draining engine oil via the dipstick

The hot oil, flowing quickly from the sump plug washes out lots of crap from the sump. I do not think that sucking the oil via the dipstick tube could possibly clear the sump as well as a proper draining. Bite the bullet and pay someone to remove the drain plug, then buy a real spanner for the next oil change.

MrCheerful

... AND A NEW SUMP PLUG - THEY COST PENNIES

One thing that occurs is that the oil can form into soft flakes, these get picked up and block the strainer. This is a very frequent problem on CVH engines that do not have sufficient, correct oil changes. I do not think that the flow rate from a sucker will be sufficient to get these flakes, although hopefully they would flow out with a conventional drain out.

Also, any crap left on the bottom of the sump may get disturbed when the oil is really hot, you hit a speed hump and the crap is into the system.

MrCheerful

I've been using an oil extractor for the last 2 years and wouldn't do an oil change any other way. Most dealerships use oil extractors and certain car manufacturers are now designing engines without sump drain plugs (ie Mercedes) as they are a potential source of oil leaks.

IMO the benefits of using an extractor are:

You can remove the oil when it is pretty hot, like just after taking the car for a good run which means that a lot of the sludge will dissolve in the oil and any contaminants will be mixed in the oil.

You remove more oil from the engine - Toyota did a test of oil extractors against draining the oil via the sump plug and found that you remove more oil (approx 300mls) with an extractor.

An oil/filter change takes about 5-10 minutes which is a LOT quicker, cleaner and less hassle than raising the front of the car, removing the plastic undertray and then trying to catch the oil when you remove the sump plug.

It's called Sod's Law, and it works every time.

Oooh.. Sealey... I've been looking to get one for a while and not found anything at a decent. Just found and ordered what you must have (TP69) for £40+vat from

As mentioned, it is used at most places for regular servicing but for the cars without sump plugs (Citroen & Merc?) if the sumps are removed at major service intervals that might be an indication.

Gareth

Thanks for the comments chaps. I'm going to get somebody to remove the sump plug for me. I did think about welding a nut onto the damaged plug myself to give me some extra "grip". I think that I'll leave it to a garage though as I don't think that I will be able to raise the vehicle sufficiently off the floor to give me adequate room to work in. Now if I had a pit in the garage....

By the way is a reading of 0.8 for an emmisions smoke test on a mondeo turbo diesel with 90k on the clock good? I think that the limit is 3.0? Before the test I did take the car racing in low gears at high revs which must have helped.

0.8 is really low, you are very lucky.

MrCheerful

So is every bloody gasket on the engine but they've not designed those out have they?

I have yet to own a car that has had an oil leak come from a sump plug and I've owned a shitload, once gaining the nickname "Car a week Conor".

You seem set on doing it the way you are so why ask the question?

I agree with the other posters in that this is not a good method in the long run.

When we change oil we make sure the engine is hot before we drain it to make sure the crap washes out with the oil.

Doing it your way will gradually build up the rubbish. It also will not drain it as thoroughly as leaving it for 10 minutes after the oil rains out via the sump.

Use a Stillson wrench, Screwfix do one for £3.99. It'll knacker the plug but then you need a new one anyway.

Pete

further to your comments on a oil extarctor i've been using one for four years (sealey)and found it good in terms of mess and speed. You have to watch that the oil is not to hot because the plastic tube that goes in to the dip stick will eventually crack ( hair line ) and you lose vacuum . only need to run cold engine 5 mins and oil is warm enough to extract sandy

Matthew,

Oddly enough, the girl who owns the car in my previous post put me through the same trauma!

I rounded off her 1998 GLX TD's sump plug nicely, before coming up with the following plan: File the eight flats on the sump plug down with a file, making a 12mm nut head, instead of a 13mm nut head. Result: total waste of time; this got stripped too!

Her car had done 128K, and it had been at least 15K since the oil was last changed. This called for more drastic action. Two possible solutions:

1) Drill out the sump plug (ouch... think of all those shards of metal in that sump! No way) 2) Cut the edges off the sump plug, as close to the thread as possible, and put that bastard in a set of mole grips. This was a two-pronged approach: a) it reduced the friction imposed by the sump plug collar b) it gave me something decent to hold onto

Option 2) every time. I can't believe how long it took me to come up with this one, but it worked like a dream.

Do yourself a favour, and get that plug out. You've no idea how much black crap will drain out of the sump of a well-driven Mondy TD.

Regards

Alan