Oil Drain Plug - What am I looking at here?

[VicVinegar]

So I finally get around to doing my first DIY oil change. I get up on the ramps, chock the wheels, took the cap off and slid underneath the undo the drain plug. And I see this:

What is going on here? Did someone strip my pan and this was fix? How do you deal with one of these? Just take out the middle bolt and put it back in when done? It figures that my first attempt at doing something myself would reveal some non-standard situation.

 

[Lead Shoes]

Uhh either its a striped oil pan bolt fix, or you can take the magnet off the bolt for cleaning...

 

[clarklawnscape]

that gap just above the plug would worrie me

 

[bruckus]

Must have been a bad pan drain plug. I would run to your local auto parts store and pick up a new plug before you remove that one unless you have something else to drive. Wont know for sure what you have there until you remove it. Most likely the old one stripped and thats what they cobbled together.

 

[oilboy123]

I would say it's a repair kit for the stripped threads. I would just drain it out the small plug.

 

[AVB]

I think that is called a piggyback oil drain plug. I think it is just a way to repair stripped threads.

 

[VicVinegar]

I have a new plug on hand but think I might want to just leave it be and maybe deal with the middle one. None of the shops have mentioned the drain was stripped.

 

[Rick in PA]

Looks like one of those jobs that has the potential to get ugly. If the big bolt isn't leaking, I wouldn't fiddle with it (IMO). I suspect the big bolt is some sort of self-threading job. I'd use two wrenches to remove the smaller bolt, one to support the big bolt to keep it from turning, the other to remove the smaller bolt. Good luck.

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
Looks like one of those jobs that has the potential to get ugly. If the big bolt isn't leaking, I wouldn't fiddle with it (IMO). I suspect the big bolt is some sort of self-threading job. I'd use two wrenches to remove the smaller bolt, one to support the big bolt to keep it from turning, the other to remove the smaller bolt. Good luck.

+1.
It's sometimes best to leave well enough alone.
I'd remove the smaller plug and keep the big one in place, unless you really want to find out just why the big one was installed and you have something else to drive.

 

[VicVinegar]

Yeah good point on two wrenches. Well here is where the endeavor ends as I don't have a wrench in that size. My plan was to use a socket on the plug and be on my way until I head to my grandmother's house to go through my grandfather's tools. Unfortunately that is 6 hours away. I can't stop laughing here as I've "prepped" to do this for way too long and now I find this.

 

[cmorr]

+2 or 3

I would place a large wrench on the outer plug flats to keep it from turning and remove the smaller plug.

If you plan on keeping the car I would suggest replacing the pan at some point

 

[VicVinegar]

Well that will be the question posed to a mechanic next week. I've been meaning to get it checked out for a "bill of health" as I am at 199k. Now I'll just get an oil change done too. If it needs a few things, I'll keep it and schedule a timing belt service.

 

[The Critic]

Yeah, just remove the middle one.

I would, however, have that oil pan replaced at the first available opportunity. I wouldn't want that kind of mess on my car.

 

[Kruse]

Yep, just take out the middle bolt and reinstall it when you are done. It's a piggy back oil plug. The original plug was probably stripped and the previous owner installed this. Some of them are made by Dorman, as well as a few other manufacturers. Use two wrenches to make sure that the larger nut doesn't turn. If installed correctly and it doesn't leak, you have nothing to worry about. Probably the only other fix to this is to replace the oil pan.

 

[flstffxe]

Looks to be a self threading/tapping piggyback plug. Once installed you use the smaller "piggyback plug" to drain the oil.

Most of the smaller "piggyback plugs" are a tapered pipe thread and do not need to be bottomed out, although a few do use a gasket or O-ring.

Some of the self tapping piggyback plug cut to a standard thread, others not so. If you are lucky you can remove it chase the threads in the pan and replace it with a standard drain plug with the new correct thread.

 

[LeakySeals]

Looks like a transmission pan drain plug kit to me. I put one in my GP with no transmission pan drain. They work fine. Not worth the cost of repair. Leave it or buy a new pan.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accesso...ier=266070_0_0_

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Looks like a transmission pan drain plug kit to me. I put one in my GP with no transmission pan drain. They work fine. Not worth the cost of repair. Leave it or buy a new pan.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accesso...ier=266070_0_0_



The transmission drain plug is installed because you want to. The piggy back oil plug is installed because you have to.
The transmission drain plug has the internal nut. The piggy back drain plug has an oversized threader and does not use the internal nut. I suppose it's possible to use the tranny drain plug on the engine oil pan, but they are two different items and unlike the tranny plug, the piggy back oil plug is installed without taking off the oil pan.

 

[VicVinegar]

Well thanks for the input guys. If I had the wrench I need to hold the big bolt, I would have gone ahead with it, but I don't, and don't want to mess around with screwing it up. It would have been nice if the shop responsible for this would have mentioned it when it happened, or one of the subsequent shops mentioned the situation existed.

It was good to finally get underneath there on my own so I could look around. There is a decent oil leak somewhere (although surprisingly no shop has tried to get me to fix it), and I think I'm a bit closer to nailing it down now, although I don't like my answer.

 

[shell_user]

That in my mechanics eyes looks to be a crack above this "fix it" plug. It probably would be better to get a new oil pan honestly that comes with the "correct" drain plug.

 

[RF Overlord]

Depending on the car, replacing the oil pan might be inexpensive and easy or it might mean raising the engine and getting really expensive labour-wise.

I vote for leaving it alone if it doesn't leak. Use the double wrench method to remove the little one.