Originally Posted by sloinker
Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted by sloinker
I could see the time saving benefits if you have a filter on top of the engine but that is all. I have a lift and during the time the vehicle is up in the air I do a thorough inspection of the brakes,suspension,steering,exhaust, CV/U joints. Check for leaks and generally look for anything out of the ordinary. Of course you can also do the other under the car fluid services as required. So I guess the question is, do folks that use extractors forego the other maintenance that requires being under the car. I see many flush the transmission without changing the filter, why bother? I guess it isn't too surprising on a board that the majority is fixated on the lowest cost /longest OCI available for their vehicle. Do oil extractor folks do the required inspections that require being under the car or do they skip them?
Apologies but your post sounds like you're trolling but I'll play along for a little while.
What would you do if...
You didn't have a lift?
You didn't have a garage?
You lived in an apartment?
What's all this talk about "required inspection" of the underbody. About half the US population doesn't live in the snow belt, the underside of modern vehicles are covered with panels, brakes/shocks can be inspected through the wheel/wheel well if you don't have faith in the brake pad sensor. CV/U joints last "forever". Unless you hit something there's really no need to get under the car until it gets closer to 100k miles and even then it's maybe once a year or you feel slop in the suspension.
I just looked in three different manufacturers maintenance schedules and all three require 10-20k mile brake/suspension/.steering/exhaust inspections that aren't achievable without the car in the air at least high enough to get your body underneath it.
On this board, what interests me is the juxtaposition and narrow focus involved in car fluids. I don't care if someone uses an extractor exclusively. They discuss the efficacy and life of a fluid and how its performance versus life versus cost compels their decision making process. The fluids in a car are important but not the only systems in a car that need periodic maintenance or inspection. I imagine many on this board have never used a pinch bar to check deflection on suspension or steering bushings to get ahead of a failure and save their tires or find a weird sheen coating the floor pans of the passenger compartment with no evidence of transmission fluid on the garage floor that is being atomized and leaving the vent. There are hundreds of other reasons why an under car inspection is wise and usually required by the manufacturer for warranty purposes at least once every 10k-20k miles.
If I didn't have a lift or a garage and lived in an apartment I would take it to a reputable garage and let them make an inspection. If they found something, I would want them to show me what it is in person. It is also possible to utilize a friend or family members garage and maybe throw some maintenance their direction for the favor.
As an aside, I work on friends and family's vehicles all the time. It gives me a chance to contrast and compare different makes. This has led to some surprising discoveries as some manufacturers really do engineer to the lowest cost design.
With dealers providing or offering oil changes during the warranty period there's no reason for the owner to get under a car if they're doing a mid-OCI oil change using an extractor. Seriously what's the point? Just to pontificate about how "responsible I am" as a vehicle owner?
I highly doubt the individuals who use an oil extractor are the type which would ignore the likelihood of potential damage from a roadside impact, poor shift performance of their transmission, be unaware of slop in the steering/suspension or ignore fluid leaks.
