Stripped Oil Plug

T

toy4x

Premium Member
Premium
Shop must have stripped my oil plug the last time I had it done. When I went under to drain my oil today, there was aluminum inside the threads of the plug. Now I have a leak.

How can I repair a stripped drain plug?
 
Repair the threads. I ended up having to do it on my motor when one of the bolts holding in my coils broke off. Ended up having to drill out the old bolt and tap out a new hole. You are working with different material but tapping the hole is not hard. Worked well for my and my problem.
 
Not the bolt itself. The threads inside the aluminum hole are pretty much gone. The deep threads are still ok and hold the bolt slightly, but do not hold the bolt tightly. Oh well, going to a shop close to home tomorrow and see what they can do.
 
Yikes! Sounds like a pretty inconvenient situation. I'd be more than perturbed. Hope it's an easy solution.
 
This happened when I had my old car. I bought an oversized plug. It was a very marginal size bigger and snugged up great. For a temp fix they have plugs that expand as they tighten.
 
blackfx said:
Repair the threads. I ended up having to do it on my motor when one of the bolts holding in my coils broke off. Ended up having to drill out the old bolt and tap out a new hole. You are working with different material but tapping the hole is not hard. Worked well for my and my problem.
Click to expand...

^ This. Ask the shop to "next size" the pan hole. No big deal, simply buy a new pan bolt to fit the new thread size/pattern.

Sorry Andrew, PITA.
 
Took it to a local shop, they are going to drill it, and then retap the threads to the next size. They are asking $125. Doesn't this sound a little high? He says it's a 2 hour job. I'm thinking 30 minutes after the oil dumps out.

I ran out of time to do it today, and they are going to do a 4 wheel alignment for $65 on Monday. So I'll have them do it then, but it doesn't hurt to ask them if they can do it cheaper.

'n on Xparent Red 2
 
I can't see how it going to take 2 hours to drill and tap. I'm more concern of how can they prevent having any metal shavings from falling into the inside of the pan. Ideally, I would drop the pan to drill so that the shaving can be clean out.
 
They will likely coat the dril bit with heavy grease to aid in catching the drill shavings. This has been the norm from what I have always seen.
 
Ge0rge said:
They will likely coat the dril bit with heavy grease to aid in catching the drill shavings. This has been the norm from what I have always seen.
Click to expand...

Yes this is what he mentioned. But drill and tap for 2 hours..seems excessive.

I ended up taking it to my buddy yesterday. He's going to replace the front lower control arms, Do my brakes with flush, and then try and tackle the drain plug. Hopefully he's able to fix it. He's my Handy Andy since we don't have one out here on the west coast.


'n on Xparent Red 2
 
Does the pan come off easily?
Regardless, it should be a common fix. A long time ago I went to one of the drive thru oil change places and their thing was to swap out the plug with their quick fit plug on drain plug thing as a "free upgrade". Basically they used it as a gimmick to encourage repeat business and likely because their grease monkeys kept stripping customer's threads.
Anyways, I asked to keep my old plug and swapped it back 3000 miles later. Every now and then I come across it in the bottom of my tool box.

---------- Post Merged at 01:07 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:24 AM ----------

After quick thought, removing the pan must be a PITA.
If plan A doesn't work, $125 sounds fine. Maybe 2 hours is a bit long, but I don't think I'd want the 30 minute job. Even if it is 2 hours, a $62/hr shop rate is pretty good.
 
There are 10 10mm bolts to undo to drop the oil pan.

---------- Post Merged at 10:51 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:50 PM ----------

toy4x said:
He's my Handy Andy since we don't have one out here on the west coast.
'n on Xparent Red 2
Click to expand...

You crack me up :laugh:
 
la_fx35 said:
There are 10 10mm bolts to undo to drop the oil pan.
Click to expand...

Why not just drop the pan, repair it correctly, and then reinstall? You won't be forever worried wondering if any shavings got into the pan. You could also install one these plug/valve types after the repair to eliminate future issues:

http://www.fumoto.com.au/index.htm
http://www.oilchangesystems.com/products/quick-coupler-or-qc-plug/

Installing an oversize plug could lead to cracks if installed in an Aluminum Pan. You can also buy a two part plug. The first part screws in like the original plug. That piece also has its own plug which you remove to drain the oil. The benefit being is that if the threads strip out it would be the inner threads of the two part plug and you simply replace the entire unit and there is no damage to the pan threads.
 
I would definitely drop the oil pan for the peace of mind! Here a couple pages from the FSM.
OilPan1.jpg
OilPan2.jpg
 

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