Made a start at changing the oils on Saturday. It hasn't had an engine oil change for at least a year (and from the condition it was in when I got it, I suspect it had been in there for a while before that.
Started off with the engine oil. First I sloshed in a tin of engine flush. The chaps at Rockingham Landrovers (my local knowledge base) said this is good stuff, so in goes a full tin. 15 minutes of idling later and it's ready to drain. Gunk goes in to a drain pan. Not as bad as I was expecting, but it's black. Nothing metallic in it though, and no lumps, so I'm pretty happy the engine's running well.
Next job is the oil filter. For those of you who are used to the comforts of spin-on filters, it will come as a shock to see a canister-and-element filter on the SIII. This being my first oil change, I didn't know where the oil will come from once I started undoing the centre bolt of the filter. I was fully expecting it to come gushing out around the bolt at the lowest point all down my arm... But it didn't. I drained as much as I could before removing the filter, then carefully lowered it down and tipped the rest out. The old filter was filthy so that went in the bin bag. Next the big O-ring had to come out of the rim on the filter mount on the engine. It took a bit of wriggling with a screwdriver, but it came out, and was replaced with the new one that came with the filter. New filter goes in and the whole lot is tightened back up. the 12lbs-ft it needed didn't even register on the torque wrench so I did it up hand tight.
Drain plug goes back in with a new washer (the old one was rubber and metal, this new one is two copper washers joined with a thin strip, designed to compress and seal). In goes a whole tin of oil (at ?16.99 a tin) and a little bit more to bring the level up.
Next, gearbox oil. Nothing special here. Old EP90 gets drained out, the smell almost kills me. Drain plug goes back in, and a length of hose with a funnel is used to fill it back up through the inspection panel in between the front seats (very useful feature). Filler plug goes back in, job done.
I've not really driven it enough to notice a difference since, but the oil is super clean now (it's difficult to see it on the dipstick, but it's there). I still need to change the front axle and transfer box oils, but they can wait for another week. I've also got to check/change the plugs and put a new rocker cover gasket on (It's been spitting oil, I don't want to lose any new oil.
So there's the work for the next few weekends sorted. I'll try and get some pictures next time.