I’m doing some servicing jobs on a new to me Fabia with the 1.4 BXW engine. Has full history, but I’m fussy that way and want to establish my own baseline for future servicing. 

 

Wanted to change oil. I’m lucky to have scissor lift, but with car outside garage thought I’d use my Pela extractor. Let’s not get into arguments of suction v drain!

 

After returning from run to warm up oil, discovered the dipstick tube is far too narrow for the extractor tube, which has been fine for my other vehicles. Is it a case of removing orange plastic tube from top of metal dipstick tube, or is it not possible to disassemble the dipstick tube any further? It’s about the same size as the slender dipstick itself!

I found this the first time I tried to use one my Superb, it seemed to get so far and stop.

 

Then at a later date I tried again and although it was tight it did go down into the sump (used the smallest extraction tube that came in the set)

 

I would try giving it a few attempts before you give in and start taking the dipstick tube off

Edited 30 May, 20188 yr by SuperbTWM

When did you buy your Pela? Older versions have wider extraction tubes, newer ones narrower. May be able to buy a narrow tube as a spare part that will fit your 'main bit'; not sure.

I think I’ve had that particular one for only couple of years, so it’s not that old. I’ll measure up the diameter needed and see if there’s a narrower tube available - thanks for suggestion. 

 

Edit: Just popped in garage and realised it’s actually a Sealey 6.5L pump, very similar to Pela column type. The narrower tube is OD 6.0mm, and I just measured the Fabia tube which is 5.0mm!

 

Oh well at least I bought new sump plug when I was gathering parts. Looks like I’ll be doing drain to change the oil. 

Edited 30 May, 20188 yr by Stratfordade

Bummer, so Sealey's offering is not exactly the same as the Pela one, I've used a newish Pela one on a VW BBY engine, and maybe even once on a BXW on an Ibiza, trouble I found with the narrowest tube was this job was taking far too long, maybe the very reason why Sealey stuck with the larger bore pipe?

 

My Pela is heading for a very safe space on a high shelf in my garage, it might get used with my motor mower, or maybe I'll suck that one out with my new large syringe extractor/pump thing!

Yes it struck me also that if the tube was narrow enough to fit, extraction was going to take some time! Not a barrier though - it’s more the convenience and lack of any mess that appeals, and the oil capacity in BXW is only around 3.5L which is modest. 

I used a Pela one on both my Fabia and my Yaris and fits ok. It is a slim fit and one time, I warmed the car perhaps a little too much which may have contributed to the outer sheathing splitting, making removal quite tough! I warmed it as on trying to extract from near cold on the Yaris, the oil was so thick, it took ages to empty. One tip here, after a GENTLE warm, after you finish getting all the oil out, If the cable comes out easily, great but if it feels too tight and may be snagging, pour a small amount of fresh oil down the actual extractors cable, to lubricate the length that although way down inside the car, is not bathed in oil. I found the stuck cable then came free with  minimal of fuss. 

 

The tubing, (Tubeset as Pela call it) Is available as an extra but does cost around £18 to deliver. I would suggest you might find the Pela one will still fit onto the Sealey canister, hence you could use the Pela on tight dipsticks, the sealey on wider ones, offering quicker extraction!

That’s really useful info about the Pela tube, thanks. I’m sure it would fit or I’ll have adapter to suit. 

[email protected]

 

I think thats the correct info for the Pela tubeset.  £13.95 plus £4.95 postage so just a little more then I remembered. The tube looks to be about 5mm, by eye, against a tape measure.

 

These details from Pela's website.     Probe 0.5cm (3/16 inch) OD, Length 1110cm (43 inches)
Clear Section 1cm (3/8 inch) OD, Length 100cm (39 inches)

Edited 31 May, 20188 yr by mrgf

Maybe because I have a strange fixation with cleaning up all my kit of bits after I have used it, to maybe extend its service life and to make sure it is always ready for use when I next grab it, I ended up spending too much time cleaning the vac extractor then making sure it dried off afterwards, so in my case any time and mess saved by "going in from the top" was taken up with cleaning it up afterwards - I did want this vac extractor to work and so make life easier, especially on my Audi S4 as it is one of these cars that still has a oil filter element inside a plastic can on top of the engine, but with the slow extraction coupled to that car's engine having almost 6.5 litres of oil, I checked my new extractor on either the Polo with BBY engine or Ibiza with the similar BXW version. It had taken me long enough to get round to buying a vac extractor, so still a bit annoyed that for me, it did not give me good results.

I know what you mean about cleaning up etc but my Fabia is lowered and has a big under tray so changing oil means raise on ramps, remove tray. lower, remove oil filter bolt, drain, (Into a pan) Change filter,  re-fit bolt, refil oil. Raise car again, re-fit under tray and lower again. Even then, removing bolt and re-fitting is difficult AND you need to fit new bolt, costing around £3, not a lot but the sealing washer is embedded on it so it must be done. Ramps too, are a pain as the car hits them before it goes up them so extensions would be better. A lot of mucking about and still a pan of oil to recycle and clean. I like the sucky-method! 

Well thanks to all who helped here, but earlier today I was in garage, and realised I had an old marine/lawnmower size Pela on shelf which I'd last used for fixing a toilet cistern! The tube measured 5.0mm so after warming up the Fabia, and lubricating the outside of extraction tube with new oil, it was a firm but smooth push right down to base of sump. Slow to extract as can't generate the same vacuum as on the larger extractor I have, and it was only 2L capacity so had to stop, empty and change halfway. But 3.5L of Comma ProLife and a new Mann filter later I have nice fresh oil in there. Hope I'm not only person here who has so many tools they sometimes forget they have the one they need!

5 minutes ago, Stratfordade said:

Hope I'm not only person here who has so many tools they sometimes forget they have the one they need!

 

You're not alone.

16 hours ago, mrgf said:

I know what you mean about cleaning up etc but my Fabia is lowered and has a big under tray so changing oil means raise on ramps, remove tray. lower, remove oil filter bolt, drain, (Into a pan) Change filter,  re-fit bolt, refil oil. Raise car again, re-fit under tray and lower again. Even then, removing bolt and re-fitting is difficult AND you need to fit new bolt, costing around £3, not a lot but the sealing washer is embedded on it so it must be done. Ramps too, are a pain as the car hits them before it goes up them so extensions would be better. A lot of mucking about and still a pan of oil to recycle and clean. I like the sucky-method! 

 

Well, normally I find that the sump drain point is to the rear of the sump, so having the car up on maybe not too high ramps is good for draining, the ramps I use are ones I made myself for lower more modern cars, out of a huge "lump" of plywood that is roughly 100mm thick 350mm wide and 4500mm long, it was being thrown out at work, it took a serious bit of sawing to end up as two ramps 300mm high with a shallow initial rise. After the oil change I just run the engine, get underneath, check for any leaks and refix the undercover and back the car off the ramps, store the ramps in the back of the garage and drive the car back in, leave it for a while then check the oil level.

 

Now, the oil drain bowl bit:- I used a domestic wash basin for years but eventually bought a proper draining basin, it has a spout with a lip and a drain area for the old oil filter, all good so far, but, unless I am very accurate when decanting this oil into an empty oil container, at a critical moment, the lip of the spout slides off the plastic pouring neck of the old oil can - and the tidying up task has just got bigger!! I have tried the old "use a funnel and stuff a big screwdriver down the side of the receiving oil container to let it breathe" but so far have not managed to get hold of a good enough funnel to make that extra item to clean up work in my favour.

15 hours ago, Wino said:

 

You're not alone.

 

15 hours ago, Stratfordade said:

 Hope I'm not only person here who has so many tools they sometimes forget they have the one they need!

 

Well there you go, maybe retirement is the answer, I'm trying to include all my garage tools, kept in garage and elsewhere, in a list I'm making up, hopefully I'll complete this list. I've just bought 3 18 litre storage boxes with lids from Rymans for £20, the idea being to keep the correct things together and relatively free from dust and being used as winter homes for field mice, every storage drawer chest, box has a rough contents description label on it - I just need to put my reading glasses on to see where to find things now, which is a bit annoying! I've also tried to find modern equivalents and listed their source and current price new.

 

Maybe 35 years ago, when we only had a small garden with a couple of areas of grass to cut, I bought a Flymo hover mower, so making sure that I always had enough plastic blades for it was important. I remember on one occasion visiting a garden centre with my wife using her car, I spotted some new suitable Flymo blades and bought them, and did the sensible thing and stuffed them in the glovebox of that car - only to find the previous set I bought already in there! That cheap and nasty Flymo is still in use as my daughter has it and she is still able to buy blades for it!

4 hours ago, rum4mo said:

 

I've just bought 3 18 litre storage boxes with lids from Rymans for £20...

They sound "Really useful".

19 hours ago, mrgf said:

They sound "Really useful".

 

Ha Ha,  the penny has just dropped, my older daughter who is a teacher, did show a bit of interest when I said that I had bought some storage boxes for the garage, I'll need to give her one of the "product listings" that comes in each of these boxes.

I suppose if I had that product listing to look at prior to buying these boxes I might have chosen a different size, but when I saw that Rymans did 3 for £20, I just thought, "that's the ones for me!".  The department that I worked for before retiring did use quite a few of them to keep general "stuff/crap" together in related groupings in their Industriever.

On 31/05/2018 at 18:07, Stratfordade said:

Well thanks to all who helped here, but earlier today I was in garage, and realised I had an old marine/lawnmower size Pela on shelf which I'd last used for fixing a toilet cistern! The tube measured 5.0mm so after warming up the Fabia, and lubricating the outside of extraction tube with new oil, it was a firm but smooth push right down to base of sump. Slow to extract as can't generate the same vacuum as on the larger extractor I have, and it was only 2L capacity so had to stop, empty and change halfway. But 3.5L of Comma ProLife and a new Mann filter later I have nice fresh oil in there. Hope I'm not only person here who has so many tools they sometimes forget they have the one they need!

hi

 

any chance you could put up a link as where you got the pipe/tube please as my tube is too big to go in my dipstick?

 

thank you

Hi it was this small size PELA extractor.

 

http://www.pelapumps.co.uk/default.aspx?A10PAGE=PL2000

7 minutes ago, Stratfordade said:

Hi it was this small size PELA extractor.

 

http://www.pelapumps.co.uk/default.aspx?A10PAGE=PL2000

many thanks but there is no option to buy hose/tube? i have the 12v oil extractor.

I’ve had that extractor for a few years, but I just used the tube it came with (5mm) and didn’t need to buy tube separately.

I used a piece of 5/16" copper fuel line on both my Octavias, I preferred a rigid tube to know it was at the bottom of the sump, the plastic tubes that came with my pump were packaged rolled up and always want to return to its shape.

 

Its too big to fit the Yeti, goes down but gets stuck where the dipstick tube enters the engine block, the answer for me would be a length of straight rigid thinwall pneumatic tubing the black stuff that uses push fit connectors, anyone know a suilable size and E-bay supplier of short straight lengths not on a coil?

 

After faffing around with the pump not holding vacuum I found that the threaded collar had cracked so I need to replace it, I would consider a better one with the right sized straight suction tubes.

 

i have seen some copper ones but they dont bend as good as pvc ones though.

Thats why I thought the black pneumatic tube would be the answer if it comes in the right size, thin wall, rigid but will deform enough to pass through.

would this do?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLEAR-FLEXIBLE-PVC-TUBE-AIR-WATER-FUEL-PETROL-OIL-HOSE-PIPE-5mm-Od-x-3mm-Id/282745133228?hash=item41d4ec58ac:m:mIlEUg27trw-snUY2m8XLZQ

Just now, J.R. said:

Thats why I thought the black pneumatic tube would be the answer if it comes in the right size, thin wall, rigid but will deform enough to pass through.

i was looking at them too but as you said, i couldnt find teh right size.