Very over tightened drain plug

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tl;dr
This guy is a tech..
Another guy brought his van to {insert quick change place} and they torqued the bolt up enough to make the bung spin in the pan. The oil pan had to come off(there was a video before this).
 
That sucks...Maybe some
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put thread
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locker on it ...
 
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I was particularly impressed with the "sandle in the pan" bracing method. I must have been asleep when they taught that technique in all the mechanics courses I have taken over the years.

Other than that, just one more reason not to take your car to a quick oil change "shop."
 
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Originally Posted By: SilverSnake
I was particularly impressed with the "sandle in the pan" bracing method. I must have been asleep when they taught that technique in all the mechanics courses I have taken over the years

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I definitely can empathize with that.

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The first oil change I did after I bought my Fusion was.. problematic. When I went to remove the drain plug, I found that it had apparently been hand-tightened by Superman. Using a standard socket wrench and socket, I could not budge it, but I did find that the bolt head was noticeably deformed - So much so that the socket would not even go on straight.

My only solution was to grab an impact socket in the correct size, and carefully hammer it on the drain plug, and then use my breaker bar to carefully work it off. Luckily, it came off without causing damage to the oil pan.
 
Originally Posted By: SirTanon
I definitely can empathize with that.

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The first oil change I did after I bought my Fusion was.. problematic. When I went to remove the drain plug, I found that it had apparently been hand-tightened by Superman. Using a standard socket wrench and socket, I could not budge it, but I did find that the bolt head was noticeably deformed - So much so that the socket would not even go on straight.

My only solution was to grab an impact socket in the correct size, and carefully hammer it on the drain plug, and then use my breaker bar to carefully work it off. Luckily, it came off without causing damage to the oil pan.


Yep they did that to my Duramax when I was on my trip to the Gulf 4 years ago. I wanted to change the Oil when I got back with all the heavy towing had one H of a time getting it off. Had to replace the plug it was toast! I guess that's why those people make minimum wage!
 
I still can't wrap my head on how you can overtighten an oil drain plug or oil filter. I've done my own oil changes for ages and it does not take a lot of torque or require power or air tools to fasten a bolt that gets frequently removed.

Seriously why do you need air tools to do oil changes? What are the iffy lube monkeys doing with air tools that I can hear in their shop? Hopefully not on drain bolts and they are using it to jerk off themselves instead.
 
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Just to many Idiots out there...

This should read on the headlines

Beware people ... shops armed with air tools... with people who don't know how to use them...



No need for air tools for oil changes...
 
While in the hospital away from our home my wife had the 4Runner oil changed. When I changed the oil the next time I had to pound a 3' long screwdriver through the filter and pull really hard with both hands to get it off. It finally let go with the feeling of something snapping. The oil pan drain plug, just a 14mm bolt required a breaker bar to get loose. They must have had the Incredible Hulk in his green state doing oil changes that day.
 
The gentleman in the video is a materials science PhD and a professional automotive diagnostician... but of course the superior minds of BITOG are going to make fun of him for wearing sandals, not putting the oil pan the way they'd like, et cetera.
 
In December of 1987, I bought an '88 Mercury Cougar. The dealer had a policy that every new car purchased would get "free" oil changes for the life of the car. I tried to knock the price down by saying that I do all oil changes myself, but the dealer wouldn't budge and said that it was company policy. ALL new cars sold there got the free oil changes.
At the time, I was living in an apartment complex, unable to do oil changes myself, so I took it to the dealer for the first oil change.
Well, THE VERY FIRST OIL CHANGE THAT THEY PERFORMED, I get the car back to my apartment complex and I soon see a big oil puddle underneath my car. They had stripped the oil plug. How incompetent could they be? I take it to the dealer and they drop the oil in a dirty bucket, put in a new plug, and then put the old oil back in my car.
I never took my car back there again to have a service performed. I actually did all of my oil changes after that, even if I did have to pay for them.
 
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
I don't think that's how torque wrenches work...


It is not. Most torque wrenches of the clicker type are calibrated for RH operation plus it also does not measure breakaway torque as the guy in the video was using it.

That being said, the primary purpose of the video was to show the damage what oil change monkeys can do than any critique of the methods used in the video.
 
I had an old van whose oil sump nut was damaged. If I tightened the bolt a bit too much, it would skip a thread and goes back to being loose.

So I just hand-tight the bolt as far as it'll hold, that's it.

Well, it doesn't leak much oil until the next oil change.

As contrast to overtightening a bolt.
 
Reviving an old thread here...
The first time I went to change the oil in my daughter's car, I thought that I was having trouble getting my torque wrench on the drain plug because the plug sits at kind of a funny angle...her car also sits low to the ground and I didn't have a ton of room to work with it on ramps. I finally realized that the plug itself was damaged and the socket just wouldn't fit over it as a result. I used the extractor I already owned and decided to wait to fix it when the weather was nice out. Did one more change with the extractor over the winter.

In the meantime, I bought some sockets with hinges and figured they might help me adjust to the funny angle if that was actually part of the issue (have other uses for those, too).

Just did another change and the angle sockets didn't help because they still wouldn't fit onto the damaged plug...finally was able to force a regular open end wrench on over two less damaged sides of the plug and tried using my own strength and tapping with a hammer...not enough room to put much of an extension on the wrench. I thought I was finally making progress going at it with all my might, but I realized the wrench was starting to turn on the plug instead of turning the plug itself...not good. I figured that if I am getting a tight fitting wrench to start turning on the plug head with my own strength that a breaker bar wouldn't do any better, anyway.
Used the extractor again for the change, I am OK with that but would still like to get this damaged plug off and a new one on (already purchased and waiting in my oil change kit).

I am getting to my wit's end with this thing, IDK if maybe applying some heat to the plug might help??
I am wary of taking it to a shop to be fixed as I want to be sure that the pan itself is not damaged and am worried they will just overtorque a new plug again if they can get the old one off. I am pretty sure my wife took this car to Midas before I did my first change on it and I have told her to never go to that shop again.

I'd like to hear any suggestions, what I can do is probably limited by the small amount of room I have to work under this car. I tried jacking one side up for more room one time instead of using the ramps, but I didn't really feel any better doing that.
 
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