A4W oil change

[ROKTAXI]

So I thought it would be a no brainer, just messy to remove the transmission oil pan to change the oil. Well, the dipstick / filler tube is welded to the pan and it looks like I have to remove oil lines or the exhaust head pipe to get the pan off. What miserable piece of engineering!!!!!!!!!! Is there any other way I'm not seeing???

 

[Blue 97 XJ]

mine has a drain plug its nothing more than a random bolt in the pan. the only down side is that you mite not get as much fluid out.

 

[ParadiseXJ]

So I thought it would be a no brainer, just messy to remove the transmission oil pan to change the oil. Well, the dipstick / filler tube is welded to the pan and it looks like I have to remove oil lines or the exhaust head pipe to get the pan off. What miserable piece of engineering!!!!!!!!!! Is there any other way I'm not seeing???

If you look a little closer at the dipstick tube, you will likely find that it isn't actually "welded" together. It can be a beeotch to get apart, but if you disconnect the mount, unloose the pan, you can twist it apart. You may need to use some PB blaster on the junction. I thought mine was hopeless too and it is a pretty crappy design.

The thing is "held together" with a slip fitting and a o-ring. If and when you get it off, replace the o-ring and slip a little anti-seize on the fitting.

Like Blue97 said there should be a drain plug (there is on mine) but if you wanna change the filter you'll need to drop the pan and thresd it under the cross member.

 

[supark]

Having just done this I feel your pain. I literally was pulling up my own body weight trying to pull apart the upper and lower dipstick tube. If you look lower on the dipstick tube you'll see where the junction is. Honestly it just takes a lot of yanking and swearing to get it off. disconnecting the dipstick tube from where it mounts to the bell housing helps a little, but in the end just yanking at the thing till it popped off was what did the trick. Removing the crossmember doesn't really help a ton aside from better access to the rear pan bolts. If you plan on dropping the crossmember though, make sure you have a jack handy - as it will be extremely difficult to push the weight of the cross member back up just with your arms