Oil service - using a pump

NickXX

NickXX

NickXX

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
7,049
Hi all,

Has anyone used an Oil service pump - I.e. one that sucks the oil out of the engine instead of manually draining it out of the bottom of the sump?

I need to change the oil on my 318 after a track day and will be doing it again in January, so not too fussed about getting all the gunk out of the bottom of the sump as it is going to be changed very regularly and will be serviced properly every year.

Any ideas on where I can get one and how much I should pay?

Many thanks,

Nick
 
I can't help with getting one but I understand that this is standard practice if you take your car for a service over in Japan, so it must work well enough.

(Also Jiffy Lube in the USA do this, but that's not as much of a recommendation since they have a reputation that reminds me of some ungodly combination of Kwik Fit and PC World)
 
I heard somewhere this is what Mercedes do on some/all their cars. Could have been idle gossip tho :)
 
When my brother worked servicing fleet cars in the city they only ever sucked out the engine oil, Its standard practice in lots of garages and fleet car depots. If your only doing it the once it will be fine and is a lot easier than getting under the car to get to the sump plug. Personally I wouldn't do it all the time.
 
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It's a lot cleaner and a lot harder to bugger up, no jacking and no crawling around on the floor.

First time I tried to do my own oil on the Legacy I didn't realise that it would pour out about 3 times faster than any car I'd done previously, and significantly faster than the ability of that 5 litre Halfords oil catcher to collect the oil. Ended up with my own little mini Exxon on my driveway.

Sucking it out of the top and directly into the container that will be used for disposing of the oil is a far more refined and civilised way of doing it and if the OP gets a useful answer I'm going to buy one too.
 
Sone said:
why bother? must save 10mins at most.
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I don't have a proper jack at my new house, can't really get away with getting oil our our driveway and will have to do it frequently. Plus I cba crawling around on the ground in the winter.


Dandle said:
When my bother worked servicing fleet cars in the city they only ever sucked out the engine oil, Its standard practice in lots of garages and fleet car depots. If your only doing it the once it will be fine and is a lot easier than getting under the car to get to the sump plug. Personally I wouldn't do it all the time.
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Cool, I think I'll only do it after track days. I've got a decent garage (I.e. not a dealer!) to take it to who will do it properly for its next service.
 
Plenty of places on the internet have them.

I got one for servicing our generator at work, just google searched for vacuum oil pump or something and found plenty for around £20-£30. Mainly sites I found were marine ones, imagine it makes changing oil on a boat engine a lot easier!
 
Lum said:
First time I tried to do my own oil on the Legacy I didn't realise that it would pour out about 3 times faster than any car I'd done previously, and significantly faster than the ability of that 5 litre Halfords oil catcher to collect the oil. Ended up with my own little mini Exxon on my driveway.
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Thats a rather familiar story, did the same thing on my Impreza :D
 
There won't be gunk in the sump, modern oils don't do that. I get gunk in my 1954 Ford sump which has no oil filter but not in my 1967 Ford which uses marginally better oil and has a filter. Filter is the important bit imo.
 
Not sure, can't find or remember the exact details, all I remember was the guy got the car up to operating temperature then turned the car off, stuck the end down only to be faced by a lot of resistance eventually getting it out to find part of it had melted away.
 
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Quite a few "ELF" service stations used to have oil vacum pumps, I used to work at one on the A15 near Lincoln.

We had a chap come in one day, sucked out all of his oil to then find that we did not have the correct grade of Oil in stock - He drove into town to find some, minus any oil!

never did find out if it went bang.....
 
Ev0 said:
I heard somewhere this is what Mercedes do on some/all their cars. Could have been idle gossip tho :)
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Indeed, possibly heard it from me :) Tis what both my local merc specialist and 2 different main dealers have always done.
 
not considering i can drive my pretty damn low car up on to a couple blocks of wood, get to the sump and drain it that way, for no cost at all.

people with normal ride height should find it easier still
 
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