Thoughts on changing oil through the dipstick hole

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Debating doing this on this short OCI after seeing an all-purpose "fluid transfer" pump at Walmart for $15. Reasons I'm considering it:

- I'm cleaning sludge out through short OCIs. I only have 2,000 km on the current oil, but its a mix of dealer dino and different top up oils. I have enough PP on hand for 2 short OCIs, including top up (it was cheap). My M1 EP filter only has 1,500 km on it (dealer forgot to replace the filter, so I did it myself and used one of these). I'd leave it on for this OCI if I go this route.

- Base pan is damaged and there's a self-tapping plug in there right now. I don't want to mess with the self-tapping plug since I'm going to replace the pan within the next couple months anyway. Funds are too tight to do it right now though.

- The desire to try the PP is like an itch I can't scratch. The beauty of the $15 transfer pump is that if it doesn't work, I can return it for a refund. If it does I might find other uses for it later - who knows. Some things just aren't rational :)

- If it works it might be a useful alternative to crawling under the car in freeze-your-@$$-off Jan/Feb cold, for that mid-winter OCI.

Anyone tried draining oil through the dipstick hole on a Toyota?

Edit: I should point out that even if I do this, and it works, its not going to be used as a long term substitute for a new pan and conventional oil changes. The majority of them will still be done the old fashioned way (that was the main reason I bought my rhino style ramps).

-Spyder
 
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As long as you get the tube to the bottom of the pan, they work fine. It may get a little bit less stuff out, but it's still good enough, especially as a temporary measure. Definitely make sure to change it when good and hot though, it takes forever (and doesn't get quite as much out) when dealing with cold, thick oil.
 
Most European, specially MB and BMW, engines of the last 15 years or so were designed to do oil change with a fluid extractor via dipstick tube. I use Mityvac to vacuum the oil in E430 with ease, it is more difficult to extract oil in S2000 and LS400 because it is hard to get the tube to the bottom of the oil pan.
 
Spyder it will be a tedious slow job with a manual transfer pump. You are so limited on the size of a tube you can fit down the dipstick tube that it will take many minutes pumping.

The vacuum extractors are popular because you can pump up a vacuum and walk away while they work.

You should also find out if you can get an adequate sized tube down the dipstick tube. Some cars you can't.

My vacuum extractor worked well on my VW TDI but I couldn't get a realistic sized tube into my Corvette engine. They have some funny shape formed into the bottom of the tube that will only let the dipstick in.
 
Originally Posted By: XS650
Spyder it will be a tedious slow job with a manual transfer pump. You are so limited on the size of a tube you can fit down the dipstick tube that it will take many minutes pumping.

The vacuum extractors are popular because you can pump up a vacuum and walk away while they work.

You should also find out if you can get an adequate sized tube down the dipstick tube. Some cars you can't.

My vacuum extractor worked well on my VW TDI but I couldn't get a realistic sized tube into my Corvette engine. They have some funny shape formed into the bottom of the tube that will only let the dipstick in.


Good point - but the advantage of the cheap pump is that for very little cost I can see if this method works on this particular car (and how well).

If it'll do it, then I know something better will work and its easier then to rationalize the extra cost (even if its just for the winter OCI, and maybe the occasional summer one for convenience and extra versatility ).

I figure the mid-grade $60-75 pumps would pay for themselves after a few years, even if I just use it for 1 in 3 OCIs. But before I pay that much, I want to confirm it'll work by trying something cheaper and easily returnable if it doesn't.

I have a few factors to my advantage in that, even though the dipstick curves, it doesn't look like anything a flexible hose can't mimic (though I won't know for sure until I've tried it); also this driveway has a nice slope, so with the car oriented in the right direction I might be able to get more out than if it were level.

By the way, even though I know the hand pump is going to be a PITA, I first got the idea off a blog where the guy used an aquarium hose and siphoned the oil out using his mouth (it took him a couple hours to get it all out). Now that's going the hard route
wink.gif


-Spyder
 
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Doubtful. That's why I'm still going to replace the basepan, oil, and filter 3k miles afterward. The Mobil 1 EP filter should trap a lot of it though. In the short time since I've replaced the pcv valve I've noticed improvement just looking through the oil fill hole.

Where I can't do the pan for at least another month (maybe even 2), I view this as progress in the meantime. By the time I'm ready to replace the pan I'll be due for that next OC. And then opening that filter up should be interesting.

-Spyder
 
Originally Posted By: Spyder7
seeing an all-purpose "fluid transfer" pump at Walmart for $15.


$15 for a manual pump is a very good price. I use the much more expensive one I got from Blackstone to very easily draw a sample for a UOA. That is all I use it for. If you plant doing UOAs then this pump will come in handy.
 
Originally Posted By: Colt
I'd be afraid the plastic tube would melt in a very hot engine.


Blackstone sells such pumps for the purposes of drawing a sample of hot oil.
 
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Originally Posted By: 21Rouge
Originally Posted By: Colt
I'd be afraid the plastic tube would melt in a very hot engine.


Blackstone sells such pumps for the purposes of drawing a sample of hot oil.



Nice for drawing oil samples and the pumping is great for engines with oil filters on top of the engine.
If the filter is under,just use the oil drain plug and get a Fumoto drain valve.
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I feel draining gets more contaminants out.
 
I've used my Pella extractor for four years now. Works great on Sienna, VW Turbo Beetle and Camry Hybrid. You do have to jigger the suction tube a bit to be sure you are getting all the oil out. Works best if oil is warm to hot.

I also use it on small engines. Much easier and cleaner than futzing with drain plugs.

I see no reason why you can't use a vacuum system as they have been used on inboard boat motors for years. (Figure jacking up one of those bad boys to change the oil!!!)
 
Originally Posted By: Spyder7
Debating doing this on this short OCI after seeing an all-purpose "fluid transfer" pump at Walmart for $15...


Spyder, this Walmart pump is priced well below $15, but if this is what you are looking at, I can confirm two things from my use of the same pump:
  • The instructions say warm, but not hot oil. They really mean it. I couldn't get the pump to function against cold oil.
  • Even with warm oil, it is a lot of work to empty the sump given the volume that the pump lifts with each stroke.
I just upgraded to a Topsider, to let vacuum do the work, as others suggested.
 
I use a topsider and it works great and is very easy (takes about 10 minutes to pump 7.5 liters). Don't worry about the "it won't get the sludge comments". It will get as much gunk out of the oil as a pan drain (You never see gob's of gunk coming out of the pan drain either).


Tip: You mentioned $$ is tight. I don't know if this is the case with you or not, but don't waste money doing early OCI's with a oil designed for long OCI's. You might as well just burn $20 bills.
 
Originally Posted By: AMRoberts
Originally Posted By: Spyder7
Debating doing this on this short OCI after seeing an all-purpose "fluid transfer" pump at Walmart for $15...


Spyder, this Walmart pump is priced well below $15, but if this is what you are looking at, I can confirm two things from my use of the same pump:
  • The instructions say warm, but not hot oil. They really mean it. I couldn't get the pump to function against cold oil.
  • Even with warm oil, it is a lot of work to empty the sump given the volume that the pump lifts with each stroke.
I just upgraded to a Topsider, to let vacuum do the work, as others suggested.


That's the pump (the extra cost here is the standard cross border markup). Fortunately the sump is only a little more than 3 & 1/2 quarts, which should take some of the pain out of it.

I'd been debating a Mityvac or Topsider, but I've held back, partly, out of uncertainty over whether one would work with this particular car, and how well. Once I confirm it works with this, the next step is something along the lines of a Topsider at some point in the future.

I know the PP seems wasteful for such a short OCI, but I got it on a good rollback (1/2 price), and its got a ton of calcium and other good solvents in it to really go to work on my sludge problem. By getting 2 OCs out of the filter I have on now, it'll offset the cost a bit.

For the next short OCI I'll switch to a cheaper filter. I have about 8 quarts of PP on hand, plus another 5 of Syntec. That's enough PP to see me through the 2 short fall/winter OCIs, then I plan to switch to Supertech in the spring. The Syntec will keep for the following winter when I should have the engine clean enough for a decent OCI.

There's really no extra cost involved right now, other than the $15 for the hand pump. I figure the good syn will do more good cleaning the engine out than collecting dust on my shelf :)

The tight financial situation is temporary, although I know it seems wasteful to use good syn for short OCIs.

-Spyder
 
Originally Posted By: Colt
I'd be afraid the plastic tube would melt in a very hot engine which would cause a problem.

You should wait a bit for the oil to cool off some before you operate it. Otherwise, if it's one of those soft plastic refrigerator tubing lines, when it warms up, it'll just collapse itself and restrict flow to practically nothing. There is another type of tubing that's made of hard plastic, like the original tubing that comes with Mityvac (and I'm sure other extractors, too), which is more resistant to heat. That's what you want.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Colt
I'd be afraid the plastic tube would melt in a very hot engine which would cause a problem.

You should wait a bit for the oil to cool off some before you operate it. Otherwise, if it's one of those soft plastic refrigerator tubing lines, when it warms up, it'll just collapse itself and restrict flow to practically nothing. There is another type of tubing that's made of hard plastic, like the original tubing that comes with Mityvac (and I'm sure other extractors, too), which is more resistant to heat. That's what you want.


Good to know,QP.
If I ever have a vehicle with the oil filter on top of the engine,I'll go with a PELA 6000.
 
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