Hi, all. I can't get my oil drain plug to open. It's on very tight.

I'm not confident that I'm even turning it in the right direction to loosen it. Which way should I be turning it, clockwise or counter-clockwise to loosen it? This thing is stuck! I tried both ways with a ratchet, and it didn't give at all.

 

Lefty loosy, righty tighty...Turn it counter clockwise




Use a breaker bar instead of the ratchet...How long has it been since the last oil change?

 

Thanks a lot! I assumed lefty loosy and actually broke the bit off the ratchet, if you can believe it, and the thing didn't budge at all! So it's on there hard! I almost wonder if the last mechanic did something, like screw it back in wrong or even break the original and replace it with the wrong part. Or maybe just the age is making it stick.

It's been only a couple thousand miles since the last oil change but quite a few years. It's just been sitting around mostly unused and is soon to be reactivated as my kid's car. (I've been saving it for that purpose, since it's a cool car with a sort of bygone era look to it.)

 

david, you can try spraying the bolt with a little bit of stuff called PB Blaster. That will help some. What you are probably facing right now is not so much that the bolt is rusted in place but that the rubber gasket has stuck itself to the bolt and the oil pan and therefore you are trying to twist the rubber apart right now. You can try taking a thin razor blade and sliding it between the bolt and the oil pan as far around as you can go to see if you can cut the rubber to minimize the amount of rubber that you will need to rip when you remove the bolt. Just have a new seal ready once you get the bolt out. These can be picked up at any auto parts store for a few bucks.

Otherwise, like was mentioned, lefty loosey and get yourself a nice breaker bar. may even be advantageous to get yourself an impact socket as these will tend not to spread like I have seen other sockets do when putting a lot of force on them.

 

The plug itself is steel, and the pan is aluminum. Aluminum is a horny metal, that given the chance will mate with steel, and other ferrous metals. My suggestion would be to get a quality socket(nothing that says made in China), and find a piece of pipe that will fit over your ratchet's handle, and give it the old college try. When you put it back on, I would put something on it, like never seize, and don't use the pipe, so things won't be quite as hard next time you do an oil change......Mike

 

Maybe it's a British oil pan with left & right reversed? Just kidding.

Ditto's on the above advice. I'd guess someone over-tightened the steel bolt in the aluminum pan, and the dissimilar metals need a little persuasion to overcome friction.

Righty tighty, lefty loosy, PB Blaster, a breaker bar and a good 6 point socket will do it.

Avoid an adjustable wrench, open-end wrench, or a 12 point socket as these are more likely to round the corners off the stuck hex nut. A 6 point socket is least likely to distort the hex head.

 

If his drain plug has been gorilla'd on, I can't wait to see how he gets his oil filter off.

 

With you on that DPK! That is why none of my cars have ever seen the inside of an oil change place. I had one bad experience with my 91 Wrangler, when I went to Jiffy lube. 3 miles after they changed my oil, my lifters started making noise. I went back, and they said my engine was just worn and they wouldn't do anything about. I drove home, and opened the drain plug, and all I could see was gold metalic oil coming out. The damage had been done, and I ended up rebuilding another engine, because there is no way to get those small metal particles out of an engine that died like that. The Safety Clean guy had my oil analysed, and Jiffy Lube had pumped in over 60% oil detergent, from their bulk oil tank. I see they use bottled oil now. I would like to know how many engines they ruined with that batch of oil?.....Be cool......Mike

 

Hahaha, that's what I was worried about!

Thanks everyone for the ideas and information. I needed to get the oil changed quickly, so I took it in to have it done by a pro. I should be able to do it myself next time.

Thanks again!

 

Mine was on extremely tight too when I did it what I did to get mine off was i put a box wrench on it so It would stay without me holding it and whacked it real hard with a hammer toward the passenger side and it broke free after about the second or third time.. you'd be surprised how many times I've used a hammer when fixing cars and I can't fit the drill in the space. This is something to be extremely careful with tho so you don't strip bolts but sometimes a good wack or 2 is all you need to break a bolt free or invest in a torque wrench for 20$

 

Hi Don't know about you guys over the pond but most main dealers suck out the old oil over here. Some drain plugs on older cars have never been removed.
Saves a lot of time if you can get at the oil filter without taking that horrid belly pan off.
That is of course if they are even going to bother with the filter.

 

This happen to me couple of time, the lesson learned: Never used adjustable wrench, twelve points socket or ratchet wrench to loose a frozen bolts or nuts, do use the breaker bar or even add a long steel pipe, don't used the hammer if your car not on the lift, with jack stand or rams, you don't have much room under car, when you wack the tool handle the hammer could bounce back.