OK, time for my first oil change in my new to me D130 Trek edition. Since I’m very familiar with the Mity Vac oil change on my LR4 I figured I’d be done in 15 minutes. Started pumping out the oil and ended up with only 6 quarts. I raised the intake/sucker tube, and lowered it and raised it a lot and jammed it as low as I could. I felt like I had 5’ in there!. Anyway, no more oil was going to come out. OK then, I guess it’s time to take off the skid plates and do it the old fashioned way. BUT it was in normal suspension, couldn’t raise it up because I couldn’t start the truck because I sucked 2/3 of the oil out. AND I didn’t have any jacks. So I squeezed down under there and commenced taking off the three skid plates, about 20 bolts with FOUR different sizes .
Long story short, 15 minutes turned into 3 hours but I got the last 3+ quarts out and finished the job.

And now for the question: What the heck did I do wrong that I couldn’t get all the oil via the Mity Vac???

 

Did you make sure that you had adequate air pressure from your compressor? It calls for 80-120psi.

Also another thing that can help is extending the suction hose so that the canister is sitting on the ground instead of sitting above the engine. Let gravity help siphon the oil out. Did you have the oil cap and the filter unscrewed? Air has to make its way into the crankcase as your removing the volume of oil from it.

 

Yes to everything, except the oil cap was on. My suction hose was of a size that air could get past it as it sucked. It sucked 6 quarts quickly and then just air. Pushing it farther in or pulling it up didn’t get even a little more. I was actually pretty worried that I’ve been driving around with just 6 quarts in it. Fortunately that wasn’t the case.

 

You can raise the car up without the engine running. No problem whatsoever

If you want you can even trick the car into going into extended height with a bit of wood and lowering it down. Up she rises to the max.


if you were sucking air your hose wasn’t at the base of the sump.

do it with the engine nice and warm. Oil become less viscous and flows more easily.

I use a 2.3gallon (8.8l) manual pump. Same P400 engine. Works a treat.

 

how do you lift it with the engine off? Mine says “start vehicle to raise suspension”
I can’t imagine what I did wrong, I’ll try again next time but be better prepared to take it out from underneath if it doesn’t work again

 

I went through the EXACT same thing as you. I had done close to 20 oil changes on my LR4 with my Mityvac so I thought it would work just as well on my Defender. I pumped out 5, maybe 6 quarts of oil and that was it. I messed around for a good hour trying to shove the extraction tube further down but it just wouldn't go any further. Went inside, ordered the OEMTOOLS Fluid Evacuator from which I got the next day and pumped the rest out with no problem. Has been working great ever since.

 

This thread led me to pulling out my Mityvac and trying again. I had the same issue with not getting all the oil out the last time I tried it, and I've just paid for an oil change since (frustrating, since previously I've always done my own). Same nightmare today. There must be some minor differences in how things go together sometimes that make extracting all the oil with the Mityvac impossible with some P400s. I've verified I'm getting past where the dipstick stops and still no luck with getting it all. I'm ready to toss that Mityvac directly in the trash.

 

Another thread concerning the inability to extract the complete volume of oil using a MityVac or similar. Some have had success, while others have reported stuck vacuum tubes, and less than complete volumes being extracted. Old schooler here, so I’ll continue doing oil changes the conventional way, aided greatly by the Fumoto valve. Oil and filter change in under 30 minutes, with no mess.

 

The first time I tried the MityVac some years back, I did briefly have the tube catch on something, but I was able to gently get it free. I was VERY careful about that this time around. I spent a bunch of time playing around with it today to see if I could unlock any "trick". Like I said, I marked the dipstick length (just to be sure - it ended up going in a bit further than that), tried all the way in, backed off a hair after it bottomed out, I tried various insertion angles in case a slight angle was the issue, and I played with the air suspension and a little bit of checking that it was level (it was on a very level surface). I even made sure the hose connections were air tight so I wasn't losing any vacuum. I don't think it's worth trying anything else. At least with my Defender, the vacuum method isn't going to work.

This is what I get when I try the "easy" way.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but it sounds like you are saying the at the OEMTOOLS pump works great for this purpose but the Mityvac does not?
Does anyone else have experience with both and concur?
I do not even have my Defender yet (2 more months!) but am really interested in doing a lot of maintenance myself. I usually do the simpler tasks like fluids, brakes, etc.