Well, here we go. I do every other oil change at the dealership just so they have records on my car. Well today was the day I was doing it myself instead of taking it to them and what do ya know! They stripped the god damn drain plug from the last visit, probably my fault for not looking at it before I left with it but now there is no way I can get this damn thing off. I've tried vice grips, 6 point sockets, and letting it get to a base cold point so the pan and plug isnt hot and nothing is working. Any ideas on how to get this thing off or better yet buy a new plug since the dealership won't pay for the damages they did? I checked a few websites and all I can find are the washers that go between the plug and the pan itself.

 

I'd use a small pipe wrench, they bite into the metal.

Any car parts store will have replacements, the RX-7's all took the same size, just ask for a 91 RX7 plug......

s

 

wooo, thank you dude. I thought I was gonna have to take it to the stealership...

 

Man, I hope the pipe wrench works, because you already tried vice-grips! They should've had enough teeth to make it into the metal as well. Hope you don't get to the point where you have to use one of those wiz-bang bolt extractors!

They are cheap and here's a lesson about them. Go through the couple pages....it's worth a read!

http://homerepair.about.com/od/inter..._extractor.htm


Then...................

http://www.autozone.com/R,1493622/st...ductDetail.htm

or...........................


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=96335

 

yeah, im gonna do this sunday its 8:18 here and im not dealing with this crap right now

 

I'd go along with Stealth's recommendation to try a pipe wrench. Screw extracters are for after you've broken the head off. You need to drill a hole in the remainder of the bolt. Drilling into a drain plug doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

I've seen a cold chisel successfully used to loosen an overtight drain plug. Tap it lightly into where one of the faces used to be, to make a little groove for the chisel to bite into. Then tip it so when you give it a couple of sharp raps there'll be a tangential force in the loosen direction.

I wonder if one of those universal wheel lock removers recently discussed come in the right size for this.

Ken

 

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00952166000

 

Not sure, I bought a replacement oil plug and its a 17mm not a 19 like the others are. I'm gonna fix this issue Sunday.

 

Why not freeze the plug after you warm up the car?

Use a can of air and turn it upside down or use dry ice.

 

Well, I got angry so I tried again with the vice grips and only shreded some more of that damn drain plug, I have had it, Mazda is fixing this.

 

Karma's a muthafucka.

 

^....................Ken, I totally agree, but if stuck and it's the only way left, one might have to resort to this. BTW.......look at the second link I posted for extractors. A much better altrernative perhaps.

Dave

 

damn I would b making mazda fix this also if they were the ones that did it they are responsible!

 

That does look nice. Another post shows something similar from Sears.

One entertaining thing about using brute force and breaking the head off an overtightened bolt: the threads usually are not frozen. Once the tension is gone the threaded part can come out easily, if you can get a modest grip on it.

I see that AAC is dropping the problem on the dealer, so more advice is moot. But one thing worth keeping in mind is that you can get rubber plugs meant for when the drain hole threads are stripped. Slips in the hole, and has a screw that tightens and bulges it out. If I was in this position and not sure about the replacement plug's size, I'd pick up one of those to use as a stopgap 'til I could find a proper match to the broken one.

Ken

 

I'd totally try the cold air bottle or dry ice idea with the pan / plug warm

 

Get the engine really hot. Hold ice against the plug until it is cold to the touch. Remove plug.

 

classic example of why i dont let a shop work on any of my cars..keep us posted on how everything works. i dont think that you need to heat the thing...you may want to try a set of these rounded bolt extracters. they are available from sears. you pound the twisted end onto the rounded bolt and use a ratchet and a socket over the bottom end which is a six point. form there, as you loosen the bolt the twisted "teeth" bite into the rounded metal. they've saved me more than once. i bought two sets just because i like them so well:

 

That sure looks worth a try!


And then... get a Fumoto Valve!

 

I've got the Craftsman ones from Sears and some no name ones from Pep Boys. They'll remove a completely round surface, even something let say like a wheel lock

I still like the warm her up and apply ice idea. Physics FTW. Worst case, you do the hot/cold thing and an easy out socket.

 

a light coat of oil is a metal tools best friend.. :: cough :: rust :: cough ::

 

the case got dropped in the snow a few years back and the parts scattered..had to wait for the snow to melt to get the ones back i was unable to find, lol..i opened them up yesterday to find that rust. luckily that's my spare set which i hardly ever use...a wire wheel works wonders on the rust :D

 

I would just drop the oil pan and go from there. I've gotten all kinds of bolts stuck and broken, and to reduce time it sometimes helps to take a little longer going a different route. Plus you gotta watch out that none of the threads or any metal is getting stuck inside. You'll have to rethread it and might have to go up a size on the plug depending on how bad the hole is.

 

The other thing you could try is using a dremel and a cutting wheel to cut a slot into the face of the bolt - then use a large flat head screwdriver to basically just unscrew it from the car. I think this is the cheapest most effective way to get any kind of stripped bolt off assuming it's not screwed in too tight. Just be cautious with the sparks around the oil pan etc - if you have anything close to dripping this would be a bad idea. If you don't have a large enough flathead, you can use a thick putty knife, small pry bar, or a chisel instead - these would give you more torque too - I think you get the idea.

(final note - if you do this - be VERY aware of the temp of the bolt. cutting metal heats it, and you should be able to do this in small bursts without heating the bolt too much. If you just grind the thing away it will heat up a lot which would obviously be very dangerous as the other end of it is touching oil)

 

yeah, I'm gonna try a pipewrench one more time then go to sears and buy the kit a previous poster put on here. I'm mainly worried about screwing up the threads or putting to much pressure on that area and maybe stressing it to the point it will break a chunk out of my oil pan.

 

you arent going to chunk the oil pan. i woldnt worry too much about the threads unless its been so overtightened that the pan nut or the drain plug threads are stripped. and if its still this tight i would say that the drain neither is stripped. just go get the proper tool from sears. the set runs about $20 and you'll have it off in less than 5 mins and you'll forever be in debt to that rounded bolt extractor set.