Tuesday 5 July 2011

Changing oil on the Jeep J10 with the oil extractor

I was looking for a simple suction device to siphon old brake fluid from master cylinders or oil from differentials and other dirty jobs. I saw this oil extractor advertised and thought I' d try it. It is designed for use on boat engines and Smart cars without drain plugs. When I got it I decided to try it on the J10.

There's a nice flexible extension on the hose that fits into the dipstick hole. Then you just pump for vacuum. I found it needs a lot of pumping and it takes considerable time to extract a couple of litres of oil and you have to keep pumping, but when the extractor was done I took the drain plug out to see how much was left. Nothing came out! So it works, although if you can reach your drain plug it's easier and faster to use the "traditional" way(take the drain plug out and leave the sump to drain while you are free to go for a cuppa) and I think that faster flow from the drainplug might take out more debris too. Otherwise it works very cleanly and easily and it gives your arms a light workout while changing your oil! You still need to crawl underneath to change the filter though!

When the pumping is done you can remove the pump from the tank and fit the supplied spout to pour your old oil into another container for disposal. The tank takes 6 litres, so it is big enough for most cars. For bigger sumps it's easy enough to empty the tank halfway the job.

I will be looking at other applications for this machine. I mentioned the diffs and brakecylinders, but I wonder if it can help at brake bleeding too.