Hey guys, ran through searching for this a bit but was not able to find the answer to this exact variation of this first question. Second Question is more just help and input on Oil Type to use.

Vehicle Info:

Year: 2009
Model: C350
Mileage: 130,xxx

Question #1
I have been noticing that there is some back and forth between draining and/or vacuuming oil out of the car during an oil change. I did notice a lot of people prefer the MityVac 7201 that do vacuum. I was curious, for efficiency, is there an electric and/or pneumatic version that would be more efficient to be able to vacuum the oil out of the car more consistently or is the only option to use a manual hand pump extractor?

Question #2
What weight of oil do you guys recommend to use? I live in Texas. The ambient temperature swings from Low to High can be aggressive. I don't really get the car out if the temps are below freezing. On the other hand if I were to get the car out, it probably be during a hotter summer day. Anywhere from a low of 35F (In Winter) to 90-105F (In Summer). I was looking at 0W-40 or 5W-40 but I wasn't sure if that would go too thin in hotter conditions outside. Most of the time I use a Mobil 1 Full Synthetic in all my vehicles. German vehicles I use a Mann Oil Filter. I do remember years back with this car I would get a bit of knock on startup, the dealer told that is normal in these cars because the oil does not flow fast enough to the top of the engine. (Honestly, I am not sure if it knocks at startup any longer). I think the recommended oils in the manual for the car are based off of conditions in Germany which are not as hot as Texas. I do not drive the car much at all these days. I think I put maybe 3K-4K miles on the car across the past 2 or 3 years.

 

I use the Harbor Freight Fluid Extractor and happy with it.
2.3 Gallon Manual Fluid Extractor

As far as oil, I use Castrol Edge 0W-40 European Formula for last 80k miles. Every other or 2 oil change I do the drain and fill using the bolt so I get to inspect the underneath for any other links and such.

I don't know what weight is recommended for your engine, check that too.

 

This is for your C250 right? What quantity of oil do you vacuum out?

 

I used this pump and Mobil1 European Car Formula.

 

I get pretty much all.
It's around 6 qts.

 

Where did you purchase the pump? What about the hose to pull the oil, where did you get the proper one for that?

Ah okay. I think that the quantity in that engine is like 5.8 quarts. Looks like it does pretty good then.

 

Yeah, it does a pretty good job.
I removed the drain bolt after using the vac and very little oil came out.

 

Please don't suck out the oil on these cars or anything you plan on keeping long-term. I've seen an oil pan off a 4matic car myself that the owner said he sucked the oil with a pump and you could clearly see the sludge in the bottom of the pan except for a small part where the pump was used. Sludge will always find itself to the bottom and nothing beats the drain plug. When you change your oil, it's a good time to inspect everything else so I find it really lazy and from personal experience and evidence I've seen, I would never recommend using this method is you plan on keeping the car long term.

 

Hi, I suck out all my vehicles oil, but less than 5 000Km, and from new, the engines seems clean inside. The mazda has done 300 000Km+ and it still starts within 1st turn of engine cold if I choke it right, which I do 90% of the time. None of the other vehicles start that quick. On this one I noticed over years taking tappet cover off it is clean, I also noticed that after around 50 000Km I never needed to adjusted the valve clearances, it settled, I just check it.
I buy a car cash then keep it, till it fails too costly to repair, did not had such a failure yet.
However if you buy 2nd hand cars or adhere to the manufacturer oil changes, I might agree with you, but so far nothing failed on me yet sucking the oil the way I do, time will tell. Cars never outside.
The Mercdes(5W-40 Shell Ultra) never drives less than 20Km trip if started since new.
The Izuzu(DEXOS2) Mostly 300km trips now and then just town.
The Mazda(5W-40 Shell ULtra) just around town, so it do short trips, but on this one I change oil from Merc leftovers in cans and more often.
Oil is getting more expensive, but so are engines much more.

So I do it this way and hope for the best.

 

I specified the oil pan I saw was 4matic since I haven't seen a rwd one but the way the dipstick goes in, you are basicly leaving the dirtiest oil on the bottom. Some engines may have better designs and you may be able to remove more oil but IMO it's not sometimes you should practice. It is a cheap method for dealers and mechanics to get oil changes done faster so they make more profits, it should not be adapted to owners who want to keep their cars for more than 2-3 years... Many videos show proof of oil being left behind on various engines.

 

Ebay. The hoses were used both from the pump & the Fluid Extractor. After 3 oil changes, I definitely say it is a good pump. Just do not run it for a long continuous time like 15mins or so.

 

Forgot to say it takes me about at least an hour after 1st drain to reach a point where noting more is sucked out, I come back around every 20 minutes. The dealers probably just suck it once remove anf fill up.

There is one thing I am not sure about seeing horrific photos of engines left standing with synthetic oil for long and worse if it were hardly changed.
I hve seen old vehicles with non synthetic oil with load of crap in sump, but engine on top does ot look nearly as bad as with synthetic. So it looks to me of you use synthetic oil you must keep your vehicle going and change it. So it lookds if you want to park a vehicle for 10 years or longer synthetic maybe a bad choice, not sure about this.

 

In all of my cars I use the drain bolt at the oil pan to drain oil. I will probably continue doing this. I might actually send off a sample to oil analysis to see what they say about the oil. I always use Mobile 1 oil in the car and I feel like the quality of oil is good enough to avoid much sludge and junk in the oil.

 

Now that you mention that, I remember sending sample for testing and it came back normal no problems(6 years), I then decided if I really wants to keep this car, it was not expensive.

 

ihave used vac pump on all 3 of my c class over many years use o\40 or 5\30 change every 6000 klms allways whenthe oil is very hot gets out 5.5 lts each time with new oilfilter undo oil filter with 27 mm socket before draining engine oil i live in australia in the state of vic toria mild tepertures worked in the motor trade for 45 years am very carefull with my cars hope this helps with your oil changing maxwell reed australia

 

MityVac and Mobil 1 European 0-40 here. Been doing it for the last 9 years with no problems at all.

Costs about $65 for the oil and filter. I buy two of the 5 quart jugs from Walmart and the Mann filter on-line.