This was done on a LE0 motor and is applicable to LE0 and LY7 engines – which are the 175kW and 195kW versions of the 3.6L motor respectively.
Your engine bay should look like this:
Lift up the engine cover to allow access to the oil filter housing:
Check that you have enough engine oil to do the job as well as a new oil filter. Warm the engine up for at least ten minutes – this makes the oil thinner and flow more easily, meaning you’ll get more out in a shorter time frame. Turn the motor off.
Now jack up the car on hard level ground. There’s a jack point in the center under the front if you have a trolley jack:
The central jack point closeup:
Next, install jack stands on both sides. This would be much better on concrete than just hard ground. Don’t ever get under a car that is supported only by a jack:
The jack stands fit into the little cutout on the side rail:
If you are worried about safety you can always leave the jack in place under the car and work around it as a belt-and-braces approach.
Some VEs have a plastic tray on the underside to protect the underside from flying road debris and to improve fuel economy – this one didn’t, so we can’t show that unfortunately.
Underneath the car on the car’s right – the left if you’re facing the bonnet – is the sump. Some VEs apparently have the sump plug on the front of the sump; this one is on the side:
Grab a 13mm socket – some VEs apparently have 15mm plugs but this one was 13:
Position your drain pan underneath and loosen the bolt – be careful as once the bolt is removed hot oil is going to come pouring out:
Bolt removed:
Now while the engine oil is draining let’s move on to the second step – changing the oil filter.