, and I also chocked the rear wheels and set the parking brake.  This gives a bit more clearance to work underneath.  The drain bolt is not hard to access - here you see the wrench hanging off of it.  

Eeeewww.  According to my husband, the oil in these trucks tends to incorporate a lot of soot, and turns black pretty quickly.  

Looking into the engine from above, that black round cap is where the oil filter lives.  It can be taken off with a regular strap wrench, although the spacing is tight and it's awkward.  

This is what the capped apparatus looks like when removed.  The oil filter fits over this spire.  There are three different sizes of O-rings on this thing and the replacement rings are in the package with the new filter.  After the O-rings are replaced, you have to sort of push hard to get the new filter to seat itself on this column.  Then replace in the engine and tighten.  

Adding the new oil is not difficult, although it's easier as a two-person job (most auto-related tasks are).  The first two gallon jugs are added in their entirety, but there won't be room for all of the third because the system only has a 9.5 quart capacity.  My husband put this red tick mark on the third container and then with successive small pours, we shone a flashlight through the handle to see where the residual oil level was.  

Once you add back what you think you need to have replaced, use the dipstick as a reality check.  It's a good idea to start the engine so that the oil circulates, in order to get a proper dipstick reading.  Also, according to some forum users, the T1N's apparent oil level is very sensitive to position.  We had placed the vehicle on stackers, but it was not precisely level - the nose was slightly down.  So this is not an exact science.  We kept adding little bits more oil until the dipstick was reading near the top of the marked interval of where it should be.  

Incidentally, the dipstick was tricky to read because the new oil was so clear.  We figured it would brown up as soon as we started running the engine, because of the residue of old oil still in there. But the dilution factor was quite high and it remained clear even after running for about 10 minutes, so we had to dip repeatedly to get an accurate sense of the level.

Two days and 500 miles later, it was still really hard to see a discrete line, and the oil had not browned very much.  

We seemed to remove somewhat less than 9.5 quarts; the used oil fit nicely into the two completely empty Mobil 1 containers (which had some built-in freeboard over and above the 4 quarts they each were sold with).  Used oil can be recycled at DIY collection centers.  This website contains a widget into which you can put your zip code and find public recycling locations.  If that doesn't work, call your local municipality and they will have information.

Well, one does in this context.