michakaveli

On these late model diesel's... How do I drain the oil? The bottom is all covered up and I've seen on a website that you have to siphon the oil out through the dipstick. Where do you guys buy your air, and oil filters and what oil do you diesel guys use for your E300's ? Around here niether PepBoys or Advance Auto Parts stock the air and oil filters for my E300. IS Performance Products one of the only places?

Thanx Guys

Lightman

It's only a few bolts/nuts to remove the plastic belly pan and expose the oil pan/drain plug on the E300, I just did it last week. I use the suction device every other time, as I'm not totally convinced it gets out as much oil. I'm installing Fumoto drain valves on both of my cars this week, and will from then on just drain out the bottom. They have a nipple which you attach a length of hose to, and you can simply open the valve and let the oil shoot thru the hose right into your collection pan.

As for filters, try benzbin.com or any of the other online mb parts stores. They have oem style german replacement parts like mann and knecht filters, which will be better than the autozone crap that they will sell you. These oil, air, and fuel filters are very cheap on the online stores.

To remove the oil filter, buy this part - 606-589-01-09-00

it's a socket that fits right on the oil filter housing, and you just stick a 3/8" drive into it and ratchet it right off and on. That way you can torque it to the properly **** spec, 25 NM :-)

E320

lightman,
How's the quality of the fumoto drain valve?what model # did you get?

Lightman

The fumoto drain valves are solid. The model is F106N I believe, fitting all late model mb's, and my vw actually. The N signifies the Nipple, otherwise a f106 would just be the valve with an open hole. The nipple is nice so you can hook up the hose, or a length of clean hose to take an oil analysis sample.

E320

thanks man but i'm not sure if im gonna install this i'm afraid the lever might open when i'm driving.

Lightman

LOL, don't you think thats the FIRST thing fumoto safeguarded against, and the most OBVIOUS thing people would worry about? There is a locking mechanism, it won't pop open.

E320

Cool ,I'll buy one

Lightman

A few weeks ago I was changing the oil on my E300. I pulled the drain plug out and everything was going well, until I saw it all starting to well up in the oil collection pan. After yelling a few OH *****'s, I realized the drain plug had fallen in and perfectly plugged the drain on my oil collection pan! The oil was burning hot and despite my attempts in vain with screwdrivers and pliers, I could do nothing but watch the oil well up, and being to spill, the full 7 quarts of black dirty diesel oil on my garage floor I went in and ordered a Fumoto =] Would have been nice to just switch the flow off. Then again, I wouldn't have had to unscrew any drain plugs in the first place =]

I have several friends that have had these fumoto's installed in their vw tdi's for more than 100k with no probs.

I'm not sure if your car has a recessed drain plug, my E300 does not, although my tdi jetta does. If so, it requires a small adapter($1.50).

E320

I just changed the oil yesterday I did not noticed if I have a recessed drain plug.Sure thing I made a litte mess on my garage floor.

Lightman

This was the first time I'd made any mess. I'd changed it before with my suction device, sucking it out the dipstick tube , without a drop spilled. Also, have done it out of the bottom of my vw without spilling. OH well, this last time I spilled a LOT :-) Thank god for sealed/painted garage floors, it wiped right up with no stain, phew.

Fumoto's site I believe has an application guide, and you'll be able to tell if you need an adapter or not. Most likely you don't.

rp718

Is there a way to drain the oil without removing the cover under the motor? After getting tired of paying $50 for an oil change at the dealer, I took it to jiffy lube, and it appeared that they drained it out up front near the radiator. I know they only loosened the front undercover. I pulled the cover away from under the radiator, but I couldn't find the drain plug - unless it was the red knob that appeared to be the radiator drain plug.

Lightman

Guys I was wrong, at least on the e300, there is a slight recess in the oil pan for the drain plug. Once I got the adapter, everything went really well. The valve is 20 something bux and the adapter is like 6 bux. www.lubespecialist.com sells them cheaper than fumoto does on their web site , its a tdiclub forum member's site and he's a nice guy, so I thought i'd mention that.
One thing also to note, if you're really paranoid about the fumoto popping open, which he said he's never heard of on a car, only on offroad racing trucks that scrape the bottoms.....but he sells a safety clip you can put on the fumoto for $1.50 or so, and there's NO chance of it coming open. I have a clip on my mb but not on my jetta. The clip was so damn hard to get on, from a sheer sense of squeezing it with pliers and having it pop across the garage :-), I dread taking it off, lol. If you hold the fumoto in your hand you can clearly see it won't pop open with normal driving, it requires considerable force with your finger to open the valve when you intend to...

Fumoto drain valve part F-106n
Adapter Adp-106


RP718, you can get a suction device and suck the oil out of the dipstick tube, and change the filter, without going under the car. It's not hard though, it's 4 simple bolts to take out and the plastic cover comes out, exposing the drain plug. If you really can't find it i'll or someone will take a pic, lol.

JLLG

Does anyone know if a 1997 E320 would need the adaptor valve? I am not sure if the oil pan drain plug is recessed?