As I having the tires on my car rotated and balanced, I looked underneath my car's engine bay and noticed an oily 'sheen' at the transaxle. I made a comment to the technician and he tightened the drain plug. I watched him as he did it and he noted that there was no resistance as he tightened the plug. Now, is there a way to fix this? Because as you all know, it's a fairly difficult spot to access. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

YOu may need a new oil pan. If the threads are stripped. Get a new plug from the local dealership, and a new washer. If that doesnt work you need a new pan or to get the threads re-done.

I dont see how this could have happened. Its really not a hard spot to access, just remove the fender lining enough so you can bend it out of the way, and your there. Passenger side of course.

You should try getting under there with 1.5" drop coils and ground effects....

 

I think he said transaxle drain, which would be more difficult to get to.

Anyway, try to retap the threads and see if you can clean them up enough to get the plug in. If not, either try teflon tape on the threads and making a silicon gasket with the Permatex stuff. You could also just JB Weld the stupid thing in place and drain the transmission next time through the black switch on the other side.

 

Ummmm, I'm referring to the drain plug on the manual transmission ...

 

no resistance?? i'd probably go with gluing the bolt in place; it would be bad if the the bolt somehow works its way off and you leave a 1.5 mile line of trans fluid on the hiway.....

 

you probably mean no resistance because the head is rounded, not because the threads are bad, right?

if that is the case:

1. you can use an air chisel (common air tool) and hit it in the direction of loosening once and get it off, then replace with a new nut

2. if the air chisel doesn't work, you can weld a small bar to it and use that to turn it off...


otherwise i guess you can use a helicoil thread insert or retap the existing hole (if it is indeed a thread problem)

 

You'll have to remove the plug to identify the problem. If the threads are good on both the plug and tranny case, try some teflon tape on the plug. If they are bad on the plug (doubtful), replace it. If they are bad on the case, heli-coil is the way to go.

http://www.helicoil.com/products/helicoil.html

 

vin1024:

the sides of the plug head are perfectly square. What about this loctite stuff? If it is indeed a problem, I don't necessarily want to compound it by having a mechanic screw it up even more by inserting this helicoil.

All right, thanks for all the useful input.....

 

What???????

 

i think(hope)he means that the full hex head is still present and not rounded off...