In my infinite wisdom, I tried to save time on an oil change using a Mityvac.

I just bought the Mityvac for oil changes on the Land Rover LR4 I also just bought (on which such a method for oil change is near mandatory). I thought I'd test the Mityvac out first by doing an oil change on my wife's C30 R, but I must have pushed the 1/4" hose too far down the dipstick tube as it's stuck now and won't come out (I have since read online that you should stop pushing the tube in when you first feel some resistance; I pushed a little further than that.)

While I am by no means a professional mechanic, I'm not a novice, either. My plan is to drop the oil pan, but I'd like to know what kind of job I'm looking at, first.

Any advice? Anywhere I should look first?

Thanks in advance.

 

Pretty simple. You have evac and recharge the a/c system since you have to remove the compressor.

 

Yeah.... that's a bit more bananas than I can do, I'm afraid--just don't have that equipment under my shadetree.

I was hoping the dipstick tube bolts into the side of the oilpan so that I can maybe luck out and just have to remove that to work the plastic Mityvac tube loose, but the dipstick tube looks to be permanently pressed into the oilpan.

Any idea how many hours a mechanic will bill to do this? It is what it is, but it will also be nice to know.

 

You can do it without disconnecting the compressor. Also, the dipstick tube is held in with one bolt and then it pulls out of the pan.

 

There is one oil-pan bolt that I have no idea how I'd get to without removing the compressor. You can only see about half of it, and there doesn't look to be enough room to get an open-ended wrench around it, much less have enough room to loosen it.

Regardless, I've already resigned myself to taking it to a mechanic. I'm going out of town for work for most of this week and just don't have time to mess with it.

This is what I get for using a "time saver" like the Mityvac. Oh well.

 

You have to move the compressor, but don't have to disconnect the lines.

 

That makes sense. Oh well.

Thanks for the help, everyone.