I have to say I love this beetle and how enjoyable it has been to learn on it. Back in December I changed the oil and trans oil, but I read the Muir book wrong on two points: I misread the torque on the drain plug and I thought he said don’t change the strainer every oil change. I was wrong, he says change/clean it every time you change the oil and the torque warning was for busses not bugs. Since then it has been bugging me to do the job over again the right way. Not a lot of pictures because this is messy.
| Oil | Valvoline 30 Weight 2.5-3 Quarts |
| MOA | 1 11oz can |
| Drain plug torque | 25 ft/lbs |
| Cover plate nuts | 5 ft/lbs |
| Strainer | JBugs |
| Seals | JBugs |
I ran into trouble when using the new strainer, it would not fit over the oil tube. I later saw this is a known issue and a 3/8” socket pushed into it will fix it. So I just cleaned the old strainer and reused it. JBugs has a nice illustration of how the seals go, it is pictured below.
After everything was reinstalled and cleaned the new copper crush washers looked good!
My buddy swears by adding one can of MOA to each oil change, he is an original Baja owner of almost 50 years, so I can’t argue with his advice.
This is the oil strainer from JBugs that did not fit, but I guess it is a known issue. Had my hands not been covered in oil I would have googled that, but at least I have a nice clean strainer that has gets to be used again.
The beetle started up and now is good for a while before another oil change is needed.
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