Panel screw placement during oil change

[Magic]

Today I did an oil change on my '19 NFGT. The CFunder panel you remove to do the oil change has 36 screws that need to be removed. I remember hearing somewhere that the screws are not the same size so I decided to keep track of what screw came out of what panel hole locate.

I've got the official Ford repair manual/CD and they have an illustration showing the location of the screws, but no mention of different screw sizes. I printed out the picture and labeled each screw hole with a number. Then as I removed each one I used a piece of cardboard with holes to place each screw into the corresponding panel location number. It appears that Ford used two different size screws to attach the panel. I called them L (large) and S (small) and marked the cardboard holder with hole numbers and size (L,S) designation.

Call me compulsive, but I wanted to make sure and get the right size screw back where Ford had designed it to be.

Attached is a picture of the screws in the cardboard, the panel illustration with hole numbers and finally a close up of the two screws side by side.

Hope this maybe helps out if you are going to do your own oil changes.

Interesting fact that when I first got the car, hole location #1 was missing a screw. Dealer did the first oil change and didn't mention that a screw was missing nor did they source one to replace it. Guess a $1300 oil change doesn't warrant a $2 screw replacement. Just saying!!

 

[Apollo]

Thanks for the chart. We had a similar issue with the pans on our Lotus, once we had long short figured, we would put a paint dot on the head and on the pan, different color for each length. I will use this as a template.

 

[fjpikul]

Your problem is obvious - You need to work clockwise.

 

[spartan]

This is great. Appreciate you doing this.

 

[Simon]

I wonder is if this pattern is consistent for all the cars.

 

[Magic]

I wonder is if this pattern is consistent for all the cars.

I wondered about the placement since I had the dealer do the first oil change (actually 2 -see previous posting), but there does seem to be a pattern that they put them back in and not just randomly inserted screws. So I assume all NFGT cars follow this.

 

[Magic]

Your problem is obvious - You need to work clockwise.

I'm retired so I don't have to do anything by the clock!

 

[steved57]

Haha good work Gary !!

 

[texas mongrel]

I had missing screws too.

 

[THamonGT]

In my Last oil & filter change (which was not done by the same mechanic) there were 2 missing screws from the center panel and he noticed other screws 4 missing in other panels also. His comment was that when your car comes back from being worked on put it up on a lift and check for missing screws because some mechanics are not putting them in a safe place and they are lost or swep up by cleanup people at night! BEWARE!!

 

[PeteK]

Room for plenty of jokes about loose and missing screws with you guys.

 

[Gene Cassone]

If the screws are being lost and not replaced does not give me allot of confidence in the dealer! I noticed screws were missing on my focus RS after dealer service. I would not expect the same for the GT! Another reason to do it myself ( like my 05 GT!).

 

[68Rcodeman]

A real good mechanic knows which screws weren't really needed.

 

[texas mongrel]

My screws were missing from Markham. The “hand-built” category is not always a good thing!