Well, after reading numerous posts, I decided to do my oil change myself. I cannot believe that mazda made this engine with the oil filter on the bottom of the car! My old camry which is an 86 had the oil on the top accessible from the hood! I went out today to purchase car ramps. If you need them go to kragen they are 20 bucks on sale. The issue I have is I did not get the extension pieces which are an additiona 22 bucks. Do we need these to get the car up on the ramps? The extensions make the inclince less steep. Will our bumpers rub against the ramp? Anyone able to get there cars up on the ramps and do their oil change?

 

Try to find a pair of Rhino Ramps. I replaced my old metal ramps and extentions with my plastic Rhino Ramps. They work great!

I'm doing another oil change on the Protege5 tomorrow morning. Raking up the miles. . . 15,000 since July 2, 2001.

 

Lol...Miata's are worse...

Get Rhinos.

--Dean

 

I have the black platic Rhino Ramps too and they work fine.

 

I had problems with my metal ramps sliding on the cement in my garage without the extension pieces. Plus, now that my car is dropped, I wouldn't be able to make it on the ramps without the extension pieces. I found for safety, and convenience they're good. Scared the crap out of me once when I got my car halfway up the ramps and they slid across the cement and my car dropped.

 

Rhino's have 'lil rubber feet. Not much sliding here.

 

Thanks guys, I might need these instead. Where can you get these? Any brick and morter stores have them? I heard someone mention kmart or walmart?

 

Try PepBoys or your local automotive store or you could probably find them online but the shipping would cost too much.

 

I found mine at Wal-Mart for around $40.

 

Menard's (midwest hardware store) has them on sale for $25 this week. Wal-Mart usually has them for $30.

 

Agreed, You've not seen difficult until you've had to REMOVE THE WHEEL to reach the Miata's tiny little filter (my hands wouldn't reach through all the hoses above). Talk about a pain. Look at it like this: at least having to crawl under the car to change the filter gives you the chance to inspect the things you don't normally see above deck.