oil change on xe w/no big tow or off road

[AzTitan]

i just changed my oil on my 2wd xe w/o off road and w/o big tow a few days ago. i remember reading in other posts that there was a little door in the skid plate that had to be removed to access the oil filter.....well on my truck there was no access door. i could see where it looked liked the door was supposed to be but there was nothing. the only way to get at the oil filter was to either remove the whole skid plate or go in from the top or the side. i chose to not remove the entire skid plate and go from the top/side, which was very tricky. not very much fun at all

so, any other ppl out there notice this?

[CaliforniaTitan]

Mine has the skid plate underneath but there is a 'door' there to remove for the oil change. about 6 x 6 inches or so abouts.

Chris

[cali-titan]

Originally Posted by AzTitan

i just changed my oil on my 2wd xe w/o off road and w/o big tow a few days ago. i remember reading in other posts that there was a little door in the skid plate that had to be removed to access the oil filter.....well on my truck there was no access door. i could see where it looked liked the door was supposed to be but there was nothing. the only way to get at the oil filter was to either remove the whole skid plate or go in from the top or the side. i chose to not remove the entire skid plate and go from the top/side, which was very tricky. not very much fun at all

so, any other ppl out there notice this?

Same truck here, and let me tell you... there has got to be a better way to change the oil, it is a pain in the @ss to take that cover to access the filter.. any Ideas to make this easier.... I wonder if we can make a little door, by cutting and ... oh well, I hope somebody comes with a solition soon... I don't like taking my truck to the dealer or anybody to change the oil... I want to change my own, but it should be easier, anyway, good night....

[KYDeepwater]

Originally Posted by cali-titan

Same truck here, and let me tell you... there has got to be a better way to change the oil, it is a pain in the @ss to take that cover to access the filter.. any Ideas to make this easier.... I wonder if we can make a little door, by cutting and ... oh well, I hope somebody comes with a solition soon... I don't like taking my truck to the dealer or anybody to change the oil... I want to change my own, but it should be easier, anyway, good night....

Removing the skid plate is extremely easy. The two rear skid plate bolts don't have to be removed, just loosened, the front two bolts have to be taken off. Nissan put two tabs on the front of the skid plate so it will sit on top of the bumper when you re-install the plate. The back two bolts have a slot to slide the plate onto the bolts left on the truck. A 10 mm socket, and two minutes to remove. This makes everything easy to reach, and keep clean, since Nissan put the little drip ledge for the filter on the engine. The only thing I noticed was a transmission cooler hose is in the way if you have a traditional filter wrench. But, the filter is so small, the socket wrench for the filter is the best bet. I have an SE KC 4x4 with no off-road or tow package, and my skid plate doesn't have a door on it.

[kmfernandez]

Originally Posted by AzTitan

.....well on my truck there was no access door. i could see where it looked liked the door was supposed to be but there was nothing. the only way to get at the oil filter was to either remove the whole skid plate...

The 'access' door is only with the offroad package. Some genius must have realized that these huge Titan oil filters dont need to be changed very often therefore limit access except for those tenacious offroad people...? They go to the trouble to put this neat oil filter drain but then make it more difficult to get at - strange one.

[Optimist]

It is strange, but the skid plate is rather light actually tinfoil easy to handle. I suspect the offroad plate is thicker & hence the access panel door thing.

[cshepherd]

Originally Posted by Optimist

It is strange, but the skid plate is rather light actually tinfoil easy to handle. I suspect the offroad plate is thicker & hence the access panel door thing.

Just by my naked eye and without a tape measure, the skid plate on my Offroad equipped Se appears to be about 1/4" thick. I've attached a couple of pics...

[AzTitan]

thanks for the replys guys. well if the skidplate is easy to take off, i guess next time i will just do that because otherwise ill have to dislocate my shoulder to get to it again and get oil all over the place