Help.... Big trouble

[MSS]

Originally Posted by klarzy

And the lesson today children...

It's a whole lot easier to drain the oil through the sump plug....

Even easier using an oil extractor where one can trust the quality of the materials - a tube made of appropriate materials will not snap off.

Never had any problems with my Pela and do not expect to.

P.S what was my advice in post #14? Judging form the lack of a thanks compared with the others, I guess it wasn't appreciated for not offering the easiest way out and supporting guesswork. Horses and water come to mind.......

[marinabrian]

Originally Posted by klarzy

And the lesson today children...

It's a whole lot easier to drain the oil through the sump plug....

And you tend not to get a load of crud accumulating in the bottom of the sump that cannot be sucked through a small pipe

Regardless of it being easier, it doesn't change the oil effectively, or at least the crud held in suspension in the case of your average stone crusher.

Brian

[bendrick]

I suppose though on the other hand if it gives an opportunity to a DIYer without ramps or wishing to risk dousing their drive in oil to change their oil and filter more frequently in addition to the six monthly or yearly oil change regime that they have at present that they might normally have done by a garage then generally cleaner oil even if all the old stuff has not quite been removed must surely be a benefit?

The garage oil sump plug removal oil change gets rid of as much crud as possible and more regular oil and filter changes in between if the owner fancies something to do on a nice bright Sunday morning in between a garage doing it would hopefully result in less crud building up in the first place.

Then that might be considered a good thing for the engine by some people.


Obviously this benefit would be negated by leaving a foot of plastic pipe chopped off in your sump and I'll stick with the garage option after this little scare.


Investigations tomorrow will reveal if this is indeed the case in question here. If there is no mangled foot long piece of pipe in the bottom of the sump then that would raise a question of whats happened to it.

Ironically I wasn't even trying to save money just motivated by the thought of carrying out a no fuss more regular oil change as the fancy takes me in between services carried out by a professional

[BigJohn]

I have followed this post with interest and like Kevin (Bendrick) I am intending to use a vacuum pump to carry out an interim oil change between garage services, without the additional hassle of trolley jack and axle stands, especially as on the diesel the oil filter has under the bonnet access, I haven't done that since my MG Metro and Montego days. I do agree with Brian that sump plug removal is the best option for draining of all the crud.

Fingers crossed my imminent oil change goes smoothly

[klarzy]

Originally Posted by mss

Even easier using an oil extractor where one can trust the quality of the materials - a tube made of appropriate materials will not snap off.

Never had any problems with my Pela and do not expect to.

P.S what was my advice in post #14? Judging form the lack of a thanks compared with the others, I guess it wasn't appreciated for not offering the easiest way out and supporting guesswork. Horses and water come to mind.......

Try post 16... undo 1 bolt and pull the dipstick tube and stuck pipe out in one go... no gaskets or garage required and takes 5 mins... you don't even lose any oil....

[Mike Trident]

I have a silverline vacuum device which I have used on my diesel a couple of times without issue. However, I spotted one of those electric pumps at Lidl yesterday and was quite surprised how thin the small hose was. Having said that the tube on the silverline is too thick to go down the dipstick tube on our Suzuki Splash, so you can't win lol.

The tube on my silverline is quite sturdy and when it hits the bottom of the sump you would really have to try hard to get any more tube to go in. With the thinner tube on the Lidl pump it looks like it would just curl up inside and keep going.

Where did I get the idea to buy one of these? Well at a couple of local garages I watched them using large electric professional versions to suck the oil up the dipstick tube. So don't assume that when your car goes in for service they will remove the sump plug to drain the oil, it's too time consuming.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by klarzy

Try post 16... undo 1 bolt and pull the dipstick tube and stuck pipe out in one go... no gaskets or garage required and takes 5 mins... you don't even lose any oil....

That is only a partial risk mitigation - I would not do it that way.

The whole point of the exercise would be to ensure that there are no pieces of material left in the oil or associated pans. Given that the suction tube was stuck in the dipstick tube, there is nothing to say that bits (such as a surface shaving) of the suction tube did not disassociate itself from the main tube and fall into the pan/oil.

My approach is to do things properly or not touch at all and let a professional do it.

[bendrick]

Originally Posted by mss

Even easier using an oil extractor where one can trust the quality of the materials - a tube made of appropriate materials will not snap off.

Never had any problems with my Pela and do not expect to.

P.S what was my advice in post #14? Judging form the lack of a thanks compared with the others, I guess it wasn't appreciated for not offering the easiest way out and supporting guesswork. Horses and water come to mind.......

No need to get upset

For some strange reason the thanks button disappeared after I had done so on a number of replies leaving me unable to post up any more, I've no idea why that would have happened however there are a number of quirks I find when using this site of a similar nature that occour from time to time including signing in and the display of pictures for example. Maybe someone a bit more tech savvy than myself ( which it wouldn't be difficult to be ) may be able to explain why. I see that it is back now on my screen but I'm sure that you will take this post as thanks anyway.

As you can see I have taken the reasoned advice that you have offered.

I have expressed my gratitude to all who have taken the trouble to contribute their opinions and advice in this matter and do so once again.

[bendrick]

Originally Posted by Mike Trident

I have a silverline vacuum device which I have used on my diesel a couple of times without issue. However, I spotted one of those electric pumps at Lidl yesterday and was quite surprised how thin the small hose was. Having said that the tube on the silverline is too thick to go down the dipstick tube on our Suzuki Splash, so you can't win lol.

The tube on my silverline is quite sturdy and when it hits the bottom of the sump you would really have to try hard to get any more tube to go in. With the thinner tube on the Lidl pump it looks like it would just curl up inside and keep going.

Where did I get the idea to buy one of these? Well at a couple of local garages I watched them using large electric professional versions to suck the oil up the dipstick tube. So don't assume that when your car goes in for service they will remove the sump plug to drain the oil, it's too time consuming.

One of the motivations for me to buy one was that on my previous car a Mercedes, for some reason out of the blue when checking the oil level one day which I'd done loads of times before the reading was pretty low so I topped it up and low and behold the reading ended up way over the MAX level. ( yes I did take it easy topping up and checked the dipstick several times whilst adding another amount of oil in small increments) I've no idea why there was a problem on that occasion which I've never had before.

When I realised that the oil level was too high I inmmediately rang the Merecedes guy who usually worked on the car and was situated just a few miles away who advised me that too much oil in the engine could blow the seals as pressure built up and told me to drive over to his place where he sucked the excess out with a professional version of the Lidls oil extractor.

So one of my main motivations for buying the lidl pump was just in case of the unlikely experience of a similar scenario in the future rather than carrying out a full oil change myself.

[bendrick]

Okay the verdicts in and the car is back on the road.

I've got to pop out for an hour or two right now.


Does anyone wish to offer their last guess or opinion on whether:-


a) There was a length of hose sitting in the sump or bottom of the dipstick tube?

or

b) No length of hose sitting in the sump or bottom of the dipstick tube?



I'll post up what was discovered when I get back in later.