So went to change my oil the other day.. got it up on a friends lift yada yada.. last time i had to get my drain plug off, it came off very hard.. ended up using vice-grips and a cheater bar to get it off.. and it did with minimal damage to the nut itself.. that was my first oil change since getting my car.. and since it wasnt damaged much, i figured i would get a new plug for my next oil change and swap it. well this time came around.. and me and my friend (neighborhood mechanic) could not get my drain plug out.. we tried everything possible and the thing wouldnt budge.. ive searched on here and read stuff about they do strip threads sometimes and what not.. but the plug went back in very easy after my first oil change.. but this thing would not come off.. now, the entire nut is stripped and mangled so bad that it looks more like a half moon than anything.. my mechanic im sure has a way of getting it out and getting a new one in, whether thats tapping or helicoiling or whatever.. but i figured id get some advice or stories on here before i talked to him about it.. i will change my oil drain plug close to everytime now, especially if this ends up costing me a new oil pan.. any advice or take on this would be awesome.. thanks in advance guys

 

well if you changed the drain plug then that isn't the problem. I would venture a guess and say that the threads in the oil drain and chewed up pretty bad. Take a look at them and see how they look. If they are bad rethread them

 

when i changed my oil the last time.. all threads, plug and pan were fine.. since it came out so hard that was the first thing i looked at after the oil had drained.. but my car had sat for a while before i bought it so i chalked the hard take out to just sitting and not being turned in a while.. plug went back in very smooth as well.. i guess what i really need to know now is how the hell would you guys go about getting this thing out? tried heat.. tried creeping oil.. tried superhuman strength method.. or should i just let my man take a look at it and see what he can do? hes gotta do some other work on her in a little bit..

 

have him take a look first. Honestly, it sounds like u will have to tap it out. And get another drain plug. When you install the new one coat the threads on the drain plug and oil drain with old oil and dont torque it down. Use the "good and tight" method which is like hand tight

 

yea i figured tapping it out would be the solution.. and then another plug.. i actually did coat it with oil and tighten it with a rachet just til it was snugged up cause i didnt wanna have this happen again.. which it did anyway haha.. thanks alot man, ill just see what he says and check back with results.. maybe it can help someone out in the future..

 

hmm, scarres me to do mine now... ive done enough oil changes on my own, but always to chevy v8's that you can basically do whatever you want to and it will still work out.

anyways... im going to be doing my first oil change on my audi on thursday... got my mobil 1 and my oil filter... now this makes me think.... should i get a new oil drain plug and washer before i get it up on the lift to change the oil? i dont have a ton of time to let it sit up on the lift with the drain plug off to go to the hardware or auto store to get/ find a new one (cause ill have no car for 1)

what are the specs on the plug and washer?

im sure this has been asked before but i checked quickly and didnt see anything

and P.S. the search feature on this sight sucks cause you have to weed through all the TT, the S4, rs4, a6 etc posts to find a post about the a4 for the topic you want to find! (there needs to be a filter for what type of car your searching about i think)

 

there is a filter. its called advanced search. almost every forum has two ways of searching.

 

If your friend has a way to weld, you can tack a socket onto the butchered up hex. Put the ratchet/breaker bar directly on that and you should be able to get it out. Drilling it out is a pain in the *** and if you drill it off center you'll be looking at a pan for sure.

 

nice! wow i have never noticed that thats awesome thanks!

 

flynnr, there's also a link just above the stickies called "search this forum", thats what i use, works great