BMW oil extractor. No dipstick?

My mate has bought a Pela oil extractor, but his 3 litre BMW has no dipstick. Anyone know if there is a method or entry point to put the oil extraction pipe on these cars?

in a BMW the dipstick is inbetween the seat and steering wheel 😀

I’ll get my coat..

Surely anyone buying something like that would know what they were doing?

Although quite why you’d not just undo the sump plug and let it drain is lost on me…

are you sure there is no dipstick. BMW’s normally have them hidden away. And, why would you want to extract oil from the dipstick when it’s easier to undo the sump plug?

damn it beaten to it!

On my E87 there is a dipstick but its not really obvious. There is a display that shows oil level on the display / Computer system though.

And, why would you want to extract oil from the dipstick when it’s easier to undo the sump plug?

Either:

Poke vacuum pump into dipstick, give it a few pumps, leave for 20min, change filter, fill with oil.

Or:
lug 30kg trolley jack round garage, scratch paintwork, then realise you leant your axle stands to a friend, demolish the top coarse of bricks from your BBQ and use those instead, spill some oil on the driveway, curse as you burn your hands on the hot sump and oil, drop the sump plug and get it covered in grit, climb in/out from under the car several times, curse a bit, decide to buy a vacuum pump. Transfer oil from old washing up bowl to container, spill more oil, realise it wasn’t the old washing up bowl and you’ve now got some explaining to do.

Having said that, I drain it from the sump plug, but I can see the appeal of a pump.

Or:-
Put front of vehicle on ramps, put drain bowl underneath, undo sump plug and let oil drain out whilst you have a cup of tea / change the filters / plugs etc.
Draining it out with a vacuum pump means its unlikely to take any of the shit out lying in the bottom of the sump too, hence why you use the drain plug.

Tbf tinas …. If anyone makes that much of an ass of draining from the sump plug they probably shouldnt be doing car maintainance 😉

A rare example here of STW not delivering a sensible answer in amongst the expected and welcome micky taking.
My mate bought the Pela pump on my advice as I said I was planning on buying one anyway to do my volvo and audi (both of which have dipsticks). I offered to change the oil on his 2008 3.0litre BMW for him as a favour as his oil was WAY overdue for changing. Neither of us knew his car didn’t have a dipstick.
Happy to use the sump plug if needed, but having used the Pela pump on my own cars, I have to say it is MUCH easier. The main time taken with using sump plug route is the fact that on most cars you need to remove the plastic engine tray which takes 10 mins to take off and 10 mins to refit.

Weird both my BMW’s have dipsticks?

Just had a second look at your post and you are moaning about 20 minutes to remove and refit a plastic under tray. As others have said have a cup of tea and sit back and relax!

Personally I’d rather pay someone else to do it!

Love working on bikes but hate doing stuff on cars.

My mate bought the Pela pump on my advice as I said I was planning on buying one anyway to do my volvo and audi (both of which have dipsticks). I offered to change the oil on his 2008 3.0litre BMW for him as a favour as his oil was WAY overdue for changing. Neither of us knew his car didn’t have a dipstick.
Happy to use the sump plug if needed, but having used the Pela pump on my own cars, I have to say it is MUCH easier. The main time taken with using sump plug route is the fact that on most cars you need to remove the plastic engine tray which takes 10 mins to take off and 10 mins to refit.

Yeah, but draining via the sump is a proper job though, not half arsed bodging.
What would Guy Martin do…?

Eh?

Are you planning on doing the filter too?
You may have to remove the undertray for that.

It’s how I ended up buying a three year old car with a full service history and yet it still had its original oil filter in it.

Stupid car has no access to the oil filter unless you take the bottom tray off!

Having done two cars this evening with the Pela in 45 minutes I am convinced of the benefits of this method. The pump pulled out as much as a drain would do. If you think sumps these days are full of sludge and crap then you are either leaving your oil change intervals 2 years too long so the oil is polymerising and turning to tar OR you have not seen what comes out of a sump on a well maintained car after 12 months driving. I guess no-one on here has a 2008 3 litre BMW then? 🙂

Just seen comments on filter positioning. The filter is right at the top of the engine (same as on my D5 XC90), so no need to remove the under tray to access. My Audi A2 is also accessible from above.
I wish I had access to ramps, but sadly its a jack and crawling round on the floor for me.
Always change the filter at the same time. A filter is £5. Why would I want to push £35 of 5w30 fully synthetic oil through a dirty filter 😉

“two cars this evening with the Pela in 45 minutes I am convinced of the benefits of this method.”

What are the advantages of this method then ?

Not having to remove the undertray seems to be the only one – doesnt seem particularly quick.

I have a pump. I use it for filling diffs and gear boxes where access is limited , still find it quicker to drop the sump plug – but then on my car a timing belt change takes 45 minutes.

The only advantage is time and convenience. No need for jack/ramps, no need to remove engine undertray. This means it takes less than half the time. Thats enough of an advantage for me.
I don’t buy into the view that it’s a “bodge” or “half assed” oil change as it gets out every bit as much as a drain does and if you have actual sediment in your sump then you have bigger problems than your realise! Frequent convenient oil changes are better than getting an extra 10ml from the sump once a year.

Undertrays are a PITA granted, but I still wouldn’t use a pump.
Plus if you aren’t taking it off you might well miss spotting a leak in something else amiss underneath the engine.

Also I am clearly not the Pitstop god that Trail Rat is. A career changing tyres for McLaren awaits.
My 45 mins includes 20 mins of looking for the filter I bought at Xmas and decanting oil from the pela into old oil containters so I can take it to the recycling place.

Always change the filter at the same time. A filter is £5.

Quality!

Nothing to do with being a pitstop god …. Just picking cars that are easy to maintain – dont have daft under trays. Do have pump just takes longer when you dont have an under tray.

How can you be so tight?

Some cheap chains will do a cheap oil change if you really must

OP your mates **** daft. And thats coming from the ultimate tight ****.

trailrat, I agree. My old V40 was easy to change the oil on as you could reach the sump plug by reaching under the car. Most cars now seem to have an undertray though.
I assume suburbanreuben is overpaying for his filters, or has something better than Mahle or Bosch?

Eh ? Hora are you nuts.

I wouldnt let one of the cheap chains oil my bike chain let alone stick oil in my car.

My land rover i can just roll under to the sump plug and both the vans you just need to reach under the front to the sump plug and filter

But then none of them go as fast as a 3l bimmer, they have other party tricks though.

Hora. If I do it myself then I pay £27 for decent VW507 longlife oil (Catrol or Mobil or similar) plus I don’t have the teenage Kwikfit numpty cross threading stuff and leavin my undertray attached by a hand full of cable ties and with 3 bolts missing.
Not really a question of tightness, just wanting it done right.

Im talking about pulling oil out of the dipstick/or wanting to. Corner cutting

My cars got a removable access panel in the undertray to allow access to the sump plug. One bolt and tada. But yeah I like the idea of a pump means it can all be done from the top of the engine rather than, jacking, dropping on axle stands and crawling around underneath.

3litre petrol bmws don’t gave dipstick as oil is measured by the computer, deffo since 2005… So you have to drain from the sump and fill from the cap as per usual…

The lack of dipstick on my BMW 320 was really annoying.

Less than 24hrs after being serviced by a BMW main dealer the top up oil light came on. On complaining to dealer, they advised they only change the oil if the computer tells them to(!) and there is no way of checking the oil level other than by the gauge in the car (which only has a reading after the car had been driven for a bit).

My crappy old 54 plate Modus has a dipstick and a Oil check/Level display on the instrument panel(also has working indicators too!)

Regards paying Kwiksh!t or similar to change my oil, not a hope in hell.
I’d rather take the time to do it myself and do a proper job rather than risk letting one of there trained monkeys loose on it.
Removing a undertray is hardly a arduous task and a lot of people modify them by cutting out a small access hole below the sump plug to make future changes a bit quicker/easier.

Done it both ways, first time I did it I decided I didn’t trust it to suck all the oil out, got underneath and undid the sump plug. About 3 drips fell out. Done it with the pela ever since.

Some cheap chains will do a cheap oil change if you really must

Regards paying Kwiksh!t or similar to change my oil, not a hope in hell.

Halfrauds[/url]

I believe the expression is: ‘Go figure’.

Marko

Or:-
Put front of vehicle on ramps, put drain bowl underneath, undo sump plug and let oil drain out whilst you have a cup of tea / change the filters / plugs etc.

you missed the part where the oil rushes out like a tidal wave capable of taking out a power station…. leading the the various aforementioned oil on drive issues

I’ve used the pump before and found it never got all the old oil out. Not much remaining but probably the worst of what was there. The reason behind the pumps was to decrease time and costs involved in servicing the car not for ensuring a good job is done.
I will drain from the sump and always put a bit of clean oil through before fitting sump plug and refilling. A simple oil and filter change only takes me around 40 mins and most of that time is getting the jacks and axle stands out whilst the car warms up and then putting everything away again. I don’t use anything fancy to capture the oil other than a cat litter tray which I place on old sheet of hardboard that makes sure the driveway stays oil free.

I never used to bother jacking my cars up when I did my own oil changes – I could easily reach the sump plug and undo lying on my back – plenty of room under the car. Having to remove undertray’s would be a bit more problematic, but if you knew the location of the screw’s/bolts then you still should be albe to reach under. Again a slim but large cat litter tray type thing, did the rest of the service while the oil was draining. If I dropped any oil on the drive it was from the oil filter rather than the sump plug itself. 20 minutes max for a basic oil/filter change. I never used to warm the oil up – multigrade oil is perfecly able to drain out when cold.