How Replace Engine Oil 1998-2012 Ford Crown Victoria

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In this video, we're going to be working with the 2004 Ford Crown Victoria 4.6-liter VA. We're going to show you how to drain and refill your vehicle's engine oil, which should be done as a part of routine maintenance to ensure the health and longevity of your engine.

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Here are the items you'll need for this repair: 6.2 qts 5w-20 engine oil, oil filter, 16mm socket, ratchet, drain pan, tin foil, paper towels, funnel, jack and jack stands, gloves

Your oil fill cap is located on the passenger side of the engine at the front of the valve cover here. Simply remove that by turning it counterclockwise and place it somewhere dry and safe. Raise and support your vehicle. We're using a lift to make it easier to show you what's going on, but this job can easily be done at home on a jack and jack stands. Place a drain bucket under your vehicle.

The engine oil pan is located just behind the subframe with the drain plug on the driver's side. We use a 16-millimeter box and wrench to loosen this. You could also use a socket and ratchet. Be careful especially if you just ran your vehicle as the oil can get pretty hot. I like to push in on the drain plug while I'm removing it so it doesn't just fly out and then you lift up and away to keep your hands and the drain plug clean while removing it. Once the oil has finished draining reinstall your drain plug and tighten it back down with your 16-millimeter wrench or socket and ratchet. Now a lot of people tend to over tighten these drain plug bolts. I just go down until they touch and just give them about eighth of a turn. Be sure to wipe off any excess oil from the drain plug so we can see if we have a leak later.

Now these oil filters on the Crown Vics are pretty tricky. One good way to try to contain the oil flow is to just take a regular piece of tin foil, fold it up in there. Make sure you get it as far along the backside as you can. Then just fold it into a little bit of a cone shape there, just to help contain it. You may also be able to remove the oil filter by hand. We'll just crack it loose to get it draining into our tin foil, and allow it to drain down into our pan. Once the filter is done draining, go ahead and remove it the rest of the way. Be ready for that. Now we don't have to worry about any oil on our subframe or anywhere in our suspension that's going to make it look as though we have a leak. These filters again are a little tricky. I'm going to have to push some stuff out of the way here, just kind of sneak that guy out. Now this is a very important step that a lot of people forget. But you want to make sure that the old gasket for your oil filter is still on your old oil filter.

If this guy is not there like that, it means it's probably stuck to the gasket surface up on the motor, and if you install your new filter with two gaskets on there it's going to leak like crazy and cause you a lot of hassle and aggravation. Always be sure that this gasket surface is free and clear before mounting your new oil filter. Put some clean oil on your finger, lubricate the o-ring for the oil filter, and reinstall it onto the filter spindle as tight as you can by hand.

Remove your tin foil. Place it into your drain bucket and lower your vehicle. Place a funnel into your oil filler. Our particular motor takes 6.2 quarts of 520 synthetic blend motor oil. It's best to turn your oil jugs sideways to get the oil to flow out smoothly. We had 1.2 quarts in the first jug. We now have five in this one. I'm going to go ahead and load it up. Once you've got all your oil on there remove your funnel, reinstall the cap. Now the first time you start your vehicle after refilling the oil you're going to want to keep an eye on your oil gauge over here. It's going to sit low for just a few seconds while the oil runs through the motor and the pressure gets back up to spec. Go ahead and start your car and wait for that oil level to come up. It happens that fast.

Once the oil is up to pressure it means it circulated through our engine completely, so we'll shut the car off. Your oil dipstick is located on the driver's side of the engine. We'll remove that and wipe it off. Reinstall it fully and make sure that our oil level is where it needs to be. We're right at the top of the hash marks there which is perfect. Inside of the hash marks is the acceptable range but those two lines indicate one quart of oil.

If you're halfway down the hash marks you need to add a half a quart. If you're on that line you need a full quart. Anything below that add a quart and see where you're at. But ours is right up top. The reason we run the engine before checking it is large oil filters, especially like the big one that we have on this engine, can take almost a half a quart of oil in some vehicles, meaning that our oil readout would have been very, very high before we started it and now that it cycled through completely we know we're right where we want to be.

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