Oil extractors

[lucast]

Has anyone used these with their 850s?

e.g., http://www.pelaproducts.com/

I live in a small apartment block with a shared carpark and it's really not OK to put one's car on blocks to do an an oil change.

[PerryRT]

I have a lot of sympathy for you - I live in a condo community and there's a complete prohibition against car maintenance of any kind in the parking lots (I get in trouble about once a quarter because I check my fluids). My suggestion is to make friends with folks that own their own houses.

Now, to answer your question, no, I've not used this pump. However, this is a fairly common product for folks that own a boat (marine engines being usually buried deep in the bilges and all.) I used to work at a boatyard growing up and used something similar to that all the time. You might want to check your local chandler's store (if you have one.) If not, lots of internet places - I've always loved these guys, but there are plenty of others (and probably more convenient - since you said "car park", I'm assuming you're not in the US).

I see no reason why this idea wouldn't work on a car. That having been said, you're still going to have to get down under the car to change the filter anyway...so I'm not certain how much labor you're saving here. If it's just the putting up on blocks part that is the problem, I have changed my oil flat on the ground lots of times before. It's tight, but unless you're a really big guy (and not claustrophobic like my wife), it should be possible.

Unless you were to put in a oil filter remoting kit (you know, to mount the filter on the firewall or something like that)...then it would make sense to siphon the oil out the top....but I've not heard of an kit like that for a Volvo.

[MadeInJapan]

I agree about finding a friend with a house, or better yet, make friends with someone who owns a shop, who won't mind you using it ever so often to just change your oil. You're still going to have to change your filter. In fact there's a lot of discussions on other boards about the filter change actually being more important than the oil change (especially with synthetics). When you take the filter out, about a quart of oil comes out, so you still have to catch the fluids.

Other than a friend's where you can do all of this, there's always other options:
1. Pay a shop to do this for you.
2. Move.