I agree wholeheartedly. While lying on my back changing the oil the old-fashioned way on my 300E, I noticed 2 tiny droplets of antifreeze. They weren't readily noticeable until I touched a white paper towel to them and analyzed the color. It was the start of my water pump going south. I kept an eye on it and just 3 days later was able to replace the water pump in my garage before it failed and stranded me somewhere on the side of the road.

The day I got the new pump, I jacked up the car and removed the plastic pan and there was a fair amount of coolant trapped in it. My pan, like many others on these older cars, was somewhat warped from gravity, heat, and vibration over the years. The slight warping was enough to make it so that the low point in the pan wasn't where the weep hole is. So there were no signs of coolant leak being left on my garage floor.

The point is, if I didn't change my oil the old fashioned way, I would have never been alerted to begin monitoring a potential problem. Convenience does sometimes have its drawbacks in my opinion.

With that said, the idea of being able to change oil in a suit does intrigue me...

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08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

Where are these "tests"? Who did them? Why we don't ever get to see them? Are they locked in a secret vault somewhere? Or is this topsider mythology?

To the second point - many bottomsiding drain pans have a big screw on lid - designed to be taken directly to the recyle center.

I've gone back to bottomsiding - it now seems easier to me, and cleaner. Topsiding has all these tubes covered with and filled with oil. What a mess. And that's when it works well. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. On the question of which methods get more oil out I'm withholding judgement until the tests are released from the secret vault.

Quote from stefan300sd: "I have a 617 and sucking from the top gets more oil out then draining from the pan. A while ago I needed to change the oil pan gasket, so I drained it with my "topsider". When I took the pan off and there was only a few tablespoons full of oil left in it. I didn't think to take a picture at the time. However, later I was doing the same job but this time I drained it from the pan and there was considerabley more oil left it the pan.

I have never had a problem draining it hot and made mine real cheap out of a shop vac, a bucket, and some hose."
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Here's an example of a post on this site. Not the one I remember reading before, but same principle-- someone who took off their oil pan twice, once after using a Topsider or equivalent and once after using the drain plug.

The point about the value of a visual inspection obtained with using the drain plug is a good one!

To each his own.

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Steve
'93 400E

Exactly my point. What if that plastic drain pan with the screw-on top begins to leak during your oil change, as happened to me? Or afterwards, while it's sitting in your car's trunk as you drive to the recycle center? The Topsider is metal, and the openings through which oil could leak are at the top of the can, not near the bottom.

I change oil 4 times a year, averaging about 3 months/2700 miles between changes. No problem w/ the Topsider. If I happen to have the C230 in the shop for something else this March, at the time of the next scheduled change, I'll have 'em drain it through the pan plug to be on the safe side.

Those of you with garages forget that a lot of us don't have places to store things like old oil and ramps. For us, the Topsider works.

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-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino