Oil Extractor for Quick Oil Changes

D

Deep Gloss Auto Salon

New member
Ok, while in the air last week I browsed the skymall catalogue and saw the following item.



Supposedly there is a tube that goes into the dipstick tube and it extracts the oil...



Check out the link below and tell me the issues you foresee (if any) with this method



Skymall - Oil Extractor
 
How would you know you got all the oil? It would depend on if the end of the hose got to the lowest point of the case,y ou couldn't assume that just because it stopped



Don't you need to crawl under to chane the filter? well..for many cars.
 
all the "crap in in the bottom of the pan

and I don't know if it will get it all out



there is a magnet on the drain that needs to get cleaned to remove the metal

stuck to it and keep it working good





I could see it for a boat or something like that but acar oil change is so easy why bother?
 
Justin..I use a oil extractor on the boat..and it works good..for a quick oil change.....but I do not think it gets all the gunk out like a drain does....I still do a drain on the boat twice during the summer...and its hard getting to it....lol....be surprised how much gunk sits in the sump that should be removed by a drain...



for me its just as easy driving up on the ramps and drop the plug on the cars and let it flow and have every thing removed...the extractor does not get all the oil out....but most of it...but any sediment still remains...



thats my take on them...good for a quick change...but not a thourgh one



Al
 
The MIA (and sorely missed) Bill D. used on on his Audi and thought it worked well. On some cars oil changes are a lot more work than on others, and R&Ring the filter (as the only under-car part of the job) can be a lot easier than draining the oil into a pan and then transferring it to some other container (if your pan doesn't transport well. Some vehicles have the oil filter up top where you can simply reach down and unscrew it too- bet it'd work great on my RX-7.



Yeah, I have one, but no, I've never used it for oil changes yet (good for siphoning other liquids though). FWIW the ad-copy from Griot's claims they were tested and get more oil out of some vehicles than draining it the normal way :nixweiss
 
Both methods of oil changing (draining vs. extraction) have pros and cons. Problem with draining is that you do not get all the sludge and remnants of old oil in the system out. Problem with extraction is that ... well ... you get more sludge but not all remnants of the old oil in the system out. In either case you do not want all remnants of the old oil in the system out as you do not have a way of completely priming the system with new oil before you crank the car up.



I feel combination of both methods together with quick run of clean cheap oil in between once in a while is the best way to clean the system. What I mean is when you are ready for oil change you extract oil and sludge using vacuum and fill with inexpensive oil that you run on for a day. That dilutes rest of old oil and dirt in the system. Next day you drain that and put in your regular oil. I feel that way you got more out.



If I was doing this as sole method I would not do it without relocation of oil filter.



BTW, this one seems to be based on Mityvac unit. Mityvac also has ones that work off air compressor. Should be much more efficient extraction.



EDIT: Even if one decides to solely drain it is good to have one of these units. Once in a while you have a need to make longer trip on short notice and it is usually when you do not have time to change oil by draining (or some of us do not have a place to change oil) but your oil does need change. Quickly extracting majority of oil and replacing it with fresh one gives you a band aid with decent safety margin (assuming your oil filter is not on it's last legs).
 
That looks very similar to the one I use and I find it works extremely well for my situation.

My summer driver has minimal road clearance and I just can't climb under at all. Jacking and supporting 4 corners takes quite a while and my filter is top front, not underneath.

Sludge doesn't seem to be a problem, I change oil more often than recommended (it's so easy now) and when I check the oil after a few days, it still looks pristine, which tells me there's not a ton of old gunk to mix with the new oil.

If your situation is similar to mine, get one and maybe alternate if you're not sure. Pump once, drain next.

-John C.
 
I could see it being useful in pumping out the majority of the oil before you pull the plug... thats always a mess so if you could avoid having to drain the entire thing thru the plug I guess it has a use, but like other have said its not going to get all the oil out unless the tube hits th lowest point of the pan, then theres still the sludge towards the bottom.
 
I guess this is a different strokes thing. However, if you are comparing not changing the oil to using an extractor (which was the case with a friend of a friend), then the extractor is the way to go. Better to do a non-optimal change than none at all.
 
I use one on my VW TDI in the winter and it gets about 98% of the oil out, and no I don't have to crawl under the car to change the filter its on top. I tried it on my brothers Saturn with an Ecotech engine and it left about 3/4 of a quart oil behind, so I drain it from underneath. They also work great on auto trans fluid changes that way you can get most of the fluid out before you drop the pan. But if I got another one I would get the air powered one. You can also bleed brakes with it.

Mityvac
 
I just got one of the good 'Oil Boy' extractors from the local marine supply place. It holds 5 liters which is more than enough to do each of my three cars - not without emptying in between each obviously. Here are my observations -



1. Get either the Pella or the Moeller - both work by hand and are of good quality that shouldn't leak or break after just a few uses. I got the Moeller. They go for about 70 bucks. If you pay less for either a hand or motor pump, you are likely to be unhappy.



2. Made oil changing a lot easier. I don't have to go underneath any of my 3 cars to change the filter. Since the pump takes about 10 minutes to drain the oil, I set up the pump then go to work on the filter. By the time the filter is changed, the pump is done and I refill the engine right away - oil change done in 15 minutes. Crawling under the car usually doubled the total time YMMV.



3. It didn't get all the oil out of my SAAB 900S. I could tell because the new NAPA synthetic oil was so clear going into the engine and got a little dirty right away - dirtier than on previous oil changes. I don't think it would take much old oil to discolor the new oil. Close enough though for a car that has 170K on it IMO.



For me, this was a good buy. :clap: RG
 
The Skymall one your looking appears to be identical to the one I got. Also, my original motivation for getting the pump was that my drain plug was overtightened by the shop that did my head gasket replacement. :sadpace: I don't think it is stripped but I didn't want to round the corners of the bolt. Rather than take it back to the shop, I bought the pump. RG
 
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