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I hate my drain plug. And my fill plug. And my lights.

D

Dirtylimey

CEG'er
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Messages
93
Location
Kenosha, WI
:mad:

Absolutely no luck getting my oil drain plug off, same goes for my transmission fill plug. Gave both a spray of WD40 and left for an hour, tried to wrench, tapped with a hammer, sprayed, left again rinse, repeat, et al.

Absolutely no movement. Apart from, of course, when my wrench moved on the oil plug. But dont worry, that was just the bolt rounding. Gahhhhhh :mad:

The bulbs weren't too bad, except for the left headlight seems to have almost no room for removing and replacing. That was a PITA to replace...

Not sure what I will do now about those plugs...

/rant
 
Dirtylimey said:
isn't WD40 a penetrating oil/rust eater? I figured it would do the trick...
Click to expand...


it might do it alittle but it doesn't "creep" like other penitrating oils ... its primairly for corrposion preventions and water removal ...


wikipedia said:
WD-40 is the trademark of a widely used penetrating oil (cleaner, lubricant and anti-corrosive solution) spray. It was developed in 1953 by Norm Larsen (then working for the Rocket Chemical Company) to eliminate water and prevent corrosion.[1] The product is currently sold for many household uses.
WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement, 40th attempt." Larsen was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion by displacing water, and arrived at the formula on his 40th attempt.[1] One myth is that "WD" stands for "war department".[2]
WD-40 was first used by Convair to protect the outer skin of the Atlas missile from rust and corrosion.[1] The product first became commercially available on store shelves in San Diego in 1958.[1]
Click to expand...
 
Dirtylimey said:
:mad:

Absolutely no luck getting my oil drain plug off, same goes for my transmission fill plug. Gave both a spray of WD40 and left for an hour, tried to wrench, tapped with a hammer, sprayed, left again rinse, repeat, et al.

Absolutely no movement. Apart from, of course, when my wrench moved on the oil plug. But dont worry, that was just the bolt rounding. Gahhhhhh :mad:

The bulbs weren't too bad, except for the left headlight seems to have almost no room for removing and replacing. That was a PITA to replace...

Not sure what I will do now about those plugs...

/rant
Click to expand...
Now now, steady on. I had no luck removing my fill plug (always remove the fill plug first) as luck would have it. I tried at every motor oil change for at least a year. I wasn't getting enough leverage apparently because until I got some low ramps that wouldn't hit my front body work, all I could muster were 12 inch ratchets. Once I could get a breaker bar on that drain plug it eased right out. Oh, doesn't the tranny have to be warm first? Two different metals deal going on there and I think the pan has to be warm so as not to clamp (shrink) onto the plug.

As for the headlights, removing the battery probably would help. Otherwise you get lots of scratches and such.
Karl
 
BrApple said:
a breaker bar :shocked:

no way the drain plugs should be in so tight that you can't get them out with just a wrench or ratchet ...
Click to expand...

+1

The only time I had to use a breaker bar to get my drain plug off is when the dealership did an oil change over the winter, it doesnt need to be extremely tight.

I have found, using the right ratchet and a hammer actually does the trick, combined with PB blaster.
 
what is with everyone needing PB blaster and a large ratchet/breaker bar/hammer/ etc to get the drain plugs out ...

all you should need for the oil drain plug is a wrench .... all I have to do is with an open hand it the bottom of the wrench a few times ... cames free every time, and I am refereing to my DD not the other cars.

for the mtx drain plug a ratchet is conveinient but you should need excess force, I even got them out once with a allen wrench and it wasn't a long one.

if you have to apply that much leverage to get the drain plugs out I am willing to be they where way over tightened to begin with ...
 
BrApple said:
what is with everyone needing PB blaster and a large ratchet/breaker bar/hammer/ etc to get the drain plugs out ...

all you should need for the oil drain plug is a wrench .... all I have to do is with an open hand it the bottom of the wrench a few times ... cames free every time, and I am refereing to my DD not the other cars.

for the mtx drain plug a ratchet is conveinient but you should need excess force, I even got them out once with a allen wrench and it wasn't a long one.

if you have to apply that much leverage to get the drain plugs out I am willing to be they where way over tightened to begin with ...
Click to expand...

*shrug* I dont know what to tell you, its not like im meekly tickling my drain plug. Im putting as much force as I can muster and it got me nowhere. Same goes for the mtx fill plug... Since there is no clearance to get a ratchet on the oil drain plug, I was using a 15mm wrench.

I have never touched these plugs before since this car is new to me, so yeah I can only assume that the previous owner or previous jiffy lube trip torqued everything down to insano levels... That or they are crudded up and stuck tight.

Eh either way, I bought some PB blaster, guess ill get up on ramps again tomorrow and give it another shot.
 
Decided to work on it tonight and with a bit of PB blaster and a mini braker bar, I was able to loosen both the fill and drain plug on the transmission, so yay for tranny fluid change :D

Oil drain plug is still completely uncooperative though :mad: Persisting with the pb blaster but I'm not sure how much thats going to help me with this thing starting to round off...
 
Dirtylimey said:
Decided to work on it tonight and with a bit of PB blaster and a mini braker bar, I was able to loosen both the fill and drain plug on the transmission, so yay for tranny fluid change :D

Oil drain plug is still completely uncooperative though :mad: Persisting with the pb blaster but I'm not sure how much thats going to help me with this thing starting to round off...
Click to expand...

The drain plug sounds like it is cross threaded. Your pan is going to be stripped of its threads. So for now get a torque bar and turn that Fugger out. You will need to re tap the pan. You can buy self tappers from auto part stores. And slowly retap the pan. Take your time doing this. Because you can't retap pans over and over again.

Good luck getting it out.
 
Dont know whats so hard about changing headlight bulbs?:shrug:

3 screws and the whole assembly is free:shrug:
 
ArtSvt said:
Dont know whats so hard about changing headlight bulbs?:shrug:

3 screws and the whole assembly is free:shrug:
Click to expand...

I did it without removing my headlight assembly, which is how I have changed bulbs on ever car I have owned. My comment being that on this car, compared to all other cars I have driven, its a royal pain in the arse to just reach in and take the bulbs out since there is very little room to get your hand in..
 
BrApple said:
what is with everyone needing PB blaster and a large ratchet/breaker bar/hammer/ etc to get the drain plugs out ...

for the mtx drain plug a ratchet is conveinient but you should need excess force, I even got them out once with a allen wrench and it wasn't a long one.

if you have to apply that much leverage to get the drain plugs out I am willing to be they where way over tightened to begin with ...
Click to expand...
Well, they were impossible to remove without the additional leverage in my case. Remember that if the car was serviced on a lift, there's all kinds of room to work under there and get any tool necessary to fit. Someone obviously got a little too enthusiastic on tightening the MTX plugs and with limited room to work for us, that means trouble. When I had problems with mine I had started with a good sized allen wrench and then moved to a 3/8 and then a 1/2 inch ratchet and still no joy. It wasn't until I got the car up higher and used a standard 1.5 foot breaker bar that I had any luck.
Karl
 
If you stripped the oil drain plug, get a nice pair of vice grips and really get a good bite. Then get some leverage with your foot to loosen the bolt while holding onto the drivers side tire and pushing with your foot towards the passengers side. If you have something sturdy to hold on to while sitting, then your foot has a ton more power than just trying to fight it with your arms while your back is sliding all over your floor. And don't be the idiot who reuses a stripped drain plug because is still tightens on enough. :help:
 
Yeah im going to go with vice grips and braker bar/foot for my next attempt. Was hoping to avoid mangling the bolt but eh, it has to be done.

Already stopped by the local ford dealer to pick up a new oil drain plug :laugh:
 
Dirtylimey said:
Yeah im going to go with vice grips and braker bar/foot for my next attempt. Was hoping to avoid mangling the bolt but eh, it has to be done.

Already stopped by the local ford dealer to pick up a new oil drain plug :laugh:
Click to expand...

your gonna need more than just a plug:blackeye:
 
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