Oil – The Life Blood of Your VW Beetle

The VW Beetle is an air cooled vehicle, there is no cooling system other than the fan pushing air over the engine and keeping your oil cool.  Therefore oil is the life blood of your engine.  There is nothing that will ruin an engine faster than low oil or no oil in the engine, the only exception perhaps being a tight valve.  The oil in your engine must be changed every 3000 miles without fail, and the level checked more often.

      As in the case with valve adjustments and other mechanical procedures, there are many great books out on the market that can guide you through the oil change procedure, the best being John Muir’s “How to keep your Volkswagen alive” manual.   I highly recommend that you get this book before starting your oil change.   There are other books on the market as well that detail the oil change procedure.  Back in the 1970’s I had a small hard cover Haynes and Chilton air cooled repair manual, as well as John Muir’s book.  While changing the oil is not an overly complicated procedure, there are steps you need to take that are different than an oil change on a water cooled vehicle (such as removing the filter/screen from the engine sump area).     

To perform the oil change on your Beetle, the hand tools you will need are available at your local hardware store:

  • 1)  An Oil Pan for catching and disposing of your old engine oil.
  • 2)  A complete gasket kit for VW Oil Changes – this can be sourced on-line.
  • 3) A cleaner for the oil screen ( I use an engine de-greaser spray)
  • 4)  Three quarts of oil.
  • 5)  21mm Wrench
  • 6)  10mm socket, ot wrench
  • 7)  Large flat bladed screwdriver

      I have done this procedure many times and it usually takes me about a thirty minutes to complete the oil change.  The hardest part of the job is just the laying on the ground for the procedure.     

This is a brief introduction to performing the operation:

1) The Engine needs to be warm, so take it for a quick spin around the block.  The oil being warm is essential for proper draining from the crankcase.

2)  Lay on your back under the rear of the car.  You will see a round plate with six 10mm nuts holding it in place.  In the center of that plate is a large nut; this is your oil plug.  Remove the Oil plug using your 21mm wrench.  Make sure your oil pan is ready to catch the oil as it runs out of the engine.  Let it drain until the oil is no longer dripping into your pan.

3)  Next, remove the six nuts from the round plate.  The round plate holds the oil screen up inside the engine.  This oil screen is the only oil filter that your VW engine has.  Set the screen and plate to the side for cleaning in solvent.  Remove the old paper gaskets from the plate and the bottom of the engine (sump) where you removed it.

4)  Clean the filter screen and plate with solvent and blow out or let dry.

5) Install new paper gaskets on both sides of the oil screen and push it into place with the plate working it up into the studs.

6) Replace the nuts and washers onto the studs tightening them in a star pattern, DO NOT over tighten these nuts or you will strip them, a gentle tightening is all that they need. 7) Replace the large oil plug in the center of the oil pan.

8) Go to the engine compartment and open the oil filler cap and pour 2.5 quarts of oil into the engine and check for any oil leakage.

9) Replace Oil Filler Cap.

10) Wait for five minutes for all the oil to seep to the bottom of the crankcase

11)  Check the level of the Oil on the dipstick.  If oil level should be between the two marks (Low and High) on the dipstick, if it is low then add a little more oil.

12)  Use a large screwdriver to loosen the clamp on the air filter oil bath. Remove any air hoses attached to the air filter.  Gently remove the filter, then un-clip the top and drain the oil into your recycle oil pan.  Clean your filter and add oil up to the red line on the inside of the filter basket and reinstall the filter; reversing the steps used to remove it.

13)  Remove any wrenches from the engine compartment

14) Start your engine – and again make sure there are no oil leaks.

As you can see there is nothing difficult about performing this procedure. Unfortunately, it’s getting to the point where owners will probably need to do this for themselves since regular oil change stores will not know the process on a classic beetle. That probably holds true for valve adjustments as well. The ability to find classic Volkswagen repair shops dwindles every day. The good new is that there are plenty of videos online that instruct owners on how to perform these procedures.

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