New mode of failure for oil system - car out of commission
 

I mentioned that I've been seeing a drop or two of oil on the garage floor. Today I found out why. Confession: It's not a "mode of failure" - that was just some RL anxiety syndrome fun.

I backed onto my ramps. Since the leak is coming from the drain plug area, my assumption was that the crush ring was seeping, but I chose to loosen the plug a bit and retorque it rather than just cranking down on it.

So, I gave the Allen wrench a turn to the lefty-loosed and...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3...2010.18.23.jpg

Looks like the powdered metal of the magnetic drain plug developed one or more stress fractures and ultimately the head of the plug separated from the body.

The GOOD news is that the barrel of the bolt is still in the oil pan, and I'll be able to just remove it and replace it with a new drain plug.

*edit* Here's another "after" image, showing the pieces both together as well as next to each other:


Unfortunately, the wife won't be back until noon, so getting over to AutoZone is going to have to wait. For now, the car's still on the ramps, and the drain pan is in place to catch any drops.

Bummer, at least this is a quick, easy and cheap fix. May I ask what brand the magnetic drain plug was?

New mode of failure for oil system - car out of commission
 

Exact same thing happened to my LN magnetic plug. I now keep a few spares on hand.

same here. Its happened twice now to 2 different LN mag plugs for me. First one I can't fault LN because Pelican, in their instructions, said the torque setting was 37 ft-lb when in fact its 19. But second plug I torqued only to 19 and the same thing happened.

Here are a few alternative Magnetic Drain Plugs

http://www.powerslutracing.com/i-200...llen-head.html
http://www.powerslutracing.com/i-200...ge-magnet.html
http://www.powerslutracing.com/i-200...18-x-1-50.htm\
All less then 1/2 the price of an LN plugl

My only concern is those plugs are steel and the oil pan is aluminum

Here is aluminum one

I can't definitively say I know who made the one that failed for me - I thought I ordered online, but can't find the confirmation email.

And don't bother with the ECS magnetic plug either. After 3 oil changes the soft aluminum was shot and the hex hole rounded. The hole wasn't deep enough to get a good set with the wrench. My tech had to notch it with a dremel and back it out with a screwdriver and mallet

Another case of the "aftermarket diy blues." Of course anything can fail...sometimes...but I haven't run into any threads about the factory drain plugs having this issue. Best thing to do is stop looking for microscopic bits and metal and just enjoy the car.

I Second the Issue with the ECS product. Too soft, needs to be replaced every second oil change.

The Pep Boys generic metric plug is OK for keeping my DT40 in the car rather than on the floor.

Tomorrow I'll walk across the street to the Porsche indie and see if he's got one lying around...he's been cool a couple of times about just tossing me a used version of something he could have just as easily charged me for. When my coolant cap on my Boxster blew and I hit him up for a new one, he didn't have one - but he loaned me one from his use parts bin until I could get Pelican to send me the updated part.

I broke a standard plug on my bmw e46 ...always had torques it carefully to correct spec but snapped head off one time when trying to get it off for oil change. I guess these plugs do not last an infinite number of heat cycles. Now I have a spare one and plan to change every other oil change. I'm more hesitant to do that with the 996 .. Since I splashed out for ln magnetic plug - but maybe those should also be chnaged out every other oil change ? I drilled the old one of of my BMW quite easily - but still pain in the rear ..

I don't do UOA, I don't have a seance or voodoo ritual with every oil change. I don't run my used oil through cheesecloth. I do my own maintenance for two reasons: I hate wasting money, and I like to be familiar with my car's "normal."

I love to drive my car hard. It's SO much more fun when the RPMs are high. I understand that component failures occur more frequently in systems that are operated at higher load levels. I monitor the stuff I can (visually as well as via Durametric), and as long as things continue to be "normal," I'm going to continue to beat on the car and grinning like an idiot.

The factory drain plugs do indeed have this issue, and often have to be replaced every other oil change. I always keep spare drain plugs in my tool box.
When we developed our drain plug, we tested it side by side with an OE plug. We wanted to maintain the factory tightening torque of 37 ft/lbs. We also wanted our plug to be at least as strong as the factory drain plug. We achieved that, and strength tests showed that it fatigued later than the OE plug, but still, no aluminum drain plug is going to last forever when torqued and re-torqued to 37 ft/lbs.

You have a point.

Maybe putting in a new crush washer would help. Well, and with a crush washer does it really need to be that tight?

What happened to thumb tight for drain plugs? That's what I did for my E36 M3s and E34 M5 and never had an issue with leaks or plugs breaking.

Or am I just showing my age a bit?