Oil Pan...Please HELP!

[yamaha_rider619]

Can you change the oil pan on a 2003 wrx without lifting the engine? I want to do this myself but i do not have an engine lift. I dont want to pay $400 to have someone pull and replace a few screws for me. Has anyone done this before? I cant seem to find one either, but is there a thread that shows how to do this? Any help is greatly appretiated!

[SD_GR]

Can you change the oil pan on a 2003 wrx without lifting the engine?

How To: remove STI oil pan without lifting engine and replace oil pickup tube. pics! - IWSTI.com: Subaru WRX STI Forums

[yamaha_rider619]

is it the same on a wrx though?

[SD_GR]

That's an empirical question but the pans themselves differ. The issue is how to clear the front member on each car. From memory though even on the WRX you should be able to remove the pan simply by removing the front cross (I think... I hope).

[yamaha_rider619]

Is it hard to remove the cross bar?

[SD_GR]

Sorry, I should have said "subframe" to be clear. No it's not difficult.

Consider lifting the motor though. You could loosen the motor mount nuts, pull the gearbox mount bolts, loosen the pitch stop mount, and figure out a way to get the exhaust moving a bit so that you can use a floor jack, carefully and probably with a block of wood or something, to pivot the motor by lifting from the gearbox gently. This should allow you to reach the rear oil pan bolts (I think there are four of them). You'll need a swivel socket I would imagine though. Imagine moving the motor for an up pipe install, but now you're lifting from the gearbox with wood and a jack, not the oil pan, since the oil pan is what you're removing.

Now that I think about it I'm leaning toward saying pivoting the motor is a must. Whether you need to remove the subframe will vary depending on car, oil pan, and other components -- but I can't see reaching the back four bolts with the motor not lifted at least a bit.