V225

Hi everyone,
I replaced my brake pads for the first time yesterday. Overall it was a very easy process, but I managed to break one of the the retaining pins. I have a track day tomorrow, so I need the car to be running. My question is whether I can replace this with a non-porsche pin(this type of pin is very common on R/C cars).

Also I managed to strip the stupid oil pan oil-release bolt, so I'm hoping midas can pop that out for me. I luckily bought a spare one. It'd be nice if they could just pop it out and put the new one in immediately without waiting for the oil to drain.

nick49

Broke a pin and stripped a drain plug?

Sorry for your delima. Maybe quit before something worse happens. I would recommend YOU get the proper part for your brake pin, you're not on a winning streak. And hopefully the plug can be extracted, but the pan may have to be removed. Don't ove tighten the new one, too many people do.

cannon1000

Don't bad things happen in three's ? Stay away from the track! ;-)

V225

Hi guys,
Yeah my luck hasn't been too great. The drain plug wasn't in the best shape before, and I was using the right size hex bit, so that was just bad luck. The pin was my stupidity. I got over-excited at replacing one side, and I hammered out the retaining rod without taking the pin out.

I got one from home depot that looks almost identical, slightly smaller diameter though. At this point I'm committed to going to the track, so I guess I'll just have to make do with this and keep monitoring it.

knfeparty

I know what pins you're talking about having owned some RC cars myself. It's just a retaining pin for a retaining pin for the brake pads. It's under no real load under than high heat. The brake pad retaining pins are usually held in place by the brake pad springplate alone so I wouldn't sweat the little clip you lost. That being said be careful!

Eharrison

The COTTER PIN is what I"M assuming you broke. I"m sure any pin from ace hardware or whatever will suffice.

Good luck getting the guys to remove the plug and then try to put a new one back in while the oil is flushing out.....

Barn996

The word geyser comes to mind.

Goldenwarrior1

The lock pin is there to simply keep the brake pin from backing out. As the lock pin has no load applied you should be able to use a strand of .020 safety wire or a regular cotter pin. Not sure if the OEM pin is hardened so I would replace it as soon as you get a replacement.

aron in toronto

If you can get the old oil drain plug out, you can swap in a new one w/o loosing to much oil. I had to do this as my plug bolt "SPLIT" in half during my first oil change. The bolt alloy is quite soft and easily damaged, but better the bolt than the pan. You will need to work quick with the change and it helps if the engine is cold so you don't scald yourself in the process.

Aron

Sneaky Pete

I can just imagine the 'pit in the stomach' feeling the OP must have felt when this all happened. Looks like things have worked out and the comments above are on the money. At first I thought he was talking about the 5 or 6mm pin was broke....thinking how the _ _ _ _ do you do that?

V225

Hi guys,
Yeah things were looking pretty bad for a moment there. I just bled the brakes, and this one gave me another headache as I couldn't get all of the old fluid out(I don't have anything that could fit in the reservoir hole). I ended just letting the brakes bleed out a lot. I went through all 2 liters of new fluid.

None of the guides said anything about removing excess fluid from the master cylinder when you're done. I just used my turkey baster to get it back down the max level.

As for the oil, I'm going to be installing the x51 oil pan anyway. So I think I'm just going to crack open one side of the oil pan, and drain from the side. It'll be messy, but I need to drive 2 hours to the track tonight so I don't really have a lot of options.

Working on the car the day before a track event = not a good idea!

Ubermensch

You're going to crack open one side of your oil pan to drain it? I have no idea what your experience level with cars and mechanical things in general is, but it sounds like you could use an experienced hand. I'd take your car to a mechanic or have a more knowledgeable friend help you out. I definitely wouldn't want to be on the track with someone that has a potential leaking oil pan, poorly bled brakes, and a missing cotter pin.

S.

redridge

or.... you can dremel a line on the drain plug and use a screw driver to unscrew it.

Sneaky Pete

Now thats thinking out side of the box.....er ahh should I say pan.

knfeparty

Save yourself some trouble...I did this with my 944 and still couldn't get it out. But it was REALLY frozen.

IRWIN makes a tool that is like a socket with sharp claw things...oh wait the 996 oil pan plug is recessed so that won't work...but if you have one that you attach with a socket instead of a hex key they are awesome. They were totally great for the 944.