In line with the increasing complexity of vehicles in general, the 2024 S640 Ford Mustang involves a slightly more complicated procedure for changing the oil. Landan Durham at Texas shop Late Model Restoration shot a video (above) about how to swap the lifeblood of an engine, the major alteration being more coverage for the underbody aero panels. Unhooking the big rearward cover that hides the oil pan requires removing 15 screws and five push-type plastic retainers of two kinds. So any DIY’ers who don’t already have them are going to want to get an upholstery removal kit with the forked plastic bars to extract fasteners.
Things get a bit finicky when it’s time to replace the panel. To ensure most stable and aerodynamic fit, the large rearward panel that covers the oil pan has a few tabs at its leading edge that slide above the forward panel, in between the forward panel and vehicle frame. When Durham misses this step and has to remove fasteners again to fix the placement, he makes a prediction: “2025 model year will have a trap door for the oil, I’m calling it now.”
Mustang owners who change their own oil have had to remove aero panels for years, though, it’s just that the covers only obscured the oil filter, not the pan. As far as we know, the 2011 GT introduced a panel that hid the filter, but it came with an access panel held on by a single seven-millimeter bolt. Ever since, the panels have gotten larger, the bolts more numerous, and the access panel went away.
As he runs through the procedure, Durham also talks about the engine tick Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote is famous for, and Ford going back to a steel panel and traditional bolt instead of the former composite panel and plastic plug. What Mustang owners should get from this is that if you’ve taken your car to an oil change shop instead of the dealer, you might want to avoid doing that with the 2024 Mustang, at least until those shops get some practice in.
