Just a quick question hope someone can help. After having a flashing oil light last week I've decided to remove the sump this weekend and replace the oil strainer and carry out a service. So doing a search suggests a long reach allen key is needed to remove some tricky bolts so does anyone know what size and what length I'll need? Some have said they are 5mm some said 8mm. The 5 i have is 160mm long and the 8 is 200mm just nice to know they'll do the job before the car is in bits. Last thing, i ordered the sealant from tps but it doesn't say how long for curing and how long after using it i can fill the engine back up with oil.

You need quite a bit of leaverage to get them undone iirc they're not stupidly deep so I'm sure 160 will be fine. I used a T-headed Allen key. Don't overdo it on the sealant. Better to have it weap a bit of oil than to get sealant in the sump and block the pickup.

You need quite a bit of leaverage to get them undone iirc they're not stupidly deep so I'm sure 160 will be fine. I used a T-headed Allen key. Don't overdo it on the sealant. Better to have it weap a bit of oil than to get sealant in the sump and block the pickup.

Cheers buddy. I have done most jobs on the car but not this i just like to have all the tools i need before i start. Anyway, from some youtube vids it looks like they may be 10mm bolts. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

They are 10mm bolts with allenkey dimple in the head not positive it is 5mm as I just used the one I picked up that fitted

I got all the bolts out with a socket then took the gearbox end ones out that have difficult access with a ball ended allenkey from memory there are 3 hidden up there

Quick tip don't do what I did and leave the tricky ones till last putting it back on as if you drop one it can get stuck behind the clutch splash guard and you'll have to drop it again to retrieve it which is much easier if it's not the last bolt you where putting in ☺

So just chuck in a front and a back to hold it up then get the tricky ones caught before doing the rest

They are 10mm bolts with allenkey dimple in the head not positive it is 5mm as I just used the one I picked up that fitted

I got all the bolts out with a socket then took the gearbox end ones out that have difficult access with a ball ended allenkey from memory there are 3 hidden up there

Quick tip don't do what I did and leave the tricky ones till last putting it back on as if you drop one it can get stuck behind the clutch splash guard and you'll have to drop it again to retrieve it which is much easier if it's not the last bolt you where putting in ☺

So just chuck in a front and a back to hold it up then get the tricky ones caught before doing the rest

Great tips lads weather forecast checked all looks fairly promising on that front so should be good to go a.m. I'll post some pics ofthe strainer hopefully.

Well i would say it was worth changing the strainer!! Bits of old sealant from the last time the sump was off ( main dealer! ) bits of broken dipstick as well. There was actually more little bits in there the camera hasn't picked up. I'm so glad i got this changed today. As mentioned though the bolts are actually 10mm heads with 5mm allen key centres. The two difficult ones weren't too bad i could just get a socket on them so allen keys weren't needed.

Holy Moley

So have you fitted a new one or can you back flush this one and re-use?

Holy Moley

Yeah i know shocking isn't it! I wasn't gonna bother doing it either. I had a new oil pump and strainer done maybe 8 years ago when i first bought the car due to low oil pressure. The work was done by my main skoda dealer so all that excess sealant is a disgrace. I'm not sure regarding rules on here as I'm tempted to name and shame tbh. I've heard other horror stories about that dealer recently too. Glad it's done now though. So the lesson here i suppose is no matter how recently the sump was off its always worth an afternoon's work to drop the sump off for a look.

So have you fitted a new one or can you back flush this one and re-use?

I fitted a new one buddy i think they're only a tenner so not worth bothering cleaning, although the sealant was 20 quid for a tiny tube of it! If i knew it was that much i would've bought it somewhere else.

Yeah i know shocking isn't it! I wasn't gonna bother doing it either. I had a new oil pump and strainer done maybe 8 years ago when i first bought the car due to low oil pressure. The work was done by my main skoda dealer so all that excess sealant is a disgrace. I'm not sure regarding rules on here as I'm tempted to name and shame tbh. I've heard other horror stories about that dealer recently too. Glad it's done now though. So the lesson here i suppose is no matter how recently the sump was off its always worth an afternoon's work to drop the sump off for a look.

Its a tricky one, as we all one know a dealer isn't always a guarantee of a job well done, quite often the opposite. I may do mine but to my knowledge it's never been off and had no warning light so may just leave it alone for a while, I'm still on quite low mileage.

Its a tricky one, as we all one know a dealer isn't always a guarantee of a job well done, quite often the opposite. I may do mine but to my knowledge it's never been off and had no warning light so may just leave it alone for a while, I'm still on quite low mileage.

What mileage is the yellow car on buddy? Mine was on 88k when i bought it with a book full of service stamps. And mine suffered low oil pressure. At that time i didn't do much if any of my own work on cars hence why it went into the dealer. Now they told me it was an oil pump failure and the strainer was changed at that time. On the other hand i probably wouldn't have dropped the sump if i hadn't had oil pressure issues.

He's on 73k now, 67 when bought. I'll be doing my own oil change next month, make it more regular in between services. Not sure what I'll need service stamps for mind, I put lazer iridium in, got a panel filter, can do oil and pollen filter. I don't want to basically pay best part of £200 for what is essentially just an inspection. I think I may do a check of the strainer after I've put some more miles on it. Seems the car had quite an easy life before it came to me so I'm not too worried, will be worth doing one day though.

I just write in the service book myself now and thats only for my own reference. I'm not bothered about stamps now the car's worth nothing much only to me! I keep all the reciepts for oil, filters etc as sort of proof its had the work done. Yesterday saw the car have £130 worth of stuff put in/on so i couldn't care less if no one believes me. Fresh oil, filter, air filter, pollen filter, oil strainer done i think thats enough!!

I just write in the service book myself now and thats only for my own reference. I'm not bothered about stamps now the car's worth nothing much only to me! I keep all the reciepts for oil, filters etc as sort of proof its had the work done. Yesterday saw the car have £130 worth of stuff put in/on so i couldn't care less if no one believes me. Fresh oil, filter, air filter, pollen filter, oil strainer done i think thats enough!!

I should say so! To be honest I can't see myself selling it so it's not like a stamped book makes much difference to me, but like yourself I'm still keeping receipts and records however there's been quite a few lately so I think I've misplaced the less important ones! SWMBO needs to pull her finger out and get filing.

I've just had a look through 8 years worth of reciepts/bills and its quite scary the money I've spent! It's a few pints/holidays abroad!!

I bet. I'm always glad when stuff arrives while SWMBO is out. Garage bills are a bit harder to hide haha. Reckon I've done over a grand in 8 months but you know what it's like after you get a car, you have to catch up and get on top of it. Some of that is mods but cambelt and wheel bearings blew a big hole in it. Still needs discs but that will have to wait a little while. Other than that I'm happy with where it's at now so it should settle down a bit. Just hope there's no surprises for a while, the front bearings caught me out a treat!

I bet. I'm always glad when stuff arrives while SWMBO is out. Garage bills are a bit harder to hide haha. Reckon I've done over a grand in 8 months but you know what it's like after you get a car, you have to catch up and get on top of it. Some of that is mods but cambelt and wheel bearings blew a big hole in it. Still needs discs but that will have to wait a little while. Other than that I'm happy with where it's at now so it should settle down a bit. Just hope there's no surprises for a while, the front bearings caught me out a treat!

73k is quite early for wheel bearings especially if its had a charmed life. I think it wasn't til about 110k before i needed bearings which was front passenger and rear drivers.

73k is quite early for wheel bearings especially if its had a charmed life. I think it wasn't til about 110k before i needed bearings which was front passenger and rear drivers.

I did think that but reading around the lifespan of them is inconsistent to say the least, some had them going around then while others got well over 100k out of them. End of the day despite low mileage it's still 10 years old and I think it had been sitting for a while before I bought it.

My mechanic mentioned to me 110k was a bit early 'for one of these' when mine were noisy so 73k is very early. But if it's been sitting for a while that's probably worse than it moving.

Indeed, it was only the o/s one mind, but things like that I'll always get done in pairs at least. Apparently n/s wasn't too bad at all.