Cativo

I can't see how leaving oil in the reservoir would damage anything, so I wouldn't worry about it. I left mine in for a couple weeks, as I was waiting for the garbage company to deliver the one gallon containers to me. That is my only set back, I have to wait for three weeks to get the whole top-sider emptied. Not a big deal, but I like to put stuff away when I'm done.

gild

I also use this one and got it to replace the incredibly slow Mity-Vac. This one sucks it dry in 5-10 minutes. It was painful for me to twiddle my thumbs for ~45 minutes waiting on the MV to do it's job. One charge from the air compressor is usually enough for an oil change and it doesn't care if the oil is cold and thick.

TOMORO

Went ahead and used this for the first time today, decided to DIY, out of warranty anyway. Mityvac 7300 worked great, sucked all the oil out....but actually filled the 7300 to just shy of the top (9l!) I drained some out and pulled another half quart out! Regular checks of the oil did not indicate an overfilled, nor did the computer warn me of anything other than the service c message.... I put back 8.5 quarts as per the manual, checked the level on the dipstick, and it is right in the middle. Still not believing this, I went and emptied the mityvac back into the quart containers for recycling, I noted how full they were when new, and sure enough, I had more oil than quart containers to fill! Looks like about a quart over. It also took a hurculean effort to remove the filter cover with the proper wrench. Test run, no warnings and oil level checks out the same. Easy job though, about and hour including resetting the computer.... I definitely will do this myself from now on!

spinn

Bought this as well for my other vehicles. Works great! Was going to try this on my E500.

Can anyone tell me the length of tube that is needed to fit down the dipstick tube? The reason being is I bought a dipstick off of Ebay, and it does not fit all they way in (730mm goes in), so I don't know if using the same length of tubing reaches the bottom of the pan. Can anyone measure the length of tubing used? Didn't want to start extracting and find out I still have to jack up the car and drain it instead.

edwinwalke

Three feet from the top of the oil pipe should be enought but you also need enough to reach the extractor. My extractor has two tubes, one large one that connects to the extractor and a small one the is about 3 feet that connects with a rubber coupling to the larger one.

You should be able to feel when the tube has hit bottom. Anything less does not guarantee you will get all the oil out.

nopcbs

How did you reset the computer?

- nopcbs

nopcbs

Harbor Freight and their Chinese suppliers come through again.

I think you need to wait for it being on sale and then use the 20% off coupon to get the best price, though.

- nopcbs

edwinwalke

http://www.startekinfo.com/StarTek/doclist.jsp

grane

Why are you eating your wife's breakfast? Isn't your own enough, or do you just do it when using the Mittyvac?


Seriously, could one safely use this system to extract more fluid from the 5 speed transmission? One drops the pan, cleans the magnet and replaces the filter, etc. But one only gets about 5qts this way and I usually repeat the procedure.....

nopcbs

Dead link.

- nopcbs

edwinwalke

Works fine for me from the post. Try copying and paste into your browser. If that doesn't work just google STARTEKINFO.Com and do a little looking. it is under workshop resources/reset service indicator

spinn

I guess what I'm asking for is the actual length of the dipstick tube to the pan, as it appears that the dipstick that I bought may be longer than what is needed, so it doesn't go all the way into the dipstick tube. Since I marked the extractor tubing with the length of the dipstick, I want to be sure that the tubing is hitting the pan. If someone could measure the actual length, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

edwinwalke

I am really confused on what it is you are trying to accomplish. You say your dipstick is longer than what is needed -- so it doesn't go all the way into the dipstick tube. You don't need a dipstick to siphon the oil out of the crankcase. Did the tool that you are planning to siphon the oil with come with a tube?

You will need a tube about 4 feet long to reach the bottom of the crankcase. However, that tube will have to get connected to whatever you are using to siphon the oil.

Mine has two tubes. One connects to the siphon and the other attaches to first one (and it is about 4 feet long). altogether they are about 8 feet long.

spinn

I'm trying to find out what is the actual length from the top of the dipstick tube to the bottom of the pan. When I bought the dipstick, I thought it would fit like any normal dipstick and snap on to the top of the tube; it doesn't and sticks out. Last I heard from the seller was that I should be able to push it through all the way. I want to make sure that the siphon tubing is reaching the bottom of the pan, so I want to verify the length so that I'm sure it's reaching the bottom.

I understand I'll need extra length for the extractor; I have that already. I had marked the tubing with the length of the dipstick, which appears to be longer than the dipstick tube to pan.

nopcbs

Much obliged.

- nopcbs

nopcbs

Go to Home Depot or Lowes and have them cut you a 4-foot length of 12-16 ga. solid core copper wire...preferably uninsulated. If it is insulated, strip the insulation off. Straighten the wire and put it down the "dip stick" hole to see how much tubing you will need.

How did you get a dipstick for this car? There is supposed to be some sort of service tool that MB service people use to check if the oil level sensor is working, but they told me there is no such thing as a dip stick. If this is what you got, no wonder it is too long...not meant to be left in.

- nopcbs

spinn

I bought it off Ebay for $40 from a guy in WA and it was labeled a dipstick. It's supposed to be just like the service tool that MB uses. But if the service tool itself is not designed to be left in the dipstick tube, then it's quite possible that it's just too long. That's why I wanted to verify the depth from the top to the pan, so I was sure I was reaching the bottom and not getting hung up on a twist.

nopcbs

I found the listing for the "dipstick" and I noticed that the same tool is meant to be used with a wide variety of modesl. It does not seem real lilely that the same length REAL dipstick would be used with so many different models, while it does seem likely that MB would provide a single service tool for many models (the Germans LOVE needless complexity, but I guess there are limits for even them). You might want to ask a service technician about this.

spinn

That's what I'm guessing too; the seller has not had a chance to respond probably because of the Holiday. This was why I asked if anyone knew the actual length of the dipstick tube to the pan, so that I could verify whether the dipstick tool I have is longer than what it is.

Heatwave

After the posts about the Harbor Freight oil extractor were made, I concluded that this is pretty much a done and done topic. I have that extractor and it works great.

I'll add one note: I always change oil when it is at ambient temperature, after the car has sat all night ... I don't warm up the engine to "thin out" the oil. The oil is not "thicker" at 80 deg. than it is at 150 deg. It drains just as quickly at ambient temperature as it does when warmed up. Plus, the overnight pause allows more oil to drain from the top end back into the pan.

novae500

Did the oil change via mityvac yesterday on the E55. Took out 8 1/4 qts of oil. Opened the oil filter housing and the filter dropped from the housing/stick. Whomever did the oil change prior didnt turn the filter enough for it to stay put. Changed the 4 rubber gaskets and buttoned it back up to where it was before. Have a white paint mark on the outside of the filter head/housing.

Car sure runs alot smoother and doesnt struggle like before. Just hit 60k miles on the car. Next is to do the tranny oil. I know i wont be able to get all of the tranny oil, but sure is better than nothing.

edwinwalke

If you drop the pan and replace the filter you will get about 4 quarts. What I have done is remove the pan and change the filter and then fill it. Drive for serveral hundred miles and suction the pan via the fill tube with my Mityvac. That gets about 3 quarts and now you are close to new fluid. Mine shifts better than ever.

nopcbs

If you mean by "thicker" "higher viscosity", then most certainly an oil DOES become less "thick" or "thinner" with temperature increase. There is an inverse relationship. It is a basic fact of lubrication. VI additives help, but they do not overcome the effect of T increase.

http://www.engineersedge.com/lubrica..._viscosity.htm

http://www.engineersedge.com/lubrica...sity_index.htm

I am utterly shocked that you would dispute this.

Oil from a warmed up engine will unequivically drain faster than oil from a RT engine. This is not to say that you will not drain the oil from the RT engine, you will, it will just take longer for the same volume of oil to drain out...especially the final volume. It is also a good idea to drain from a warm engine because any suspended solids are less likely to have settled out (and be resting at the bottom of your oil pan) if you drain right after turning off the engine and will end up in your drain poan where they belong. Face it, you screwed up with your remark about viscosity. No worries, though, we all "mind fart" once in a while and someone was present to correct your error.

- nopcbs

spinn

I got verification from the seller that the dipstick tool does indeed stick out, depending on the vehicle being checked. Now I can proceed with the oil change without any worries of the extraction tubing not reaching the pan.

And, I agree, that warming the oil up does make it easier to siphon. I recently changed the oil in my other car while it was cold and it took forever to siphon it. I ended up just pulling the drain plug after it took so long to get less than a quart out through the dipstick tube.

nopcbs

Good for you. You got what you needed. My guess is that if you did a very good job of draining your oil and then put in exactly the volumr MB says to, you could trim the length of this semi-dipstick so it fit all the way in and scribe a line that says what "full" is. You could do this incrementally and mark what a quart and half a quart down is, too. You would have what MB will not give us...a proper, low tech, infallable...dipstick!

As for that other guy. he is clueless on this subject of viscosity...or else his definitions of thin and thick oil are something to behold and marvel at.

- nopcbs