So yesterday I installed a Fumoto Oil Valve on my 05 Impreza RS 2.5. Just wanted to share my experiences and a few pics of the results. Ground Clearance Before: View attachment 20034 Oil Drain Before: View attachment 20035 Ground Clearance After: View attachment 20032 (You can just see the tip of the valve in this shot between the exhaust and air dam just left of center) Oil Drain After: View attachment 20033 The construction of the valve was very solid. Also the valve handle locks into position when not open so it would take a physical .25" to .5" lift and 90 degree turn to open it. I'm not worried about leaks at all. You can also see that ground clearance was not affected. If I was off-roading and happen to hit it, I would also have destroyed my exhaust, bumper and differential in the process... :eek3: Installation was super easy. I used a Subaru OEM crush washer in place of the paper one they included. No leaks from anywhere this morning. I look forward to the next change and being able to easily take oil analysis samples!
http://www.quickoildrainvalve.com/ is the site. Here is the valve specific to most Subaru's: http://www.quickoildrainvalve.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=40 I used coupon code YM4 for a 10% discount...
I've thought about getting one of these, but the oil filter is a mess anyways, so it doesn't really do much. I guess there's less of a chance to strip your drain plug, but I've never had that problem. I wasn't worried about ground clearance, but thanks for posting the pics because that seems to always come up when people talk about them.
Yeah this was my first oil change and I found out how messy the filter change is... It does make the valve seem pointless, but I am planning on doing oil change analysis's on a regular basis and it was a messy pain to gather the sample without a valve.
I replaced the plug in the Legacy with one of these. I'm guessing the former owner did a lot of the quickie lube places because original drain plug was just about round in shape. It looks like you got the one you can attach the drain tube to.
Yeah, I paid the few extra dollars for the nipple so I could use a tube to help direct flow. If someone went without the nipple attachment it would shave about 1/2" off the length.
I considered one of those. I just settled on the simpler option. Albeit very slightly, since the Fumoto doesn't require the hose for operation. I heard + and - stories on each, but I had a chance to handle both before purchasing and both seem to be very good build quality so I am sure either one is a solid choice...
I remember hearing that these do not work well with aluminum skid plates. Someone on dirtyimpreza had one and after hitting a large bump/thing his skid plate pushed into the Fumoto valve and broke it off leaving him w/o oil. Besides that it would be a nice feature, I dislike having to dig mine out of my oil drain pan every time I drop it.
Yeah, your typical Primitive (or Vector ) type skidplate would be a bad combo with one of these. Also, even without the skidplate, it's also not about simple ground clearance, as running over a branch, or other road hazard could snap something like this off, when it would just whack the pan and be on it's way with a normal plug. But really, the odds of that for people who don't go around running over crap at high speeds is pretty small. Of course, there is the group of us who do things like that . . .
Sigh... I would like to do that... Wife won't let me touch her car except for maintenance and cleaning though... I am hoping to pick up an OBS or similar though in the next few months though to have more fun in.
God I'd love to do this... but there are just so many horror stories of guys with these having cone related misfires.
Cool product. It looks a lot like the fram sure drain. I probobly would have considered this over the other options seeing how this is from a local company... I. Think I'll try it on my next car... bookmarked!
Should be the same part for all Subaru models. F-105 or F-105N. If you look at the item, there is a review from a WRX owner there too.
