It’s been a year since I’ve bought my 2019 Volkswagen Golf GTI from Carvana. (Here’s everything that was wrong with it.) That means the car is due for its annual oil change. In the last calendar year, the GTI got driven only about 3,300 miles. A surprisingly paltry amount, though granted I do not have a car commute. On mileage alone an oil service is premature, but for cars that don’t get driven much, fluids are changed according to a time schedule. As it is specified in the maintenance manual.
Great news for me, the Golf’s EA888 engine has a top side mounted oil filter, and an oil dipstick. This means I do not have to get under the car to perform the oil service. To get the oil out, I used a fluid extractor: the legendary Mityvac 7201. By shoving a tube down the dipstick channel into the sump, the oil gets pumped up and out with zero spills. The Mityvac can also reverse direction, so filling the used jugs with old oil cannot be any simpler.
Here’s a YouTube video showing the process.
I think every internal combustion car should be like this: top side oil filter and an oil dipstick. It makes changing the oil with an extractor a 10 minute procedure. The fact that not all engines are designed this way is a crime against humanity. (Plenty of new cars don’t even come with a dip stick.) I don’t care how secure the pair of jack stands are, and that a wheel has been shoved under a frame rail: getting underneath a car carries some risk. Especially for peasants like me lacking in garage or driveway. Public streets are often uneven and unmaintained.
But perhaps it’s all a moot point because of electric vehicles. Would our children even know about changing oil and getting gas when they grow to be adults? It’ll be a thing lost to the history books, like rewinding VHS tapes, and printing out MapQuest directions. Wrenching on cars will be reserved for old curmudgeons like me who can’t seem to let go of our gross polluters.
Hopefully the Mityvac that I bought will still be going strong. Because it was not cheap! Cheers to the spirits of buy once, cry once.
Meanwhile, the MX-5 has a dipstick, but bottom side oil filter. Going to have to get under it when the time comes.