Changed oil; no ramps

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I changed the oil in my 2012 Chrysler 300 today. It's the second oil change and this time I did it using a drill-powered marine sump pump. With the oil filter mounted on top of the engine I thought I'd give it a try and it sure beats putting it up on the ramps, crawling under the car, dropping the cover, and draining the oil. Just pumped the oil into a 2.5 gallon gas can, popped in a new oil filter cartridge, refilled with 6 quarts of QSUD 5w30 and I was done. Didn't even get my hands dirty.
 
People with boats have been doing that for years but typically it does leave about 1/2 QT of dirty oil in the engine. On most of the engines I have changed the oil, the filter when its first unscrewed dumps some oil out.
 
Originally Posted By: G-MAN
I changed the oil in my 2012 Chrysler 300 today. It's the second oil change and this time I did it using a drill-powered marine sump pump. With the oil filter mounted on top of the engine I thought I'd give it a try and it sure beats putting it up on the ramps, crawling under the car, dropping the cover, and draining the oil. Just pumped the oil into a 2.5 gallon gas can, popped in a new oil filter cartridge, refilled with 6 quarts of QSUD 5w30 and I was done. Didn't even get my hands dirty.


With many engines, pumping the oil out through the dipstick tube is no problem at all. On many other engines, however, the design of the sump is such that pumping the oil out leaves a significant amount of used oil in the engine.

If you want to be sure pumping the oil out is OK for your engine, you should take off the oil drain plug after pumping the oil out and make sure none is left in the engine. If nothing drains out, then you are good to use the pump out method. If, however, a half quart or so drains out, then you should still drain the old fashioned way.

Even if oil drains out after pumping, pumping is still a good way to get most of the oil out so that the deluge after opening the drain plug is much more manageable.

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Originally Posted By: MrQuackers
Boring


Yes, you are.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: MrQuackers
Boring

Sometimes boring is good. I'll take boring over messy any day.


I love the smell of used motor oil (on my hands) in the morning.
 
Ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the heavy metals and other undesirables sort of settle on the bottom of the oil pan and pulling the plug helps to get rid of said undesirables? Pumping doesn't seem like a good idea, at least to me.
 
I think thats a pretty neat idea. I have no problem crawling under my Forester, but getting out jacks and/or ramps every oil change can be a pain. I suck the oil out of my mercruiser and as long as i know i'm getting out most - as in leaving less than a quart behind, i call it good. If i have 'undesirables' settling in my sump i have other issues.

G-Man, how long did it take you to suck it out?
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Sometimes boring is good. I'll take boring over messy any day.

Yes, and the mention of a marine pump provides an example. When I was younger, my dad required me to change oil on everything he owned, be it personal, agricultural, or part of his fleet. The exception was the push mower and his boat. My oil changes are exciting and messy enough without throwing in something like a boat.
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Originally Posted By: bvance554
G-Man, how long did it take you to suck it out?


Less than 5 minutes.
 
That's how I change it on my Cruze. No point in stripping the delicate 10mm hex head drain bolt when all the oil can be sucked out through the dipstick. I've changed oil both ways, and the same amount comes out either way.
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Not getting under the car sure is nice!
 
If I remember correctly you live in a town house without access to a real garage. I'm surprised they actually let you lift the hood in one of those little regulation driven communities.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
If I remember correctly you live in a town house without access to a real garage. I'm surprised they actually let you lift the hood in one of those little regulation driven communities.


I'm on the board.
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Actually, we only crackdown on people who try to do extended work on their vehicles. I can only remember that happening one time in the last ten years. A guy had an old Camaro that he put up on jackstands in his drive and was going to drop the transmission. The board had to tell him no. But for quick things like an oil change, we don't care.
 
Originally Posted By: mount
Change oil on my pickups without ramps all the time
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One definite advantage of my lifted jeep!

The Focus, needs ramps. Which certainly takes some life off of the clutch.
 
I can change the oil on both vehicles with no ramps. If I cannot fit under I need to loose a few. It provides quality time for Molly to lick my face as I am on her level.
 
Originally Posted By: G-MAN
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
If I remember correctly you live in a town house without access to a real garage. I'm surprised they actually let you lift the hood in one of those little regulation driven communities.


I'm on the board.
thumbsup2.gif


Actually, we only crackdown on people who try to do extended work on their vehicles. I can only remember that happening one time in the last ten years. A guy had an old Camaro that he put up on jackstands in his drive and was going to drop the transmission. The board had to tell him no. But for quick things like an oil change, we don't care.


Friend of mine in Windsor (where The Queen lives, so I suppose you have to expect this kind of thing) isn't "allowed" by the Residents Committee to park his BMW GS motorcycle in a car space, though they don't have a car.

No washing or plastic toys or Christmas trees or trainsets (or barbecues)..(etc I can't remember the list) on balconies.

No car or motorcycle maintenance activities of any kind, though there was a lockup garage round the back for each flat (a problem when I visited them, as you might expect, since my cars often need a bit of fiddling).

No pets of any kind (Its probably now safe to reveal that they had a hidden hamster, but they had to double-wrap its waste bedding before chucking it out, just in case)

While I was staying there I needed a haircut, and, since thats a messy process for someone else's bathroom, I took a mirror and some scissors out to the garden. Sho nuff, 10 minutes of snipping later some retired-colonel-type-[censored] hoves into view and gives me the barked "Who are you and what the Devil do you think you're doing?" routine. Turned out he was the Rezidentz Kommitte Gaulieter.

I figured I couldn't really tell him to go **** himself without possibly causing trouble to mine hosts, so I gave "icy politeness" my best shot and answered his intrusive and assinine questions, while declining to say who I was staying with.

I then asked him why my haircutting was of concern. He said some elderly female residents had been frightened by a "suspected intruder" in the past.

Presumably the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

I can only imagine how much an oil change would have terrified them.
 
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