Nubo

Changed the oil today and installed a Fumoto Valve, along with the requisite adapter/extender. It's a nice little gizmo but having gone through the process I'm not sure I'll stick with it.

The placement of the drain plug makes it easily reached from outside of the car. This eliminates most of the hassle of crawling under the vehicle, jacking, etc. there's room to slide a low-profile drainpain into a position where no spills occur. Once the drain plug is "broken" with a wrench and the drainpan in place, the plug can be removed, turning with fingers with a long extension. This allows the plug to be extracted (or at worst fall into the drainpan) and all of the oil is captured without getting any on your hand or arm. Retrieving the plug from the drainpan if necessary is not a problem.

This pretty much eliminates most of the normal hassles with oil changes that led me to purchase the Fumoto Valve in the first place. I really don't see any advantages to the FV at this point other than perhaps ease of capturing oil for analysis.

And, although the device is fairly low profile, the use of the adapter does result in a significant bit of hardware. I do have some concerns over what might happen if some significant road debris, large rocks or speed bumps were encountered at that spot.

The last little worry is that some idiot could look under the vehicle, see the thing, and drain the oil without any tools. Maybe paranoid but hey; it's not paranoia if they're really out to get you :p

All in all, I think I'll go back to the original plug next time.

Knerk

The reason it put on a fumoto valve is so I would not have to have a supply of crush washers availabe every time I changed the oil. I found out without putting a new washer on every time you change the oil you get signifigant leakage.

As far as it popping open I have ran over a big chunks of tire twice . I then stopped and checked it each time. All ok. I would take a strong force hitting the valve and then changing direction 90 degress to get it open. I think if I were to hit somthing like that I would have bigger problems than the valve.

Lastly I have my dealership look at it when I had my recall stuff done. The techs gave it the thumbs up and voiced their approval.

my .02 ¢

Nubo

Thanks Knerk,

It's not inadvertant operation I'm afraid of, rather what happens if it encounters a big impact. The valve and adapter present somewhat of a lever arm. I'd hate to see it get ripped out of the oil pan or get rotated loose -- things that seem next to impossible with the stock plug. I've had cars in the past get some rather nasty knocks underneath and had some dented oil pans but never a loss of oil. Ok, well maybe I'm grown up enough now to avoid those kinds of "incidents"...

The washer issue was another reason I got the valve as it always seemed to be a hassle getting the right one for my Miata. I ended up ordering a set of filters with crush washers from Trussville before getting the valve, so that seems easy enough.

Ah well, next time I change oil I may yet be seduced by that pretty brass fitting....