Changing oil with a shop vac?

tadc

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 13, 2001
Location
Stumptown
TDI
Golf GLS TDI, '01, Black
This might sound like a crazy idea, but has anybody ever considered using a shop vac to generate the vacuum to suck the oil out of your sump? What I'm envisioning is making a sealed container (3 gallon bucket?) with a large port (for the vacuum hose) and a small port with hose attached that can be stuck down the dipstick hole.

Turn on the vac, and wait for the bucket to fill up with oil. Sound doable? The only drawback I think think of is the vac might not like having such a restricted intake, but maybe we could work around that with some kind of vent.

Thoughts?
 

TDIkev

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2001
Location
Pickering, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2001 GLS Baltic Green Jetta 5 Spd
Everybody has these wonderful ideas for getting the oil out of thier sumps....what ever happened to crawling under your car and doing it the old fashioned way. When your down there you can look at the underside of your ride and check for cracked CV boots, leaks or in my case the vacum line to the turbo rubbing on the CV shaft and being worn half way through. Also it lets all the oil drain, if you try to suck it out "How do you know all the oil came out?"

If you have ever owned any other car you can appreciate how clean it is to change the canister filter.

Just get yourself a set of ramps.

My 2 cents worth.
 

Herm TDI

Vendor
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Nov 21, 2001
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Richmond, Maine...The far side of Witsend
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2002 Golf GLS Malone Stage 3, P+520 nozzles, 11MM Inj pump, Sachs VR6 clutch, Stelth Race Pipe, Immo Deleat, EGR Deleat
OK....About your idea for using a Shop Vac to guzzel out your engine oil.
I have put on my thinking bennie and this is the idea that I had hatched...
Using a 5 Gal bucket & the lid (the type with the lids that are a B*@^#H to remove).
Take the lid off of the bucket...clean the bucket...(Why did I have the need to mention this step?) First find a section of PVC pipe that will snugly fit into the end of your shop vac hose.
I'm thinking of an inverted drain piece that has threads and a nut. Then cut the lid to snugly fit the PVC piece into a hole that you've cut into the lid of the bucket. In stall the lid back onto the bucket...the section with the PVC piece for the shop vac should ne poking up towards you. (Again, why did I have to say that)
Now you have a vacumn vessel...all that is left is to use a section of narrow copper tubing thjat fits into your oil dip stick.....urn this tubing through a hole in the small twist off cap on the pail...use a section of rubber hose to make a snug fit between the cap and the copper tubing...

Then connect your shop vac...dip the tube into your cranck case...flip the power on....and You oil should be sucked out in less than 30 sec.

Since you are only sucking one gal into a 5 gal pail...I doubt that you have any problems over filling the 5 gal pail. (Again ...why did I say that?)
 

Boundless

BANNED
Joined
Jan 3, 2001
TDIKEV,

I was sick of jacking the car & positioning jack stands. I just got ramps last week!!


While I let the oil drain, I snoop around.

Great advice!!!
 

solstar

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2001
Location
Texas
TDI
2013 NB red cabrilet
sounds great!some plastic tubing and marks on the can to know if you got it all!all you need is to make sure you have a good seal!
go for it take pictures and let us know how well it works!
 

Michael Moore

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Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Location
Toronto / Zürich
TDI
2004 Phaeton W12, 2015 Golf Highline (gas)
The idea sounds good, but you might run into some difficulty implementing it. The dipstick hole is rather small, and the oil is fairly thick. Tubing that would withstand the vacuum pressure required to aspirate the oil without sidewall collapse would either have too narrow an inside diameter allow oil removal in a reasonable period of time without impractically high vacuum pressures, or be too stiff to bend when it hit the bottom of the oil pan, to reach all the way back to the lowest point of the sump.

But, it is a neat idea anyway. Don't give up. Remember us here at TDI Club when you become a millionaire from it.
 

Dorado

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Joined
Jun 24, 2001
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
TDI
New Beetle TDI, 2002, Cool White
Some really nice threads on this come out if you search "oil + drain + suck", etc.

We just used a cheap 12 volt pump (not recommended) to change our 5000 mi oil last weekend. Next time were getting a vacuum pump like the ones recommended here (Griot's, Topsider, Pela, etc.).

The 12 volt pump (from JCWhitney's) is not powerfull enough, is too noisy, and when it does suck, it's slow. We got enough out of the old "factory oil" out to be able to put in a full gallon of Delvac without overfilling, so it worked out more or less OK. It was sucking allright, but when we moved to get the vial for the oil sample, it lost the vacuum and we were unable afterwards to get any more out.

[ March 22, 2002, 23:16: Message edited by: Dorado ]
 

dzcad90

Rolex & gin
Joined
Mar 15, 1999
Location
Joliet, IL USA
TDI
Jetta - 97 (RIP), '03 (Sold), '09
I've been thinking of making a shop-vac powered oil extractor for a while now. I guess great minds think alike


One source for hose strong enough to not crush itself would be the Topsider that you can get from JC Whitney. I have one of these laying around, and I think it would be easy enough to adapt that to work on the 5 gallon bucket. I guess I have a project for when it warms up.
 

Route 66

Veteran Member
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Jan 17, 1997
Location
Minnesota
TDI
2005 VW
I just purchased an oil pump from Griotts Garage, have not used it yet will let you know when the first oil change is done.
 

Dorado

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Jun 24, 2001
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
TDI
New Beetle TDI, 2002, Cool White
The Griot's oil pump has been praised in previous threads here. Pela (http://www.pelaproducts.com/) has the same pump and a more compact version. The Overton's boating catalog (http://www.overtons.com/) has both Pela pumps as well as the "Topsider" and "Liquivac" (http://www.liquivac.com/) pumps recommended by other TDI'ers here.

We like the compact Pela pump, but haven't decided on it yet.

[ March 24, 2002, 17:14: Message edited by: Dorado ]
 

dieseldorf

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 11, 2000
Location
MA
TDI
ex- 1996 wagon, ex-2000 Jetta
The California Car Cover catalog also shows a suction device. It looks like the same unit seen at Griot's Garage but for a bit less $$.
 

Michael Moore

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Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Location
Toronto / Zürich
TDI
2004 Phaeton W12, 2015 Golf Highline (gas)
TADC:

There could be one possible bad side effect from sucking the oil out of the car, even if you do come up with a perfect oil suction device: When the oil is drained out through the drain plug on the bottom, any particulate matter, crud, bits of metal, etc. that has accumulated on the bottom of the oil pan is swept out the drain hole by the force of the liquid draining out - sort of like erosion on a river bottom.

If you vacuum the oil out the dipstick hole, this won't happen, except in a very small radius around where the suction tube opening is. Over time, a lot of crud could build up in the oil sump. Not sure if this would be bad or not, but something you might want to think about.
 

CoolWhiteDude

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Joined
Sep 16, 2000
Location
Elburn,Il,USA
TDI
Jetta GL, 1999, Cool White
I made a 5 gal bucket device like the ones being described above. I used it to vacuum drywall dust. I put in an inch or two of water in it to trap the dust. Worked great and the filter in the shop vac stayed clean. I don't think it would draw up oil though the small diamter of the dip stick tube and the motor of the shop-vac would probably overheat unless some sort of bypass is allowed. JC Whitney has those hand pumped cans for the purpose of sucking out sumps. I used one once and it didn't really work all that great. Its best to drain through the drain plug. Do the filter first on ALH engines because the oil drains from the filter housing when the cap is removed. Those quick drain valves work slick. Too bad the belly pan doesn't have a little access door for the drain plug.
 

VW Vet

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2000
Location
Maine
TDI
Golf GL TDI, 2001
Would oil fumes in a non-explosion-proof shopvac be a problem? Large static charges are generated by those plastic shop vac drums, too.
Just a thought.
 

jasonTDI

TDI GURU Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Location
Oregon, WI
TDI
20' RAM 3500 CCLB dually HO/Aisan. 2019 Cherokee 2.0T
1st, you guys spend way too much time making stuff that is available ANYWHERE. I got a fluid extracter from west marine for 49.99 and it is the same as the Griots unit for 20 bucks less.
2nd, you always change the oil HOT, so the oil is THIN, and material is SUSPENDED not on the pan, it you have material heavy enough to sink to the bottom of the pan your motor has bigger issues. Also, the extractor is going to get more out than the drain plug as the plug is slightly higher than the bottom of the pan. This has been tested in many different magazines as well as Griots points this out in their recent catalogue. I still get under the car every 10K or so, or if I kniw I ran something over in the road, but lets face it the belly pan is a pain in the ass. I just wish the 1.8T had the filter element too and not the stupid screw on canister.
 

TikiGod

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 10, 2001
Location
The Great NW
Hey Tadc,
I bought a TEMPO (Griot's stylee) unit from GI Joes for $49.99 in the boat section, and it worked like a charm. Yielded ~4.5 of warm oil with a bit of xtra suction in the filter housing. All in all, 15 pain-free minutes.
TikiGod
 

tadc

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 13, 2001
Location
Stumptown
TDI
Golf GLS TDI, '01, Black
Thanks for the ideas guys... I'm just too much of a cheapskate, I know those suction deals aren't worth the 50 bucks they charge for them.
 
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