Promised myself many moons ago I’d not get another car unless I could afford for someone else to do the work, then not so many moons ago I was given Madge who quickly became an expensive project car.
Soon after getting her I got given an oil retreval pump and for the last 5 years I have used it successfully for six month intermediate services oil, filter and air filter and either hiring a ramp in Cheltenham or paying a garage now I live in London to do the major annual services, plugs and so forth.
Today with way too many other things on my mind I thought I’d be able to do a quick oil change after getting Dad showered and before cooking his tea. Bad idea.
After struggling with the oil filter which I eventually managed to change, I absent mindedly fed the oil retreval pipe down the dip stick pipe and when I turned the retreval pump on virtually no oil came up the retreval pipe.
I realised the pipe has kink somewhere in the sump. I tried feeding a thin wire down the pipe but it was too weak to get passed the kink.
I guess if I am lucky I will get away with removing the dipstick pipe or unlucky removing the sump.
Can any and or all of this be done with the engine in situ ?
If there is anyone nearby who can help me do the work before Friday I would be most grateful, obvs with the pipe in the sump I am not going to start the engine I have plenty of driveway space and a small selection of tools though I do not have a torque wrench big enough if the work cannot be done in situ.
Too far away to help myself I’m afraid.
Am I thinking this straight, have you got the pipe from the oil pump stuck in the dipstick tube, or is it you just can’t pump any oil through it?
If the latter why can’t you remove the sump plug instead, or get a garage to do that?
Sorry if it’s the wrong suggestion, I’m unsure of the situation🤔
Getting the sump off is not the work of a moment. The dipstick tube is secured by a 10mm nut on a bracket a little way down. You should be able to remove the nut then the dipstick tube will pull out, it’ll probably be quite tight. Once out, lube the O ring at its base before refitting.
Yes the pipe from the retrival pump is stuck in the sump because it is either kinked possibly knotted as I was not paying proper attention when I fed it in.
Thanks Robbie, I’ll give pipe removal a go in the morning, if kinked I hope removal of the dipstick pipe will give me just enough space to get the retrival pipe out.
Thanks, appreciate messages of sympathy, fingers crossed taking the dipstick pipe out will get it sorted, if not might be time to call international rescue
Sorry if this is stating the obvious, but have you tried twisting the plastic tube around inside the dipstick tube? If it is kinked, it might move the kink to a place that doesn’t catch.
Thanks for the suggestion, yes I have until my back gave up the ghost from leaning over into the engine bay, getting a tad too old for this game last time I attempt an oil change for sure.
I would probably try two things if it were my car…
I’d use my tyre compressor /inflator and see if pumping air into the tube freed it off (probably twisting the pipe at the same time) - there are various inflator nozzles with my pump.
I’d accept that I’ve probably got a big-ish disassembly job if the tube won’t remove so I’d twist and pull the pipe and see what happened - I can’t see what damage you could do - the worst (?) is the end of the pipe is left in the sump - pretty much where you are now. I’m assuming there are no metal fittings on the end of the extraction pipe etc.
Yes I might resort to just pulling until something gives if removing the dipstick pipe does not help, sadly my tire inflator just has the one car tyres fitment,
I am about to do the earth strap dipstick pipe bolt/nut, if all goes well and I get the oil retrieval pipe out with the dipstick pipe should I be able to get the diptstick pipe back in without removing the under tray or jacking the car up TIA
After getting one end of the earth strap off I started to wrestle with the nut retaining the other end with the dipstick pipe to absolutely no avail. Was thinking about removing the manifold cover and heater matrix pipes for better access when I thought ‘you know what it’ I’ll try twisting it out one more time and after lots more cursing presto it popped out and free ! Thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts and suggestions
Even managed to put the abs pipe I dislodged while wrestling with the down pipe nut back in its clip
Having got the pipe out I thought may as well put it back in and carry on and change the oil, you can guess what happened once I finished pumping the old oil out ….
Fortunately Super 7’s trick worked a second time without any cursing.
Madge is now ready to roll …. Will post holiday pix on the my MX5 thread, if I can find it
TIA
