Posting this for those who intend to conduct do it yourself oil changes on the 308 series. 1st thing to do is acquire a 12 mm hex head allen wrench. Most stores only carry up to 10 mm size. You can find sets which include 12 mm and larger on ebay for about $20. I went to sears and bought a single 12mm wrench for $9. Lowes, home depot or regular auto parts stores...etc. don't carry the larger size. When you look under the car there are two possible drains. The one closer to the rear is for the transmission, the one forward is for engine oil (the dip stick being up forward goes into that sump and is a good clue). Use the 12 mm wrench to undo the engine oil drain plug. The transmision drain plug on my car uses a 10 mm hex. In my case I unfortunately used the tool I had available (10 mm wrench) and completely drained the transmission. But wait I become more stupid, I then quickly added 6 qts of Mobile 1 ($30) to the engine sump. When I checked the dipstick it was way high and the oil color was still dark brown. While I had noticed the oil I had drained was a lighter color and felt much thicker, almost honey like (and smells different than engine oil). A light bulb hit and I realized I was lost in the process. I said I suppose I should read the book and check the ferarichat archives. Yep I did it wrong but fortunately caught it before I ran the engine. It took me two days to find the tools, including a larger oil drain pan (that would hold 15 qts), another 6 qts of Mobile 1 (which I had wasted), and new transmission oil. To refill the transmission I went to lowes and bought 4 ft of 1/2" clear plastic tubing with a small funnel which I snaked down from the top of the engine compt to the fill port on the transmission. The fill port is also requires a 12 mm allen wrench. You fill the transmission until it starts leaking out the fill plug. All's well now. I'm taking some heat from friends/family over what I did but it was a great learning experience with mistakes I'll never repeat! Besides, I changed out both tranmission and engine oil so I'm set for awhile now! Good luck!
A quick Italian lesson when reading the sumps: Olio Motore : Engine oil Olio Cambio: Transmission oil
Bubba: I did the same thing last November after a track day!! Boy, did I feel stupid. The terrible thing was, I did this while the car was up on a borrowed trailer with an open middle section...easier access. Then I had to borrow the trailer for another two weeks while I waited for time to add transmission fluid (I ordered the Redline stuff everyone here recommended). Lesson learned, but it needed Tranny fluid change anyway. Later, Lee
Why get under the car when you can use a device like Griots Garage has to suck the oil out from the dipstick shaft. I use it to changed the oil on the Ferrari, M-B, and Jeep. Never had any trouble with it and I can changed oil in my khakis.
Check the archives also on filling the gearbox. The transfer gears need some fluid as well. The way I found out (with a lot of help from people here namely Spasso) is to fill it through the plug on top of the transfer gear case and watch for it to be up to level from the rear plug hole. If you only fill it from the rear the transfer gears may be lacking!
I wish I could justify using a pump on my cars but after owning 30 cars and seeing what comes out of some of those engines I'll stick with the drain and fill method. By pumping the oil out through the dipstick tube you not only don't get all of the oil out possible but you end up leaving an accumilation of dirt, heavy particles and metals in the bottom and on the sides of the sump. The hose will only vacuum the area immediately below the dipstick tube. The best way to maximize an oil change, which by the way, is to get as much of the old oil and DIRT out of the engine before adding new. Run the engine up to operating tempurature. Pull the drain plug while hot. The rush of 8 quarts of oil out the drain hole will help draw/flush the accumilated dirt and metal particles (all engines have them) from the bottom of the sump. Let it drip for at least an hour if you have time. You'll notice black stuff coming out even after an hour. I let mine sit over night. Change your filter during this time.I prefill mine with about 3/4 of a quart before I flip it over and screw it on. I am a firm believer in the 3 month/3,000 mile oil change. Even though today's oils will hold up to 6 to 10k of driving, the accumilation of dirt and burnoff of additives warrant a change sooner than that in my book. My brother is an automotive machinist/assembler and he has shown me engines after a life time of long cycle oil changes versus short cycle. Internal wear is obvious and proves that it is not the failure of the oil but accumilation of dirt and contaminates. Thats my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.
The ole funnel and rubber hose trick from the rafters works well for this. I lower the nose of the car about an inch too to get the level spot on while putting the plug back in.
That's pretty funny. At least you caught it in time. I did bonehead thing once. I tried to charge my battery when it had died, I used the old red is positive and black is negative. WRONG thing to do on this car. I wound up frying my alternator. But before that I thought my cheap battery charger turned itself into a spot welder ( had it happen before), and I slammed it onto the pavement smashing it into pieces thinking it was a faulty charger. I then bought another charger and it was doing the same thing. Then I started looking at the wiring schematic and noticed that the red wire was actually a ground wire. OOPS
I AGREE THAT THESE CARS ARE NOT "YUGOS" YOU EITHER DO IT CORRECTLY OR SALE THE CAR. SAVING COST A LOT OF MONEY, I CAN ATTEST TO THAT. ANY WAY MY QUESTION TO YOU ALL "OIL FREAKS" IS. DOES ANYONE KNOWS IF A MAGNETIZED DRAIN PLUG IS AVAILABLE AND WHERE FOR THE 308?. I HAVE THEM IN ALL MY CARS (VOLVO, PORSCHE, CADI) AND YOU SHOULD SEE WHAT I GET ON THE PLUG WHEN I VIEW IT WITH A JEWELERS LOOP. ALSO, I HAVE A SIDE MAGNET THAT I HAD FOR YEARS STOCK TO THE OIL FILTERS AND GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT THAT MAGNET GETS. REMEMBER. "DON'T MAKE IT EASY, HAVE FUN" !!!
I hope you are saying that somebody was USING a red wire for a ground. These cars are a negative grounded car and the red=pos/black= neg. holds true if wired correctly.
Yeah, they used a red wire for the ground. If it wasn't in a dimly lit garage, I would have been able to see that.
If you have the misfortune of living in, say the snowy midwest, would you really change the oil every 3 months (middle of winter, zero miles over the past few months) ?
I added only 6 qts the 1st time since I wanted to see how high up on the dipstick the mark would be. Didn't want to overfill!!! Figured I'd add another qt after I ran the engine a bit and then I'd finish off with maybe 1/2 qt or as needed to get the level just right!
