sil3ntwar,
Reply from another Kiwi, Pick up a pack of any 15/40 ( GTX is good ) from the repco sale, get a filter & filter wrench ( well worth buying ) and a catch tray if you don't have one.
Doing the oil is easy and it's a kiwi male thing

Don't tip your old oil down the drain, take it to a garage, they always have a tank, or if your near Wanganui, drop it in to me, I'm painting the fences !

Quote from tristancliffe :

To change the oil yourself:

Warm engine up with a 10 minute gentle drive (skip this step if you really have no idea what you're doing as burning yourself looking for the right bits is worse than the oil taking ages to drain and not taking all the crap with it).

Locate oil drain plug on the bottom of the engine. NOT the bottom of the gearbox. It will probably be a 14mm AF taper plug, so get your 14mm spanner ready.

Place an old contained under the plug to catch all the oil.

Remove aforementioned plug, and let oil drain into the container.

Whilst that is doing what it does, open the bonnet (hood) and search for the oil filter. It's a round cylinder, probably about two inches tall, on the side of the engine. It'll look a bit like the new one (but might be a different colour).

Use an oil filter strap (or other oil filter tool) remove it by unscrewing it anti-clockwise. When it comes off you will spill some oil, so mop it up quick! The filter may be tight!

Once that's off, clean up the seat of the oil filter area on the engine.

Take new filter, and apply a drop of engine oil onto the seal and spread it over it. This will help the seal.

Screw the oil filter on, being careful not to cross-thread it. Tighten it BY HAND, NOT WITH A TOOL, but quite tight.

Go back under the car, and put the plug back in if it's finished draining. Don't overtighten it as they are taper threads into cast/pressed sumps, and you will crack it. But a normal size spanner and normal human effort will be about right - just got the judge it really.

Go back to the top and unscrew the oil filler cap (the plastic thing with a picture of an oil can on it on the very top of the engine). Fill it with oil - your book will tell you how much.

Every so often check on the dipstick if you've got the right amount in - too much is worse than a bit too little, so don't overdo it.

When it's at the right level, check all caps, bungs, plugs and stuff are done up. Check for leaks (wiping up old oil is a help here). Then go for a short drive to get the oil up to temperature (10 minutes), and check for leaks again.

You are done! Hurrah!

Should take about 10 - 15 minutes, maybe a bit longer if you've not done it before and/or the oil filter is in a hard to reach place.

I just sent that to my girlfriend.

Change it yourself you lazy arse

Went out and purchased everything needed to get this done. Came to about $80 nzd (30 pounds). Got home read the manual which had the exact same steps tristian gave (funny that :razz tried to undo the plug...no luck at all. The bastard wouldnt budge. Probably because it hadn't been taken out for years and the heat wouldnt have helped either. I added oil to the engine to bring it up to the minimum and keep it happy will try again on the weekend to sort this out.

Also the guy at repco told me to buy 20/50 not 15/40 as the car had done over 200k so i believed him!

I went for the cheap stuff this time half the price of what castrol gtx would have cost me.

Whilst Castrol and Toyota have had a lot of experience together, to suggest their oil is better in certain cars is rubbish. Their 15W40 oil is going to be the same as any other 15W40 oil, and Castrol won't have special Toyota specific additives in it.

What a load of tosh.

Quote from P1lot :

People look at me funny when I tell them I'm checking my oil level. Pretty necessary with an Alfa T-Spark engine, best to maintain it at the max for long engine life.

Has engine design advanced so much on modern cars that no-one needs check the vital fluids between 12 thousand miles? Unheard of 20 years ago and I wouldn' trust it. People assume the bonnet gets lifted only when there's a problem.

The knuckle dragger I go to ALWAYS tells me to cover up all of the lights on my dash that cover engine fluid and the like and just go by visual checks under the bonnet. Unfortunately a lot of people are dependent on their trick computers now, which is probably why so many cars sound like someone replaced the oil with spanners.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

sound like someone replaced the oil with spanners.

That made me do a little lol