Mmr1

i just got a Topsider oil suction tank decided to try it. I have a 2013 , 276.957 motor, oil was down a half quart after 3500 miles, but I could only suction out a gallon. The hose would not go in farther and pulling it up didn’t help it just sucked air after a gallon removal. The Topsider worked fine, I filled it up with 4.5 qt and dipstick shows full. Is this normal to not remove all the oil ? What am I doing wrong?

KC61

Well, the vehicle holds 7 quarts with filter change. I always use the drain plug. Never used the suction method.

Mmr1

I wonder if it ever had a Real full change, dealers like to suction because it’s cheaper. I agree draining is the only way to get the crap at the bottom of the pan.

JohnnyC

I like to do underside because I can also inspect for leaks; whether it be coolant, oil, or fuel.

You inserted the hose through the dipstick right? what is the hose diameter?

Mmr1

I don’t know hose measurement, it’s not listed, but there is no resistance moving the hose in or out, this unit was the best reviewed on a mb site. The worrisome thing is if this used mb had the dipstick changed, but the low oil light does not come on. I guess next thing is to drain it to see what’s really going on, I’d hate to be running low all the time.

Mmr1

What tools do I need to drain the oil? Is it hard to locate the drain plug? Since I cant suck out the oil mb couldn’t , it has near 50,000 I need to what’s going on.

JohnnyC

Very easy job. You can do it with car ramps, floor jack with jack stands, or a vehicle lift. I recommend either the floor jack or lift method because the car is level.

13mm hex socket for drain plug (I think) and 8mm hex socket for under body panels. If you didn't have the oil filter socket you should pick that up too. Last thing is a torque wrench, you can get a cheap one on amazon for $20 USD.

Mmr1

Thanks Johnny c , now all I have to do is find a 13 hex, I’ve been to 3 places so far!

Flypenfly

There is no gunk at the bottom unless you’ve gone a really long time without an oil change and have overwhelmed the filter.

cindyclk

I believe that the oil pan on our GLKs are separated...I can't get all the oil out with my topsider. It works fine on my CLK AMG. It sounds like you haven't done a lot of maintenance before...First get some ramps and carefully get the car elevated. Remove the splash guard...about 10 bolts. The drain plug is near the back of the engine, low and points to driver side. You need large drain pan. carefully remove bolt and have pan set almost totally toward driver side....the oil will shoot out into the pan...if centered, it will go right over the edge. The next step is to remove oil filter. The filter comes with 3 different sized rubber rings that fit on the oil filter shaft...change them. Now replace the oil plug...snug up but not like you're changing a tire. replace the splash guard....Add your 7 qts directly into oil filter well. replace filter...done.... search youtube under mercedes...most steps pretty similar...hope this helps

Flypenfly

https://www.mbdirectparts.com/auto-p...t/oil-pan-scat

Looks like there's an upper and lower oil pan. The tubing is probably getting stuck on the upper oil pan never getting to the bottom.

formerjeepguy

The GLK is tall enough that you don't have to lift it to drain the oil. Put some cardboard down if you don't want to get dirty lying on the floor. There is absolutely nothing special about changing the oil on these cars. Drain it from the bottom, replace the crush washer, replace the filter, fill it up with some 229.5 and go. If you don't want to get dirty or are scared of breaking something then take it in and let them bend you over.

bop11

I wonder why Mercedes didn't put a little plate directly under the oil plug in the bottom splash guard? It would have reduced the dealers time to change oil, and yet he could have charged the same money. I guess if I was still a "do it yourself" person, I would modify the splash guard, the first time I had it out, so I had to remove only 2 self-tapping screws to take it out the next time.

KC61

Most if not all dealers use the top side method and they really don't care if they get all of the old oil out. Not sure how you would modify the splash guard to be able to remove it with 2 self tapping screws, the splash guard is very large.

Racin_fool

The suction method works just fine as long as you arent doing it on the newer 4cyl engines or if the dipstick has been cut for some hack-job repairs. The way we did it at the dealership was to attach a sucker to the end of the dipstick which filled the end of the dipstick tube and basically turned the dipstick itself into a large straw to remove the oil. I did it thousands of times without fail.. Even if I felt that it did not remove the oil completely you could raise the vehicle (like we were supposed to anyways during any visit to the dealership) and you could pop the drain plug loose. There were only a few vehicles that this did not work on. That included some of the SL55 AMG (M113K engines) with the 2 drain plugs on the lower oil pan, the M156 engines with the oil cooler infront of the radidator that you were also supposed to drain, and some of the newer 4 cylinder engines. Some engines you could stick the hose into the dipstick to suck it all out, but at that point it took so long to do it, that it just made more sense to raise the vehicle and drain the oil via the drain plugs.

Flypenfly

What's a sucker at the end of the dipstick tube?

Flypenfly

I plan to do a little experiment. I'll get a very thin nylon hose from Home Depot and suck all the oil out I can via the dipstick method.

Then I'm going to open the drain plug and see how much more comes out if I do it this way. This will be for the last M276 NA engines.

Racin_fool

the dealerships use items similar to this. On the end of the tube there is a 90* fitting that fits inside the top of the dipstick tube with some o-rings to seal it.

KC61

Did our first oil change today on our new to us 2013 GLK 350 4-matic. Pretty straight forward stuff. I didn't use my ramps but it would have helped getting the 2 covers off the bottom of the car. Used Mobil 1 0w40 and a Wix filter. Took exactly 7 quarts to hit the full mark. All went well, no issues

glennhl

I had the exact same problem on my wife's 2015 GLK350. I ended up taking the plastic pan off the bottom and doing it the old fashion way. It's not hard, just a few bolts that hold the pan on and then the drain plug.

107123210

I use our Mityvac extractor on all our Benzes. Don't try and push the small tube all the way in. I use the larger tube on the Mityvac and it fits tightly to inside of the dipstick tube. There are also adapters available if your tube is a different size. The oil comes out a lot faster using the dipstick tube itself. This gets almost all of the oil out and is a lot easier than removing those under engine pans.

Racin_fool

The only problem I have ever run into when sucking the oil out via the dipstick tube is if some hack technician decided to modify or shorten the dipstick tube when doing some repair, like an upper oil pan removal or something of the sort. Out of all my years with MB at the dealerships, I found 1 car that someone had done this too. I still prefer the old fashioned way of just getting the oil warm and draining it out the bottom.