If you are a DIY guy like me, most likely you want the easiest route as much as possible when it comes to car maintenance.
Especially with regards to changing your own oil, which can be messy at most times.
Yup, changing engine oil is an easy task and every car owner must know how to do this task on their vehicles. Doing DIY tasks can be rewarding but it can also be challenging as well especially if you don’t have the right tools with you.
Take for example if you don’t have an oil drip pan. Oil can blast all over your garage if you don’t have a quality big oil drip pan and an oil storage container as well.
That could be messy right! Enter oil drain valves!
So in this post, I’ll share to you my thoughts on using oil drain valves and how it really works, straight from my own experience.
What is an Oil Drain Valve?
Oil drain valve is a device that is bolted into your oil drain pan, replacing the drain plug. It lets you achieve a “spill-proof, messy-proof oil change by using a “valve” instead of unbolting a conventional drain bolt.
Scotty Kilmer puts it as the “future of oil change”, due to its ingenious design of draining oil from the drain pan.
Okay, an oil drain valve is practically similar to a drain plug, but it provide more efficient draining of oil as it uses a petcock, enabling you to easily open and close the device for draining oil. You don’t need to use a wrench to open the plug.
Some oil drain valve doesn’t even have a petcock, like the ValvoMax brand.
Quality oil drain valves are made of either stainless steel, aluminum or brass metal. This ensures long-lasting usage as these metals don’t corrode or rust. They also have rubber seals that act as o-ring which ensures oil-tight, drip-free valve.
This drain valves have adapters or connectors, where you can attach a hose for easy oil draining. There are various designs of adapters to choose from, which basically made to fit your undercarriage requirements. Some are designed as L-shape and others are straight-pipe designs.
And with a hose attached to the actual device, the oil can be directly drained into your oil drip pan or container. This makes your job easier without spilling oil into your garage.
Aside from ValvoMax, other popular similar products include Fumoto (Japan) and EZ Oil Drain Valve (Australia). Check these brands on Amazon and see if they fit your car’s drain plug.
How to Install an Oil Drain Valve?
Installation is easy and don’t require any special skills or knowledge.
First, you need to know the size of your drain plug. In my case with my Mitsubishi MonteroSport, the size is 1.5x14mm, which I believe is the universal size for drain bolts. So check your owners manual or call your local dealer and ask the size of your drain plug.
Once you know the size, you can now choose which oil drain valve fits your car. Mine is EZ 106 oil drain valve and it fits perfectly like what you see in the picture above.
To install your oil drain valve, remove your stock drain bolt and let the old oil drain completely.
Once drained, use your new oil drain valve as your drain bolt. Install the drain valve snugly to the drain pan hole but do not overtighten it (preferably 10 foot pounds torque). It is important to keep the stock drain plug, you might use it in the future.
Now ensure that your drain valve is in close position. If it’s not, just turn the petcock to close it. Then you can confidently pour fresh fluid into your engine. Check the valve if it has leaks while pouring fresh oil.
Once you are done filling fresh oil into your engine, final check the drain valve for any leaks. You can now install the adapter or hose connector to your drain valve. You can either leave the connector as is, or install it with the hose attached.
Now the next time you change your oil, you don’t need a wrench to open any plug but by just opening the petcock for easy oil draining.
Issues with Oil Drain Valve?
Some people are skeptical in using these device in a number of reasons. One, the drain valve may hinder the ground clearance of your drain pan, which can truly be an issue.
Second is the possibility of a rock or stone hitting and damaging the valve while you are driving. Or some shady dude purposely drain your oil while your car is parked elsewhere.
Third is the fact that you are retaining few amounts of oil inside the pan. So let me share to you my thoughts about these issues.
Ground Clearance Issue
As you can see from the pictures above, the drain valve can measure up to an inch and a half, to two and a half inch with the adapter connected.
This is an issue if your drain pan ground clearance is limited. For example, sedans and small crossovers do have about 4 to 6 inches clearance average. So installing an oil drain valve means that it is going to be just a few inches away from the ground.
My take on this is simple. Automobile engineers ensures that the oil drain pan is situated in the middle, or between the two front tires. This is to protect the pan from hitting humps or any other things that are encountered on the road.
Plus, the drain pan is not always leveled with the car’s chassis, but are always designed to have two to 5 inches clearance above the nearest solid chassis.
Possibility of Stone Hitting the Valve while Driving
Another worry of using oil drain valve is the possibility of a stone or rock hitting the valve while on the road.
This is quite possible especially if you are speeding down the highway. It might damage the valve and drain your oil while driving. This can blow up your car or can get you into accidents.
While this is possible, I believe there is a slim chance for this to happen. Why? Hear me out.
First reason is that, there are no single report of accident or incident online where their oil drain valve was hit by a stone or any solid objects on the road. You won’t find any reports of this kind in the Internet.
Second is the fact that many cars today have a stone guard (skid plates in SUVs and trucks). This adds protection not just to your oil drain valve, but to the entire under chassis of your vehicle.
Third, oil drain valves are made of quality steel or brass metal that will not easily break or damage. So it is important that you only buy known oil drain valve brands. Check Amazon for the best oil drain valve brands.
The Old Oil Isn’t Drained Completely
This is also true. Using oil drain valve is a convenient way of draining the old oil in your engine. But it won’t be able to drain the oil completely because of the valve’s design.
Oil drain valve has a metal thread that is being bolted to the drain pan’s hole plug. It probably sacrifices about 3 to 6mm of thread height.
This means that some milliliter amounts of oil in your drain pan is still stored beneath the pan and there are no ways for that oil to exit the pan due to that threaded metal part of the oil drain valve.
So is this an issue? For some maybe yes this is a big issue. Most people want their old oil to get drained completely, which is the primary reason why they are doing an oil change.
For some gear heads like me, a small amount of old oil won’t hurt your engine in any way. Heck, other people even closes their drain plug while there’s still oil dripping out. So this isn’t a big issue at all.
If you are doing an engine flush, then using an oil drain valve won’t be an issue either as you are going to drain the flushing fluid you’ve just used and in return, retaining more fresher oil inside the pan.
If you are still not convinced, then try to analyze the pros and cons that I just stated above and you’ll see that using oil drain valves has many positive benefits that easily outweighs any possible issues.
Summary
The question now is, do you need an oil drain valve for your vehicle? The answer is YES!
If you do the oil change yourself, it is important that you make your car work for you, not the other way around. Yes, there are ways that you can make jobs done easier with similar results.
This way, you will truly enjoy working on your car and experience being a mechanic on your own garage!
Below is my installation DIY video of EZ Oil Drain Valve. The video is in Tagalog language but it has English subtitle. Enjoy!
