I dunno why it didn't occur to me until now, a few weeks later, to ask about this in here.
The last two oil changes on my Zetec, I did myself. On the first of these occasions, I found it unreasonably difficult to get the oil plug out. I figured that the idiot who last changed the oil must've put it in too tight. I did get it out, change the oil, and put it back in, with a reasonable degree of tightness.
On the occasion of the next oil change, I had an even more difficult time getting the plug out. It was in much tighter than the last time. As I was the one who had last put it in, I know I didn't put it in nearly that tight. It was so tight, this time, that I was not able to get it out without chewing its head up pretty badly. Next oil change, I'm going to have to get a new plug.
So, WTF is going on here? Any ideas? How does a drain plug become so much tighter than when it was installed? The thought occurred to me that perhaps this might have something to do with the fact that the Zetec has an aluminum pan, but my Tempo had an aluminum pan too, and I never had any problem like this with my Tempo.
Should I be using some kind of anti-sieze compound on the oil drain plug? Would it help to use such a compound?
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Moonlight Blue 1996 Mercury Mystique GS , Zetec engine, ATX. No mods. (Well, OK, one mod. Before I got rid of my previous car, a 1994 Tempo, I swapped radios. I liked the Tempo's radio better. That counts as a mod, doesn't it? I also kept one of my Tempo's wheels to use as a spare. I hate those stupid ?compact? spares that come with modern cars. Does this count as a mod? If so, I guess I have two mods. Replaced burned/melted blower switch and connector on 19 February 2002 with a 1P3T toggle switch from Marvac and a Molex connector from Rat Shack; I guess this now makes three mods.)
