Pump It Up
I guess I’m still a cheap skate, but I will not take my vehicles to one of those lube shops to have my oil changed. I still do it myself, however every time I crawl under my truck I question my sanity.
In the old days one would crawl under a car and you could be done in 10 minutes, but now it is different. The first thing I have to do on my wife’s car is to remove a thick plastic skid plate with four bolts; two in the front and two in the back in a spot that is only accessible with one hand.
My truck has a metal skid plate that can’t be removed without a lift, but there is a hole to drain the oil, but this hole will not grant you access to the oil plug unless you have an exact extension on your ratchet. I had to buy specially for this task, because if too long or too short you can’t get to the plug. Then once you do get the plug out the oil goes all over the skid plate and settles in the groves where it will continue leak to the garage floor for the next week or so.
Finally by brother set me straight. If there is an easier way to do something he will find it and he uses an oil siphon. It’s this siphon kit with a long thin tube that you insert in the dip stick tube that sucks the oil out of the oil pan. I think it will do a better job because most pan plugs are seated above the the bottom of the pan and I’m sure there is a bunch of gunk left behind.
I know I’ll still have to do a small crawl to change the filters, but this pump will make the oil change less of a task. I’m moving forward.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
3 Comments:
I've seen those for sale at sportsmansguide.com and wondered if they really worked as good as they said. Of course, you still gotta crawl underneath for the friggin' filter. If I'm contemplating getting under the hood or crawling underneath, I might as well go ahead and flay all the skin off of my knuckles and get it over with.
That has got to be the most brilliant thing I have ever seen. My car is like 4 inches from the ground and I refuse to do my oil change unless I know someone with an underground bay.
I should really look into buying this. I could save a shitload of money!
My filter is right behind the manifold underneath the hood which would mean no more crawling!
Does anybody know how much it costs?
Darev, many filters can be reached from the top and if they are from down below they are usually not as far back as the pan.
Shelly, they run from $14-35. Check oil siphon on ebay or Amazon. Careful about the shipping costs. Also check an autoparts store, that way you won't have a shipping cost.
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