What is the method of raising the car with bricks for DIY oil change?
2 Answers
The method of raising the car with bricks for DIY oil change is not very reliable. It's more common to use the curb to raise one side of the vehicle. There are generally two conditions for oil change: 1. Time: every six months or a year. 2. Mileage: when the specified mileage is reached. Oil should be changed as long as one of these conditions is met. If you change the oil without replacing the oil filter, the new oil will not be contaminated. If the oil filter is very dirty, its ability to filter dirt will decrease. Even if the new oil is not contaminated, it will shorten the cycle of the oil becoming dirty. However, if the oil filter is not dirty, there is basically no impact. The condition for replacing the oil filter is mileage, which is almost unrelated to time.
Park the car on a hard, level surface, engage the parking brake, and put it in gear. Find several solid red bricks—avoid hollow or cracked ones. Arrange them in a trapezoidal pattern behind the front wheels, laying two to three bricks parallel per layer, with layers staggered. Slowly drive the front wheels onto the brick stack, ensuring all four wheels are off the ground, then secure the car with a jack at the frame support points. Lay anti-slip mats under the car before crawling underneath. Use a container to catch the oil during draining, and avoid letting oil drip onto the bricks. This method is cheap but extremely risky—bricks can easily break, and the car might slip off. It’s far safer to spend a few hundred bucks on professional ramps or hydraulic stands. I tried it once and never used bricks again—getting hit by falling brick fragments still makes me cringe when I see my toolbox.
