Hey all!

Here's a little DIY for doing one of the most critical procedures for your Rover. Most of these are still in their maintenance plan period, so you might not be thinking of doing maintenance yet, but the factory maintenance intervals are far too long. Call me old-school, but I still adhere to the 5,000 mile change interval. It's too simple and too cheap (relatively) not to do. I have a Discovery 2 and have seen (and fixed) the result of a previous owner not staying on top of oil changes. Don't be that guy.

Here we go… this was done on my 2015 Range Rover Sport with the Supercharged V6. The V8 is nearly identical, so this should apply for that motor too, but double check capacities. This procedure should be the same for all 2014 - 2020 Range Rovers.

Here are the tools I used. A 13mm socket, 15mm socket, torque wrench, ratchet, an extension or two, flat head screw driver, and a pick for removing the filter cap o-ring. The pick isn’t necessary obviously but makes the o-ring easier to remove.



Be sure to get the actual filter tool that fits the filter housing. There isn’t room to use anything else. Not even your gorilla man strength. Here’s a link on amazon for it ( ) It’s a 90mm, 15-flute wrench and all the normal auto places do NOT stock it. Just a heads up so you don’t start this process without it.

Also buy 9 quarts of your favorite oil. The total capacity with an oil change is 8 liters, or about 8.5 quarts. I use Castrol 0W-40, the one made in Germany/Belgium. You do you though.



Start by driving the truck onto ramps. Drive around for at least 10 minutes to get any bits of debris that may have settled in the pan stirred up and suspended in the oil you’re about to drain.



Next, remove the plastic engine cover (lift straight up and slide forward), loosen the filter housing by four complete rotations. This is enough to release the vacuum and allow the oil filter to start draining, but not so much that the cap comes off completely. It needs 10 minutes to fully drain.




Go under the car and turn the skid plate trim piece fasteners 90 degrees with the screwdriver. Once the four fasteners are loose, gently pull it off the front. It’s held on by two clips. See the photo below.




Next, remove the bolts securing the undershield/armor. They’re 15mm bolts here. The two farthest to the back don’t get removed all the way, only loosen. The shield hangs on them to aid removal and installation.





With the shield now off, go ahead and place a drain pan under the drain bolt and remove it with a 13mm socket. This thing is a gusher. You have the pressure and weight of 9 quarts of oil rushing out. Be careful, the oil comes out with some force.




While the pan is draining, go back up top and pop in the new filter, install the new o-ring (put some fresh oil on the o-rings btw), and secure the cap. Tighten to 18.5 ft. lbs. (25 nm).



Go back underneath and fix the drain bolt back in place. Land Rover recommends replacing the o-ring on the drain plug. I didn’t this time, but probably will moving forward. It’s a rubber one that looks high-quality, but not sure how often it should really be re-used. Tighten to 18 ft. lbs. (24 nm).



Go back up top and put in 8 quarts. Refit the oil fill cap. Save the 9th quart to top up if/as needed.



Next, wash your hands. We’re going inside the car. Push the start button but don’t start the engine. Give the car a few moments to cycle through all the warnings (door open, hood open, seatbelts, foot on brake, etc). Once the car chills out, push the OK button to get to the main menu and drill down to the oil level option. Press the CANCEL button twice within the first 2 seconds of being on the oil level display. That puts it into service mode and will show you the actual oil level rather than the weighted average that’s normally shown.






It should be somewhere between the MAX and MIN marks. If it is, awesome. Start the car, go for a short 10-minute drive, check for leaks, and repeat the oil level checking procedure. Remember the hood needs to be open.



Reinstall the undershield and tighten bolts to 44.5
ft. lbs. (60 nm).

All done. Beer time.

 

Excellent write up, well done and good pictures.

My old Range Rover used to shoot oil out like it was a fire hose. I would cut a 90 degree corner cut out of a 2 liter pop bottle and use it to channel the oil down instead of all over the place.

Oh and congrats on the first sticky in the RRS section.

 

Ha, thanks! I figure I’ve taken enough from the D2 forum that I’m overdue for contributing somewhere in this LR community ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Removing the rusted skid plate bolts on our old LR3 was brutal. After changing the oil on our LR4's using a Mityvac, I can never go back to draining the oil out the bottom of the engine again. With a Mityvac you can change the oil in 15 minutes and not get dirty at all. All the more reason to change it more often that LR recommends.

 

Great write up!

Do you know if the procedure is the same for the diesel engine? I have the SDV8 4.4 RRS.

 

Sorry to dig this one back up. First, I want to thank you for the amazing writeup and photos.

Second, I just wanted to ask a question. Have you run into any issues since you've created this post, running the oil that you are? Perhaps some others can chime in. I'm seeing a lot about oil for the 2015 and newer engines needing to meet Land Rover's STJLR.51.5122 standard. I notice that the basic version of Castrol Edge oil you are using does not meet that standard. Their Castrol Edge "Professional" does, but it's 5x the price.

Coming from a newer model turbocharged BMW that also called for Castrol oil from the dealer, I've had outstanding luck running "Euro" spec oils. Primarily Mobil 1. I've researched this pretty heavily since buying a Range Rover Sport and found that Mobil 1's ESP X2 line of oil exceeds Land Rover's now-antiquated standard, but does not specifically state so, since it complies to newer, even more strict standards.

Am I looking into this too far? Should I just pick a good quality, full synthetic 0W-20, ensure my OCI's are at 5,000 miles and move forward?

 

Hey hey! Glad it was helpful! Sorry to say we sold the RRS and bought a Tesla for daily driving about a year ago. Still have the old Landies though. Whenever LR comes out with a true EV, we'll be back on the Range Rover train.

 

Hello,

When I did have my Disco new oil went in every 5 thousand Kms.

I don't think you're diving TOO deep into your engine oil research.
Find and use the best quality oil you can in your price range.

I'm trying to discover which company produces the lowest sulphur content diesel fuel.

I am curious about the weather in your area.
A 0w oil is always great in very cold temperatures but may not protect as well with 5w or 10w oils for hot weather / towing.

 

This is the only one I've found that meets the spec. https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/us/spe...426.html#20408
I buy it from FCP euro and my indy puts it in for $75. or ask the local dealer what they use.

 

Great post, thank you...living in South Florida with high temps, is it OK to use 5W-30 instead of the recommended 5W-20 oil?