Oil Fixes That You Must Learn | Workshop Diaries | Edd China 

I have done the oil filter change on my 2.5 TDi 20 times, and I have never needed to remove the front. Pop off the engine cover (if there)Just unscrew and move the servo reservoir. Then use an long extension and a 32 socket on the filter top. Reach down and change it. A 3 min job.

Hey edd and Paul, the tip of releasing the bleed nipple to compress the brake calliper piston is done at the beginning of the job. That being, remove old pads, release nipple, push piston back in completely, retighten nipple, replace pads, repeat for other side. Then bleed the system. As stated, this way removes any degraded fluid, stops the master reservoir overflowing and reduces chances of seal inversion and makes the job of pushing the piston in very easy. I was taught this back on the farm in my youth. In the old days of steel bodies

Edd, thank you so much for that experiment with the sensor, I always loved those tests on Wheeler Dealers, something the show lost when you left.

Top tip. When changing the oil and filter on a paper element filter like this. I always remove the filter with the sump plug still out. When you take the filter off all the oil that's in there returns back to the sump. The more old oil you get out the better

Paul got the wrong end of the stick with Martin Simms - top tip.. Martin clearly says 'when pushing the piston back'.. and yes, of course you'd close the nipple to prevent any air getting drawn into the system.. great videos lads..

a video showing even an A** mechanic struggling makes us driveway mechanics feel a lot better, cheers for the heat shrink tip too will definitely remember that one. Awesome video as always Edd!!

That feeling of accomplishment & joy you & we got when the light bulb illuminated ;-) love it All your mechanical efforts have always and still are very appreciated Thank You Edd !!

We used your pressurising oil gun to recharge the undercarriage oleos on Buccaneer aircraft back in the day! If memory serves me right we had to achieve 1500psi on the nose and even higher on the main undercarriage. I haven't seen one since 1993! Keep up the good work!

That oil filter placement seems to be designed for extracting the maximum amount of money from the customer come service time! :D

Hi Edd & Paul. Interesting to see the work on your VW van. I used to service the earlier FWD Transporters, 2.4 diesel. On those the oil filter was on the back of the engine, and the radiator pack swivelled out to improve access. So much for product improvement, it all looked far more cramped on yours!! Keep up the good work. Steve.

Hi Edd and Paul. My suggested top tip is to loosen the oil filter before draining the oil so the contents of the filter housing can drain out. Also, I tend to use a smear of grease on the filter seal instead of oil, handy to keep loose seals in place too.

Well, whatever it takes. You always seem to come up with the best solutions.

Remember to enter the Petronas Syntium competition with a chance to win some oil by leaving a comment and #PETRONASSyntium OR #syntium

Thank you for this Edd. Us Alfa Romeo Giulietta owners have been living under the impression that our cars had the worst positioned filters for servicing in the world, with the oil filter requiring removal of the drivers side front wheel and a hatch in the arch to access, and the air filter being behind the front bumper and requiring removal of the front undertray which is secured by a ridiculous number of bolts. It's insane on any vehicle to have the oil filter that inaccessible, but on a commercial vehicle you have to think it's a deliberate choice to scam customers in to getting servicing done at a dealer.

Great video as always Edd. Speaking from personal experience on my own T5, the oil filter change is a joy to behold in a non joyous sense! 😊 I have now managed to get it changed fairly easily using a ratchet 2 extension bars and 2 flexi joints! Still a complete faff though!

Petronas ad: Skipped over, didn't watch, will now NEVER EVER buy any Petronas oil, have adblocker, so won't see any other ads either. Just pure content, and I thank you! Well, I thank me a little bit.

I can't believe how difficult it was to change the oil filter. VW dealers must of been rubbing their hands together! Cheers Ed.

Customer: "I'm here for an oil change." Garage: "What kind of vehicle do you have?" Customer: "A VW van." Garage: "That'll be $1600 and you can pick it up next week."

Hello Edd AND Paul! My sons and me were just remarking the other day, after a re-run of that other show you were on, "What has Paul been up to?". Well, I guess we know! You've gotten the shop band back together! Good to see you both!

Your testing of components confirms root cause of fail mode. Nobody does it like Edd! Thanks for the over the top fix.

50% infomercial but somehow, it's all authentic. Great channel. I'm not into cars as such, but enjoy watching folks making busted things work properly again. Here's to the 1,000,000th subscriber! 🥳

These episodes are amazing , thank you edd for making these

Thank you for these videos. Your methodical approach and way of explaining are top class.

Loved the heat shrink tip. Years ago the flexi joint came with a spring wrapped around the joint for the same reason.

One point is you should have put the new sensor through the oil level test also. That way you might know that the old one is bad or the new one isn't BIBed.

Let's take this opportunity to thank VW for encouraging people to expedite the transition to electric vehicles.

The results are in: Best lighting Best sound Best music Best cinematography Best production and editing Best content! Thank you to the entire team for this wonderful automotive content.

For the brake hose: the rubber hose is crimped in the fitting. The crimp is air tight. Adding heat basically causes the rubber to burn (and expand to a gas).... the chain reaction keeps going until the fitting explodes. It's actually super handy for seized flex lines. Put on the safety face shield and ear muffs, add heat, and once she goes bang, the fitting usually comes apart.

"Ease of routine maintenance" was clearly not high on the list of design criteria for that vehicle. The designers should be forced to change the switches, oil and filter at least twice, in a hurry. Seriously, there are oil analysis services available for aero engines. They run the used oil through spectrometers, &c., looking for unwelcime developments like the appearance of bearing or cam lobe metal in it. Have you any experience with these services? I have heard the opinion that car engines in normal operation generate too much metal to make the testing worthwhile. (Too much noise to see a signal.) What's your opinion?

All that to change the oil filter?! Madness!

#syntium Hi Edd and Paul. Great to see some more VW content back on the channel. Servicing costs was one of the reasons I bought a 1.9, not a 2.5 T5. Love the show.

#syntium This is a fantastic series, we can all see the enthusiasm you two have for motors of any age. I'm on holiday in Tenerife and your show is a great way to unwind at the end of a busy day sunbathing. Can't wait to get home and try out your tips to maintain my own van .Best wishes to the pair of you.

I wonder.... how long was the meeting where VW had to find new and inventive places to hide an oil filter? #syntium

Thanks for testing the sensors, I always like to do this when possible (as a home mechanic) to understand how they work and if I can confirm the actual fault. #Syntium

Great video edd and paul great way to sort out the van with new oil and good way to show how oil switch works to thanks for showing us guys great show to

Gracias Edd!! Por todo lo que enseñas Saludos de Argentina

Yay more Edd and friends :D Edd some 20 years ago I was studying for a car mechanic (Never really could finish for reasons), but they taught me at Renault where I worked that you want your car to have ran anyway if you want to exchange the oil as with a warm/hot engine the oil is thinner and easier to exchange. Is this true?

Excellent engineering done: need to remove the bumper and one intercooler to change just the oil filter? What they were thinking?

Great episode as always and I agree with Paul that 2002 Bentley is absolutely gorgeous.

Loving the "blip vert" commentary as usual!

I wonder whether the location of that oil filter was an afterthought by the VW design engineers. That's a relatively involved process for something that simple.. Thanks, guys.

5:05 - Not exactly a Top Tip here... I've never used flushing oil, but when doing a change I always left the drain plug out after removing the old stuff and tipped in the remains of the previous 5 litre container - usually about half a litre of brand new oil that I hadn't needed (the sump + filter held just over 4 litres so there was always a bit left over). Whilst obviously not a full engine flush, it was still satisfying to see this old but unused oil pushing the very last of the horrible black sludge out of the drain hole. Using the oil left over from the previous change meant that I wasn't introducing any harsh cleaning agents, disturbing any bearings, or risking damaging any flexible seals. When everything running out was bright yellow/green and clean, I then felt a lot happier about swapping the filter and filling up with new oil, knowing that it wouldn't be clogged with last year's sludge as soon as the engine turned over. Every little helps...🙂

Nice to see inner life of oil level and temperature sensor! Great explanations with sensors and bad vs good oil.

1st thnx Edd for making the content you create! I've seen the oil demo over 10 years ago at a shop that worked on harley davidson bikes. Hey told me the syntetic oil kills engines that need spatter oil from the crank to lubricate the cilinder walls. Anyway keep up the good work! Loving this even more them the old whealer dealers😊

Friday just got better 👍🏻#syntium

Would've been interesting to compare the signals of the old and the new sensor to figure out whether it was faulty or not. Also using a logic analyser and sigrok to decode the signal might have been interesting, perhaps a cooperation with an electronics channel? #Syntium

Hi, thanks for the great show. I'm a tech here in Sweden and with our road conditions (heavy salting etc) i'm used with everyting about rust ( rusty brake lines for example). About that blown brake hose. Thats what happens when heating it. Try it on a loose one on the bench and that will happen. I guess its something with tight press fit that will make it bang. Keep upp the spannering/ Peter Andersson

I like to imagine that the whole time Edd was wrestling with this car, Paul was upstairs just drinking coffee and relaxing

It always amazes me how inaccessible even regular service points are on modern engines. The Citroën BX was famous (forty years ago) for only needing 2,5 hours for most services - if it takes bumper and intercooler disassembly just to change the oil filter, then that is already 15 to 20 minutes of your service time gone...

"If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen" -- remember that one? Obviously, not so true today.

You and Paul chatting about past wheeler dealer project cars is making me want to dust off my old wheeler dealer DVDs ☺️ Keep up the great work, I've anyways liked the way you explain how things work rather than just chucking on a new part and moving on 👍 #SYNTIUM

Brilliant episode... Always a highlight of my Friday night! #Syntium fingers crossed! 🤞🏼

As the owner of my own workshop I find it incredibly interesting seeing the inventive ways Ed finds to test certain components, however I think its important to manage peoples expectations of their local workshop, it is totally unrealistic to expect the guys in your local garage to go out, source plastic jugs, spend the time ( prob a few hours in reality) fitting components into them setting up a scope and there is no way any tech worth his money would waste his brew whilst it was hot. Only to end up saying well we don’t actually know exactly what the system really expects so we’ll change it out anyway. I’m very lucky in the respect I have a friend who is very much like Ed and enjoys faffing and owns a pico scope. So if I get a fault that the code reader is a bit vague about I can give him a call, he comes down, we have a breakfast roll and a brew, he has access to an online database of expected signals on various sensors on various vehicles so he can see what is expected of that sensor and he knows how to test it at the ecu plug so this proves the sensor and its wiring. If a sensor is bad at the ecu you simply test it at the sensor end if it’s still bad then the sensor is shot if it’s good then the wiring needs looking at. I know I’m really lucky having someone like this who can help me for the cost of a Butty leaving me free to carry on earning money for the garage.

Nice - reminds me why I won't be buying a VW T5

Parabéns Eddi..não vejo a hora de ter programasse tv com você..para termos aquela ajuda didática.

thats lovely to see such car here, I do have VW T5 Multi 2.5 auto myself and enjoyed this vid, had some oil pressure issues myself in past, thx

I’d love to see Ed work on a rotary engine , hopefully one day ( if it ain’t a rotor, it ain’t a motor ) 😄😄

How to change your oil filter : first remove the front of the vehicle 😱😱😱 . This is why folk just don't bother doing regular servicing anymore and run the thing into the ground .

This gives a whole new outlook on the appeal on van-life

Great show Ed! Very interesting to see the sensor being testing and how it behaves. Keep up the good work 👍🏼 #syntium

why when you have a fault description, of "oil pressure sensor" you changed the level sensor, ? No wonder mechanics are untrusted.

Really interesting. Thanks for showing us the oil level sensor. I'd guess it's communicating with the ECU using the 1-wire protocol. A bigger oscilloscope would be able to de-code the signal which may prove more informative.

Love your tip odf using a piece of hose to re attach the oil pressure sensor switch. That should have been in your top tips session.

...and I thought my old Wolseley 24/80 was difficult to service. You've really got to have tiny but powerful hands! Great video. #Syntium

you always seem to come up with the right solution !!

Hello Edd Glad you're back in the saddle again... all you needed to do was make a few adjustments to get your millions of worldwide fans again yes?! Love your visual explanatory engineering point of view, yes?! good job and bought your book also! ✌

Thank you Big Edd. This was a new learning exercise for this old car enthusiast. I really like investigating things like this and you have shown me another "How to", I have most of the kit you have even down to those mini Crocodile Clips. Can now make even better use of them now. That old saying is a lie. You can teach an Old Dawg New Tricks.. Proof positive right there. 😉

What a great couple! Two top blokes.

Really injoyed this 1 love the testing of the Sensors

For them who wondered whats the text at 31:08 min : Don't worry Edd, 4.3 million men in the UK also suffer from this problem... And at 31:23 it says: Well, whatever it takes. You always seem to come up with the best solutions.

This is so good, and especially the bit about how the sensor works. With a more advanced scope like a Rigol, perhaps you could have decoded that signal. Thank god this show exists instead of wheeler dealers, so we can have some more indepth technical stuff,

Hey Ed, blast from the past here (Southbank days) been following vicariously for years! Keep it up dude 👌

いつのまにか、日本語字幕が❣️ Thank you❣️from JAPAN🇯🇵

Como siempre toda una cirugía a corazón abierto!!!! jajajaja gracias por compartir tus conocimientos.

Please continue with your weekly videos. I've missed them do much

Appreciate the work which into the sensor testing, enjoyed the show !

That oil filter is just crazy to access. Good tip on the heat shrink u joint, I've always just used electrical tape.

great show once again love it 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Random note Edd, so I final got your book delivered up here to Sonoma California, I read it and what I found interesting is your connection to California even before WD. What fascinated me was the opening of the book where you talk about Idyllwid California! I use to work for a Factory Mazada Race team build stadium off-road truck back in the 80’s there. Good read hope to see you come back out here to Ca!

Edd, absolutely brilliant solution for the floppy universal joint by using the heat shrink tubing. I always enjoy your videos and am thrilled to pick up new tricks. All the best and keep up the great content! oh yes and #syntium in case it works in the USA!

#syntium - brilliant program Edd, especially the money saving tips for checking parts before simply replacing them, your saving everyone money and saving the planet at the same time!! 😀 Just wondered as you have dealt with converting an ice cream van to electric and you're getting the good old trusty, or should I say 'rusty', range rover back to its former glory could consider looking at an air-cooled vehicle next such as the VW beetle, Citroen 2CV 4x4 Sahara or a Tatra perhaps or even a Trabant 601... food for thought, Cheers.

Loving the content and the witty banter. Long may it continue #Syntium

That little oscilloscope is cool! 💥👍🏼👍🏼

Clever tip Edd👍😎

Informative videos and you add in Paul, good quality. Glad to see that you're pissed of that fat used car sale guys. Keep producing, we are all learning. From Christchurch New Zealand. Thanks Terry

Mr China you sir are a legend

I had a central locking fault on my T5 . In fact it locked the van with the keys in . Long story but I eventually found that the switch in the drivers door was at fault . At least the PCB was. When you have the window open and it rains it gets wet and the PCB tracks corrode. Just something else to check . Enjoying the videos.

This sort of reminds me of older Audi A4s like the B5 and B6/B7 which, when equipped with the 1.8T engine (and perhaps other petrol engines, too) and quattro all-wheel drive, have the fuel filter strapped onto the side of the fuel tank, which requires lowering the entire fuel tank in order to change it. "Brilliant" piece of engineering.

Love the channel. I love how you break things down for the everyday person. One of the things I loved the most when you were on wheeler dealers. Subscriber for life! #syntium

Another excellent video Ed. 45 minutes of my life thoroughly unwasted compared to MSM. Luckily it rained today so the seagul sh*^e that appeared from the sky yesterday was washed off my car. Saved me doing the level of maintainence I am trusted with. Keep up the great work. #Syntium

Friday evening is so much awesome with Edd China even if you don't understand what's going on.

Nice video, Edd! Didn't expected the oil filter placement

Best episode in ages. Edd working independently (i.e limited Paul) and not working on that blasted Land Rover (💤). Now please could you get back to the blinking headlights on your mates US car. He must be bored of waiting. 🙏

Great show Edd.

Ed is very similar to Prof. Magnus Pyke ! He was tall, thin and arms everywhere, with the eloquence and wit befitting a gentleman !

More than happy to recommend you and Paul and your channel. #Syntium Keep up the great work gentlemen.

Petronas sponsored, video number 44, was half expecting Lewis Hamilton to make a cameo!

Great show

These videos are always well oiled. @/syntium.

Top tip of the week. Never watch Edd China's Workshop Diaries while you drive. I did and the result was good and bad. The bad? I died in a car accident. The good? They DO have the internet in Heaven. And I am telling everyone up here about your great channel, Edd. So, hopefully, we will help you get to that magic 1 million subscribers number. ☮