Oil extractor pump - a warning

[MrLou]

I bought an oil extractor pump today to change oil on my ageing A3 TDI.

Seemed like a good idea and with over 4L of oil extracted in less time than it takes to make and drink a cuppa I was feeling pretty smug.

The pump is one of these and, IMO, has a design flaw. The oil suction tube is made of two pieces, one of larger diameter than the other (can you see where this is going?).

Most annoyingly when retracting the pipe only the large diameter pipe came out, the smaller one having come out and fallen down the dipstick pipe.

So, the car is now empty of oil with a length of poly pipe sitting in the sump. Great.

[MrLou]

chrisxr2 said:

Oh dear OP did'nt think that one through did we?

Never made a mistake Chris?

Anyway, FWIW, I'd do it again but only with a 1 piece extractor. I really can't see why they designed it with two pieces that just hold together by friction, intrinsically unsafe IMO.

[MrLou]

B'stard Child said:

I really don't get it*

• I get the poly pipe bit (look on the side of the sump for a level sensor that and a pick up grabber tool (old coat hanger with a hook made on the end is an alternative) should help you fish it out)

When all the rubbish in the sump is designed to end up by the plug at the lowest point you chose to suck it out from a random location using a tube and pump when it takes litteraly 30 secs to undo the sump plugh and drop the old oil into an old washing up bowl

How chuffing hard is it........

Yes, yes

I contest your 30 second claim though. By the time the car is lifted up on stands to allow access to the panel that allows access to the sump plug...

Ah well, at least it can be fixed with a bit of time and money, not the end of the world

[MrLou]

eliot said:

rallycross said:

Is it still in the dip stick feeder pipe? Welding rod with a kink in it get it out?

Thats what I would do - metal coat hanger would do it too.

No, sadly the pipe has now descended into the sump. I tried fishing it out with a bent coat hanger, nearly got the coat hanger stuck in there too

Sump off job now I fear.

[MrLou]

lost in espace said:

The undertray on my car is a right pain in the ass to remove, and the use of one of these can be a godsend. I must buy one......

Get one with a one-piece pipe

[MrLou]

GKP said:

Why not just poke the dipstick down the hole, aiming to get inside the poly tube?

See above, pipe now lost in sump.

The typing of which made me think of this:

[MrLou]

Cyberprog said:

You can buy quick-drain plugs for various vehicles, allowing you to just click the drain adaptor on and it opens up (think it has a spring operated valve).

True, but on my car the majority of the work is getting to the sump plug, still a good idea though.

I was sold on the quick and easy recovery of the oil into a nice closed container whist I drank a brew, I never saw the downsides :|

[MrLou]

Parrot of Doom said:

My oil extractor's pipe is a long, single piece. There's no way anything could fall off.

With hindsight, or even foresight, this is undoubtedly the way to go. Two piece pipes are for losers

[MrLou]

I'm not feeling the love for oil extractors here

At the end of the day I'm just a bloke with a 130k A3 who thought he'd try and save a bit if cash by doing some stuff himself. By buying £30 of filters and £30 of tools I figured I'd have a bit of fun for an hour and save a few quid too, instead I'm sitting here feeling a bit down as I now have a bigger problem than before I started!

The car does about 5k a year and at 10 years old isn't worth a great deal. I'm sure it's mostly my fault it went wrong but hey, it's a learning experience.

As for changing brakes, after this experience I'll leave that job to someone else.

[MrLou]

thinfourth2 said:

How is the dipstick tube attached to this engine?

As i bet the pipe is still in the tube

Sadly not, first thing I did when I realised the error was to get an old clothes hanger, bend it straight with a little loop at the end, and try to fish the thing out. If it was in the pipe all I achieved was to really push it into the sump

[MrLou]

B'stard Child said:

Anyway back to the task in hand

Does the sump have a level sensor?

Reason I ask is with the oil removed they provide a nice porthole into the sump

I once dropped a torx bit down the front of an engine when on the last stages of a timing chain change (ie all the hard work done just putting the last bits together) on my LC I could here where it landed on top of the baffle plate in the sump - I removed the level sensor and grabbed it with a magnetic wand and then replaced the level sensor and finished the task

I don't know if it does or not. My plan is to refill the drained oil, drive it the half mile to the local garage and as them if I can use the ramp to remove the sump and fish it out that way. If I'm unsuccessful then the sump will come off and then it's all done. I get on well with the guy there and, with enough grovelling, he should let me use his kit to fix my mistake. I will probably owe him a few beers and no doubt he'll mock my incompetence.

I do have a cheap jack and stands set but, frankly, the idea of getting under the car when supported by £20 of el-cheapo kit doesn't fill me with any desire, I have no interest in being crushed to death by my own car

What I have learnt is that I should invest in better quality tool and equipment.

[MrLou]

chryslerben said:

So what your saying is if you'd done the job properly int the first place you wouldn't' be in this situation

More or less, yes.

But thanks for pointing it out in such a friendly manner!

By the way, the possessive pronoun is spelt 'you're' not 'your'. If you'd paid attention in school in the first place...

[MrLou]

GPT said:

Out of interest, could you let us know how much oil is still in the sump when you take the plug out?

Won't help you I'm afraid.

To get the car to the garage (less than a mile) I will put the old oil back in, so no way to know how effective the pump was.

[MrLou]

freecar said:

MrLou said:

GPT said:

Out of interest, could you let us know how much oil is still in the sump when you take the plug out?

Won't help you I'm afraid.

To get the car to the garage (less than a mile) I will put the old oil back in, so no way to know how effective the pump was.

Ye of little imagination! Empty it again once you get there, it only takes a couple of minutes then fill with fresh for the return journey!

But I won't be using the oil extractor to empty it (the pipe is in the sump!), it's coming out via the sump plug.

I could refill it and then use the pump to empty (if the pipe hasn't been destroyed) and then take the sump plug off and see what's left but life's too short!

[MrLou]

Hitler Hadrump said:

Surely the message to take from this thread isn't "the old ways are the best" but "beware of cheap tools".

That's what I thought.

I'll freely admit my skills aren't the best but the fact that the pipe is 2 piece means that failure is possible where it's not possible with a 1 piece pipe.

[MrLou]

doogz said:

So, you've driven the car, with this section of plastic pipe floating about in your sump?

Wouldn't have been me!

Car was driven less than a mile.

In any case it's a 10 year old A3 with around 110k on the clock, so even if the engine had somehow seized it's hardly the end of the world.

I don't think I had many other choices anyway, recovery via flatbed or towing seems rather overkill nevermind expensive.

I'd be interested to hear what you'd have done in my place, perhaps there's an obvious solution I missed?

[MrLou]

noell35 said:

I reckon he's not that bothered now, he lost the tube in 2011

I've been a bit busy the last couple of years and haven't been on here, but thanks, that's a handy looking tool.

The venerable A3, BTW, is still going strong now with nearly 140k on the clock.