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oil change from hell a.k.a. rounded drain plug
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Posted by TimF [Email] (more from TimF) on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:10:08 Share Post by Email
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Yep, after at least 15 DIY oil changes on my 2000 9-3 SE, I had my indy mechanic do it last time. He successfully torqued the drain plug to god knows what and I rounded it trying to get it off.

I went through all the ideas: vice grips (nope), channel locks (nope), chisel (nope), easy-out (broke off in the head).

Here's what worked, which I hadn't seen in the BB so I thought I'd document it:

I took a coarse hacksaw blade held by one of those small blade holders (not a full-on tension hacksaw). I made two parallel cuts into the flange on either side of the now-rounded head. This took about 10-15 minutes per cut as I was being careful not to cut too far into the copper washer. It took a small sharp chisel to break off these crescents, leaving two parallel faces. With a file I cleaned up these faces and made them as parallel as possible. Then with a high-quality adjustable wrench (10-12") I grabbed these faces as if they were a bolt head - one hand holding the wrench against the copper washer and one hand torquing.

The combination of the reduced turning resistance from the removed flange material and the better grip from the new faces did the trick.

Hope this helps somebody that's not me,

Tim

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