How I Replaced The Factory Clips For The Fender Liner For Much Easier Oil Changes - Thumb Screws

[TJC]

I own and use a Bendpak 2 post lift. You're not getting to that filter easily from the bottom. I lift the truck to waist high and go in through the wheel well, removing half the liner, change the filter and reinstall the liner. I spend more time futzing with and chasing those plastic buttons than I do R&Ring the filter.

I suspect the techs are doing exactly what I do. Except I don't have to pull the pan anymore to remove the oil pan drain plug. I use a ValvoMax Oil Drain Valve. Makes the job cleaner and easier.

I doubt your typical dealer oil change tech would be aware of these types of options. I think it best to leave it stock, it's what they know.

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[got3fords]

I own and use a Bendpak 2 post lift. You're not getting to that filter easily from the bottom. I lift the truck to waist high and go in through the wheel well, removing half the liner, change the filter and reinstall the liner. I spend more time futzing with and chasing those plastic buttons than I do R&Ring the filter.

I suspect the techs are doing exactly what I do. Except I don't have to pull the pan anymore to remove the oil pan drain plug. I use a ValvoMax Oil Drain Valve. Makes the job cleaner and easier.

I doubt your typical dealer oil change tech would be aware of these types of options. I think it best to leave it stock, it's what they know.

I looked under there after work and it appears all said stupid plastic clips were intact. Kudos dealer techs.

 

[TJC]

I'm sure they have those plastic retainers by the box in a back room.

 

[The Last Ranger]

Magnets are mounted on the shield and I doubt with the strength of magnetism anything will move. Pretty happy with this solution.Will make changing my oil soon a little easier, perfect, thx all.

 

[quangdog]

Impossible not to remember as they are attached to the liner. There is nothing to install. I simply line up the hole and the magnet does the rest, guided my the hose threaded on the screw. See the picture.

The hose (stud) correctly positions the liner and then inhibits lateral movement. The top is the beveled washer and screw, The underside is the magnet facing outward towards the frame, the screw is tightened onto the hose which holds everything together, and the hose fits perfectly in the frame hole.

Pretty innovative solution! Out of curiosity, why not leave the factory fasteners along the bottom edge, and only put your magnet/screw/small hose solution on the top 5 holes? I usually only ever have to pull the top 3 or 4 when I change the oil. I've never had to remove the lower fasteners at all.

Do you pull the whole splash guard completely out of the wheel well when you change the oil?

 

[TJC]

Pretty innovative solution! Out of curiosity, why not leave the factory fasteners along the bottom edge, and only put your magnet/screw/small hose solution on the top 5 holes? I usually only ever have to pull the top 3 or 4 when I change the oil. I've never had to remove the lower fasteners at all.

Do you pull the whole splash guard completely out of the wheel well when you change the oil?

I do the same... OCD I guess. I took the splash guard off to clean it up, and it all went from there!
I really dislike those cheap plastic plugs.

One last thing. Putting it back on last night was quite the ride! Magnets sticking everywhere initially, until I got the hang of it and started at the bottom right!

 

[Kemo Sabe]

Great idea. I use strong magnets.

Same here. Adhesive eBay backed magnets. Simple.

 

[Bobby-C]

I've been frustrated since my first oil change with the annoying factory clips that hold on the inner fender splash guard. I've seen on this forum several other people have come up with different solutions for replacing these clips - either get new OE clips when the originals break, or get some similar after market ones... or use magnets, or small bolts with threaded inserts in the small holes, etc. More info here: https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/oil-filter-access-modification.25526/

I took inspiration from one of these posts and added some small M4 nutserts into the holes for the original clips, and then used thumb screws with washers as the fasteners. Everything is stainless steel, and this will be SO much easier for future oil changes. I took a bunch of pictures as I went, and I'll include those here as well as links to exactly what I used, in case you want to do the same. Note: these links are affiliate links on Amazon, which kicks me a few pennies if you use them.

Here are a few photos, along with links to everything I used:

Here's everything I used - all stainless steel. M4 nutserts are *exactly* the right size for the factory holes. No drilling or modification to the truck required. I grabbed the nutserts and thumb screws from Amazon. Used stainless washers I already had on hand from my local hardware store.

Nutserts: https://amzn.to/3UFxR2Q
Thumb Screws: https://amzn.to/455oWN3

I used this style of nutsert tool, and it was relatively easy to make it work in the limited space. I'm not sure if the other styles that look more like a staple gun would fit in the area and do the job. I did take the front wheel off in order to have enough room to work, but this could probably be done with the wheel on:

I've had this tool for years - and I looked but the original listing is no longer there on Amazon where I bought it. It's just like this one, though:
https://amzn.to/40Hek5T

Note that this tool does not come with an M4 mandrel - so I had or order one of those as well:
https://amzn.to/3IQ0JmE

There are other nutsert tools that *do* come with mandrels down to an M4 or even M3 - so if you don't have a nutsert tool at all yet, I recommend getting one of those instead - like this one:
https://amzn.to/3IKfIhZ

So that's all the stuff I used and where to get it if you want to do this job. All in, this entire job took me less than 20 minutes, including time to jack up the truck, remove the tire, reinstall the tire when finished, lower the truck and clean up my tools.

Here are the original factory holes:

And what the nutsert looks like once installed:

Here are all 5 installed:

And with flap re-attached and thumb screws installed with washers:

Closeups:

I highly recommend this mod. Oil changes will be SO much easier now.

Great ideal

 

[Buckbull]

23 Tremor here and it came with 3 bolts to undo the top portion of the liner. Another fan of the ValvoMax drain plug valve. Even if I didn't have the skidplate i would get this.

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