squidzilla

Normally, I send my cars to the dealer for oil changes. Now that I have 4 of them it makes more sense for me to change the oil myself. Plus I wanted to use high mileage oil to get some more life out of the engine gaskets.

I have never changed the oil in any of my cars before--motorcycles yes, but not a car.

After reading enough threads on broken drain bolts during removal, I decided to go the extractor route. 90-120.00 for a plastic extractor seemed like a bad deal and I have read about too many problems with them.

So I bought a steel tank Harbor Freight Extractor for 118.00 with tax ( had a 20% of coupon and bought on sale). It needs an air compressor to make it work so that was kind of negative but I thought, hey every man needs an air compressor.

I sucked out the bulk of the oil in less than 5 minutes. Wow. You would blow up your motiv extractor trying to come close that.

I thought I would share this experience in case some other member was looking for a different way to execute the oil change.

My e46 and e53 cars will be the fastest and cleanest oil changes I think since the filter is accessed from the top of the engine bay.

luigi524td

I have previously used an oil extractor to handle changes during the winter months when I didn't feel like crawling under one of my cars. And boaters will be very familiar with oil extractors of all sorts since getting under a sump can be impossible. These days, I'm a bit lazier and am ok with paying my dealer or a trusted indy the few $$'s to get an oil change. But, good luck with the H-F tool. I pick up the occasional tool or gadget there too - as a DIY'er it may be something I won't be using a lot and don't feel the need to buy a more expensive version intended for 'professional' use.

Bigjule111

I thought It wasn't possible without a dipstick tube? True?

healthservices

But the 545i does have one.