Hello BMW people.
I recently bought a 92 325i with an oil leak. Today I discovered that the oil is coming from the oil drain plug. I was really happy until I tried to tighten it. I discovered that it doesn't tighten. I have never dealt with this problem before and I could really use some advice on what to do. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
find a slightly oversized plug at either a hardware store or maybe even autozone. OR get a heli coil kit, bust out the tap and dye if its not too bad....or time for a new pan. good luck buddy.
I advise using a helicoil. It fixes the issue, unlike an oversized plug. That just slaps a bandage on it until you need another oversized plug.
A new pan is expensive, so look into a helicoil. You will need to pull the pan off of the car to fit the new coil, however, as you don't want to risk sparks around that area. Gas and oil aren't too friendly when it comes to sparks.
Agreed on helicoil. The oil pan is made of aluminum, and if some moron at a Jiffy Lube over-torques the plug, its screwed. Am sure its the pan and not the bolt, but of course be sure to check the bolt too, just in case. Lastly, there's always the chance that someone put a bolt from another car in and gave someone else yours, so perhaps be sure its the correct size, compare with a brand new one at BMW, if they are the same size, time for helicoil.
I didn't mean 'bandage' as 'temporary'. I know it's rather permanent, but it doesn't address the problem, it just creates a new situation, thus 'bandage'.
I agree with you that there shouldn't be any sparks, but any time you have metal trying to gouge out metal, you have a chance for a spark. In that area of the car, that's not such a good thing.
all a helicoil is a simple way to get the thread back to where it should be, so if the plug is 15mm and the thread pitch is 1.5 then you need a 16.5mm tap and helicoil thus taking it back down to 15mm when fitted
Note the bevy of potential solutions:
- Use a 6mm wide screwdriver to spin the broken half out
- Use an EX-4 screw extractor (aka easy out) to spin the broken half out <-- recommended
- Reverse drill the steel broken half out of the aluminum oil pan
- Retap the stripped threads in the aluminum oil pan (but generally the bolt breaks before the threads strip)
- Wrap teflon tape on the threads of a new bolt and screw it in abutting the broken bolt half
- Heli-coil the stripped threads in the aluminum oil pan
- Drop the E39 V8 il pan to access the bolt if it fell through (dropping the E39 I6 oil pan is a nightmare)
- Weld over the hole and use the MightyVac oil extractor from the dipstick forever more
- Weld over the hole and use the oil level sensor as the drain plug instead
- Access the broken bolt inside the oil pan through the leveling sensor opening
- Buy an aftermarket oil drain bolt (e.g., EAS Tuning magnetic, or ?)
Who'd have thunk it - stripped hollow bolt is the answer
Thanks Flash,
A stripped hollow bolt was my problem, as you stated is typically the problem with these cars. Your pointer proved invaluable for me.
I backed it out by apply some pressure under the head with a thin screwdriver while using a socket wrench to unscrew it.
Then I stuck in an inexpensive bolt extractor from Canadian Tire and eventually got the bottom half of the bolt out.
I initially assumed the pan threading was stripped too, but nope, it was the bolt. Who'd have guessed it?
Needless to say, I'm breathing a big sigh of relief right now!
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