Doing an oil change is a really important, yet rather easy, way to keep your engine healthy. Especially if it’s a high performance engine like the 3.0 V6 in my 2013 Audi S4, an oil change can help prevent wear, clogging small passageways and keep it performing well. Here’s how to do one on a B8 or B8.5 S4.
First off, remove the filler cap, and use a 36mm socket to crack the filter housing loose. Then, jack the car up, resting it on jack stands. The more level you can make it, the better. Next up is the undertray. This is held on by philips head twist tie fasteners, they only need half to a full turn to remove. Slide the undertray out, then you’ve got access to the drain plug. It’s a 6mm Allen/Hex, so after you slide your drain pan under, crack it loose and remove it.
While the old oil is draining, which might take a while, clean up the drain plug and replace the crush washer. If you don’t, I can almost guarantee you’ll have a leak, especially with this bottom facing plug style. I bought a 10 pack of washers for a little over £1, so hardly expensive.
Once the oil is all drained, clean up the area around the sum plug and refit it. It gets tightened to 30nm, something you’ll want a small gauge torque wrench for. Once that’s in, you can refit the undertray and remove the filter. The actual filter itself is only pressed into the cap, so it’ll just pull out. Grab a pick and carefully remove the old rubber seal from the inside of the cap, lubricating the new one with some oil before you drop it into place. Press the new filter in all the way, then grab your pick again to remove the o-ring on the engine side of the filter housing, again lubricating the new one with some oil first.
Screw the filter back into place, tightening to 24nm. Then it’s fill time. A full change should be 6.8L of oil, and you can optionally get a dipstick from ebay to help with this as they didn’t actually come with one from the factory. Remember to start the engine for a minute to fill the oil filter housing before topping up again.
And that’s it. You can check the level on the infotainment screen if you don’t have a dipstick, although that doesn’t seem to be 100% accurate.
