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So of course, the inevitable happened. As I'm putting in the drain plug after the oil had drained and tightening it down the allen key hole in the plug rounds out. Never got it tight enough with the torque wrench . Backing it out, of course not, as its rounded out in both directions. OK, so if I had a lift, then getting under there, seating a tool and backing out the plug would be no problem, but as in my case I only get the 12 inches or so off the garage floor thats no option.
So put in a quart of oil, let it sit overnight. No leak. Put the other 7 qts in. No leak. But I have no idea how tight that plug is.
Now the question, do I just drive the car normally and when I go in for my brake flush to the dealer, then have them also do the oil, and thus address the plug?
Or seek out the dealer now and effectively waste the 8 qts of oil I put in it? (its a 997.2 3.6l engine btw, if that matters)
Don't risk harm to your car, or making a mess on the road for other drivers after heat cycling and a good pothole. I'd have anxiety driving around with a compromised drain plug.
Howza bout this?: Reach your Dremel in there and cut a screwdriver slot..... you can jack up the car on one side..... and cut a notch across the head.... you can use a wheel bigger than the hole... place the wheel in the hole and cut the inside of the hole... keep going until you get enough to use a piece of metal...chisel point maybe? ..
Off course, if it doesn;t leak the way it is, just leave it alone.
Or... maybe sacrifice a torx bit by grinding the sides to make it pointy, then tapping it in? Tighten, the tap on its side to remove it.
Getting it out isn't likely to be a problem - as you said, by cutting in a slot for a screw driver or tapping via a punch to rotate it from near the edge.
Its just a question of now or the next oil change. The plug is in all the way, just the torque isn't known.
Scribed line on tool to visually know the tool is fully seated in the future.
Stripped but only 1/2 way down; note the shape is still intact way in the bottom.
So in my case up on a jack stand I still don't have enough room to be able to roll sideways under the car so getting a punch under there and being able to swing a hammer at it was out of the question. Thinking about dremel I recalled other thread about why they may have stripped due to the hex driver not fully seating and how deep the tool didnsear in the new plug vs the stripped plug in the pan, it was clear the tool wasn't anywhere near seated into the plug. That's on me, 8pm, at night and wedged under the back end with so little space to maneuver. So I tried hand twisting the hex tool and pushing up hard and low and behold the tool sent in another 1/4 inch. Carefully loosened the plug with the ratchet.
Then as you suggested, dumped the used oil into the empty 1qt bottles to clear the drain pan, then drained the oil into that pan till it was a very slow drizzle and hand fitted the new plug and washer. But this time fullyneastung the tool into the plug and hand tightening and the torquing to the 38ft-lb level.
The poured the oil back in.
Because it's not an oil change till you have put the same oil into the engine twice.
To prevent this problem in the future I seated the hex tool in a new plug (have several on hand) and using a saw scribed the level where the tool is fully seated to be sure I can detect having it only 1/2 seated in the future.
Had the same thing happen. Fellow rennlister showed me this. Fill up the hole with JB weld, then tap in the wrench head - place a strip of tape over it to hold it overnight. Then just back it on out the next morning.
To prevent this problem in the future I seated the hex tool in a new plug (have several on hand) and using a saw scribed the level where the tool is fully seated to be sure I can detect having it only 1/2 seated in the future.
Don't know how OP's got rounded but many times it's because a torx bit is used in a hex hole (8mm hex) and/or it was over tightened at one time with the bit not fully inserted.
04-23-2018, 03:23 PM
Drain plug stripped - wait till next oil change?
