I decided to change my own oil when I was quoted $90 from Jiffy Lube. 90 bucks for an oil change? The Ford dealer charges me $40 to change the oil in my Cmax. I usually change my own oil, but I was feeling lazy. But not that lazy. I got the 5 qt. bottle of 5w-40 Castrol full synthetic for $28, with a $10 rebate, and the Wix filter element for $12 at O'Reilly's. Then after watching a couple of You Tube videos and reading some posts on this website, I got to work. I think it was that I've never had a car with plastic cowls over the bottom and top of the engine that kind of gave me the jitters. But once that was out of the way it is just a standard oil change.
There was a complication: I nudged the plastic dip-stick tube, and it busted right off. I was greatly miffed, as it was a Sunday afternoon, and I am 30 miles from the nearest VW dealer. I had no idea if these things were even available (Sure we can get one in, it's $100, & it'll be 10-15 business days). But I found some on partsgeek, and when I waited til the next day, the VW place had them for $23 in stock. So I get it home, and it fit on the little flange on the engine block OK. I put everything back together, and when I filled it with the 4.8 qts of oil the manual says it takes, it barely touched the dipstick. I added the rest of the 5 qt bottle and a half a qt from another bottle before it hit full on the stick. Then the thought hit me - what if this is the wrong tube, that is too long, making you think there is the right amount of oil when you have actually overfilled it? So I took it all apart to compare the new tube with the old one - they were both the same length. So for some reason I guess my oil pan takes 5.5 qts of oil.
Another problem is that the dipstick is a little on the big side for this tube, so when I pull the stick out, it pulls the tube right out with it! Guess I have to file it down a bit, and get the tube to stay on the engine better somehow.