Oil Change Tips

[murcod]

I pull the coil wire and crank it over until the oil light goes out. A bit excessive, I know.

I do the same on my other cars (via disabling the ECU so no fuel is injected). The Kizashi is still getting done by the dealer.

[bootymac]

I pull the coil wire and crank it over until the oil light goes out. A bit excessive, I know.

If going to those lengths, I'd cut fuel injection rather than ignition to prevent the cylinders from being flooded. Could unplug the wiring at each fuel injector or pull the fuel pump relay fuse

[KuroNekko]

Priming your filter is good practice as it'll help reduce the wear of a dry start. People have found that the pressure goes up much faster compared to a dry filter.

Pour some oil into the center hole and slowly rotate the filter so that the media absorbs the oil. As mentioned you can't pour too much due to the horizontal placement but every bit helps

The topic has been extensively discussed on sites like BITOG (multiple threads on this) and the consensus is that it's actually not necessary though it can't hurt in most cases. Keep in mind that many cars even have oil filter designs where filling the oil filter beforehand isn't really possible. Top-mounted spin-on oil filters that attach with the opening facing down or many cartridge filters make it impossible to pre-fill the oil filter. The most you can do is soak the filter material before installation.

Personally, I prefer to prime my oil filters (pre-fill or soak) as it was a no-mess process for the Impreza that I drove the longest of any car. It had a vertically-mounted filter right next to the oil pan which made things simple. However, I didn't prime the filter in my Mazda as it had a cartridge filter and pre-soaking would have been rather messy. In fact, only half of the filter sat in the cartridge housing so pre-filling was impossible.

With a side-mounted filter like in the Kizashi, you just can't fill it up too much or the oil will spill out. The most you can do is soak the filter media with oil, wait for it to get absorbed, and have a little bit filled in there.

[murcod]

I pull the coil wire and crank it over until the oil light goes out. A bit excessive, I know.

If going to those lengths, I'd cut fuel injection rather than ignition to prevent the cylinders from being flooded. Could unplug the wiring at each fuel injector or pull the fuel pump relay fuse

Find the ECU fuse and pull it. That's what I do on the 2004 XL-7 we've got, I'd imagine the Kizashi would have an ECU fuse under the bonnet. (However, the keyless start system on the Kizashi may complicate things somewhat.)