Oil pan drain plug bolt slip
 

Hi
I changed my oil a couple of days ago and the oil pan drips because the drain plug slips. I tighten it to a point that it doesnt slip and used a new crush washer. I did not overtighten at all, and did not use a torque wrench etc. Just used a regular socket wrench.

Is there a temporary fix like a heat-resistant sealant that I can apply there to prevent the continuous oil drip which happens when the engine runs ? Like I want to "seal" or "caulk" the bolt to the oil pan for the next 5000 mile run so that I can postpone the oil pan replacement to the future and still be able to use the car now.

Please help.

Thanks
VK

Just get a new lower oil pan, it's a super easy fix.

I strongly recommend using a torque wrench so you don't also strip out the next one, that's the primary purpose for a torque wrench, to keep bolts from getting stripped out.

You could probably coat both sides of the crush washer with some Permatex Ultra Grey RTV sealant as a band-aid fix. My biggest concern though is that the oil plug will loosen and dump your crankcase since it's not actually tight. I would just replace it since you can get them for around $50 usually.

thank you. i will order the lower oil pan and use the grey sealant until the pan arrives. this is not my primary car, so it may be a good enough hack for a few days. I think i will order a new drain plug too since maybe the bolt sucks as well.

I took your advice cleric670 and did the oil pan change. it was super easy. Here is a small post with images I wrote up in case anyone else needs to do it in the future: https://vkmotorsports.com/blog/2022/...placement.html

Yeah I wish more manufacturers used an upper/lower oil pan setup.

I'm assuming you didn't actually put 5 gallons of oil into your car, but it is written that way twice in your write-up.

I've seen twice in my life where someone actually FILLED the crankcase with oil.

Both were at lube shops, new technicians not watching the quart counter on the filler. Both made a gigantic mess. One of them they actually tried to start the motor and hydrolocked it because it sucked a ton of oil into the intake through the PCV and filled a cylinder.

Yes, I filled 5 quarts. I fixed my error in the blog post. thank you for pointing it out.