How to deal with a partly stripped oil plug bolt

[Bob]

So whoever put this thing on last time clearly overtightened it by ALOT. Or maybe they didn’t. But either way, the bolt is basically stuck in place. I put some muscle into it and then thought OMG IT’S LOOSENING! Nope. It just started stripping the bolt. So I pretty much stopped there. It’s partially stripped but not completely gone it looks like. I tried cleaning it and putting some penetrating oil but no go.

Car is a 1999 lumina. 93% sure it’s a 15mm.

How do I salvage this? I have limited tools and money(i.e. no power/air anything).

Worst case the car started off desperately low on oil anyways so is it the worst if I just replace the filter and fill it up with new oil and live with the tiny amount of old oil left in there?

Topic

[Joeseph Mama]

Here are a few suggestions:

• you could tack-weld a screw driver or something to the bolt, making a big handle in which ye’ could turn the bolt out.
• apply heat with an oxy/acetylene torch.
• you could use a die grinder to cut a slit down the center of the bolt, then use a screw driver to turn out the bolt.
• use a die grinder to cut out two sides of the bolt, leaving a nice middle piece in which to clamp with vice grips.
• use an air hammer and lay right down on that bolt to get it loose, then use a pointed bit to try to ‘spin’ the bolt out.
• drop the pan and try to drill out the bolt. you obviously don’t want to drill with the pan still attached because you will get metal shaving into ye’ engine. Eric has a nice video on how to drill out bolts.
• drop the pan and replace it with a new pan and drain plug and new gasket.

There are probably even more ways to approach this. A lot of how you proceed will depend on your weapons of choice (tools available to you) and just your own personal preferences.

[edit:]
as an after thought, i think it’d make a pretty good video to demonstrate each one of these methods.

[Lorrin Barth]

If the drain plug is not leaking you could buy one of those gizmos that suck the oil out from the top.

[Bob]

Thanks for the suggestions! They all seem like good ideas and I wish I had the money for any of those tools lol. The tack weld would be my choice probably if I had something to weld with since it seems safest and least likely to cause damage as long as the weld holds.

But the heat idea seems interesting. I do have a small butane soldering torch. Would that be suitable or am I going to melt or overheat something? How long would I apply heat to it? Or would running the car heat it up enough to maybe make a difference?

[Joeseph Mama]

when it comes to broken or rounded bolts, cutting and bending metal… let’s not play around here: use a stick or mig welder a tack a big chunk of metal to that drain plug and wrench that mother off. the idea is loosely based on these ideas:

videos:

• bolt removal #1
• bolt removal #2
• bolt removal #3

then go down to autozone and get a brand new drain plug for $4:

You mentioned you’d like to try adding heat… here is one video by mr. car guy:

A stuck drain plug should only take 2 to 5 minutes to get that drain plug out; not that difficult if you have the right tools.

They all seem like good ideas and I wish I had the money for any of those tools

Take it down to the local machine shop and they’d probably do it for cheap… they might even do it for free (what’s 5 minutes of labor cost?) Or, take it down to the local community college with an automotive program. Talk to the program director and he’ll probably have one of his students do it for you. My college actually took in cars off the street for repair as part of our academic curriculum, so it does happen.

Attachments:

• plug.png

[college man]

go to sears and buy the kit. Use it and bring it back.
Pick up a new drain plug and crush washer.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-10-pc-damaged-bolt-nut-remover-set-low/p-00952166000P

[Author]

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