Help! My driveway has just been declared an environmental disaster

[Raduque]

because of all the OIL my car leaks. =( And it's coming right out of the drain plug, too. I've tried both a new plug (it would tighten up to a point then release again)and a self-tapping plug one size larger (had a mechanic install it so I wouldn't mess it up). I have to add about 2 quarts every time I stop for longer then a street light. I'm fresh out of ideas, maybe somebody else has one or two they can throw out here? I'm desperate enough to just think about welding the plug hole shut and removing the pan when I need to change the oil. =(

BTW, I think the problem with my drain plug is from my lowered car bottoming out and scraping. The self-tapping plug I had installed while I was in Texas, and it didn't start leaking till about 3 weeks ago, and it just recently got even worse.

[A20A1]

did you install the rubber gasket?

What about teflon tape will that hold up to the oil?

[86LXItooFAST4me]

get a new oil pan, or get some teflon washers and tape

[shepherd79]

why don't you just replace the oil pan. i am sure when you scraped the ground with it, you bend it so it is not straight.

[Raduque]

A20: yes, the gasket is installed, but on the normal plug, the gasket kept it from tightning up.

Teflon tape is something I didn't think of. I'm going to try that when I have access to the floor jack again (it's in the van, which is in town till 10 tonight).

Alex, the problem being that if I got another pan, I'm thinking that it will bend again when I bottom out. I'm willing to try it if I can get one really cheap, though.

[A20A1]

Rasie the **** car...

I had to suffer a raised car when I put on my header. It's not that bad.

[86LXItooFAST4me]

lol, well why dont you stop the car from bottoming out?

[Raduque]

I wish I could do it other then by raising it, 86lxi, but the only part of the road where I can't avoid bottoming out, is the only way in or out of the place where I live. Even my mom's van would bottom out if it had more suspension travel (the suspension hits it's stops at this point of the road).

I'm going to try Teflon tape ASAP, if that doesn't work, I'll look at a pan from a junkyard. Alex, think you could help me out a bit here?

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks.

[MarioBurke]

use the ricer method....you know slowing down to below 5pmh coming into any speed bumps or dips at a deep angle making sure only one tire goes in or over a bump at a time. Pulling into driveways at a 45 degree angle. or my favorite trying to completely avoid all obstacles that you might scrape all together.

[Slavic]

slowing down to below 5pmh coming into any speed bumps or dips at a deep angle making sure only one tire goes in or over a bump at a time. Pulling into driveways at a 45 degree angle.

What he said. That's the only way I can get away without scraping my (front) body kit and I'm not even lowered.

There's also teflon paste which I prefer to the tape. I have used it with success on the idle screw to prevent it from unscrewing from vibration. I don't know if that's advisable as far as oil contamination is concerned.

[shepherd79]

i wouldn't use teflon paste. that is only for gas/propane pipes. that is not for automotive use.
you can try teflon tape, but make sure you don't put too much of the tape in the threds.

Unfortunatly, i wouln't advise buying oilpan from junk yard. you don't know what condition it is in. i know around here, they remove tires and drag or drop the cars without thinking it can damage the bottom of the engine.

give me a call or hit me on AIM if you need my help. i am only 20 minutes away from you.

[zero.counter]

It sounds like it is getting past the self-tapped threads as you said. The tape idea is good, but test out the theory first. You can buy some liquid gasket and bead it a little around the threads, then just under the washer of the bolt. At the same time, get some mr.gasket cork and cut to fit the size of the threaded portion of the bolt like a gasket washer and tighten, but not much more than a half turn past. If it does not leak out any more, then replace the oil pan. Buy from one of the good guys on the board. They would have nothing to gain by selling you a bad pan.

[night]

change the pan. that bolt could back out with the worn out thread and then u get to replace the whole motor.


and i have like 4 of these pans lying around at work if you wanna cover shipping.

[Slavic]

i wouldn't use teflon paste. that is only for gas/propane pipes. that is not for automotive use.

Teflon paste is for plumbing (threaded metal or PVC/CPVC water or drain pipe conections) just like the tape. Neither paste nor tape is for automotive purposes.

Edit:
Matter of fact (From Harvey's TFE PASTE with TEFLON - pipe thread compound Part No. 023015 $1.79):

"Use on water, steam, natural and LP gas, oils, fuels and dilute acids. Apply on male pipe threads on metals, PVC, CPVC, ABS, polypropylene and nylon."

It mentions oils so you may be safe applying it to your oil pan. It is much better than tape IMO. I would not go back to tape for my plumbing needs when given a choice. By all means get a good oil pan.

[NXRacer]

get a new oil pan and learned how to drive a lowered car. I've driven DUMPED cars and i've never hurt the oil pan. If i hit its usually the body rails or something. My g/f cracked her oil pan in her dumped 4th gen. That was only because she hit a 6" square piece of concrete that had fallen off a truck.

in driveways you gotta go at em in as much of an angle as you can. I do it on all driveways regardless of whether or not i could go into it straight or not. Its good practice.

speedbumps are different but you gotta go at them so that you dont high center.

*edit*
in both cases when coming to an driveway/speedbump you gotta slow down almost to a complete stop.

[Raduque]

Where the car bottoms out, it's not a driveway OR a speed bump. I've actually never bottomed out on either. It's a spot in a road where it transitions from a downslope to a hill. Alex knows what the roads around here are like, but I don't know if he's ever been up Cherry Run though. As I said before, the suspension hits the stops on my mom's van at this point in the road, and the only reason it doesn't scrape ground is that it sits higher then the suspension travel.

night: do you have one for an 88 EFI? shoot me a PM, I'll have some cash by the end of the week.

edit: forgot to say that I was going to try teflon tape and let you know how it goes.

[Neuspeed87lx]

I'm desperate enough to just think about welding the plug hole shut and removing the pan when I need to change the oil. =(

HAHAHA thats great !

this may be a stupid question but..... ive seen people do some strange things with cars.....

are you sure its comming from the bolt and not leaking somewhere else ...and then just seeping down the sides of the pan and dripping off the bolt ?

[MarioBurke]

Where the car bottoms out, it's not a driveway OR a speed bump. I've actually never bottomed out on either. It's a spot in a road where it transitions from a downslope to a hill. Alex knows what the roads around here are like, but I don't know if he's ever been up Cherry Run though. As I said before, the suspension hits the stops on my mom's van at this point in the road, and the only reason it doesn't scrape ground is that it sits higher then the suspension travel....

if this were the case I still dont think your oil pan would hit first. There are other parts of your car that sit lower than the oil pan that would hit before. nevertheless, try putting some of the oil die in your oil to make for absolute sure that it is coming out of oil plug and not somewhere else. cause if your seriously leaking 2 quarts of oil when stopped longer than a stop light WTF would you want put telfon tape around it? change the pan!

[Raduque]

Mainly because I'm a cheap bastid, Mario. If I can fix something with a minimal(or no) outlay of cash, I'll do it. I'm mostly going to do the teflon tape to see if it works, if it does, I'm going to leave it like that till I can get another pan.

And Nuespeed, it's definately coming from the drain plug. I tried to tighten it a little this afternoon, and it started leaking worse. I felt like your av.

[MarioBurke]

shit man i got a oil pan you can have. nothing wrong with it while I was using it.

[Civvy]

I got 2 idea's!

1. get some caravan spring boosters inbetween your front springs, this will raise the bump stop and without hightening your car!

2. Take the pan off, bolt out, seal the hole and get one of those dipstick oil extractors we used to use for older cars! Its simply a magnetic pipe that goes down the dipstick tube and a pump which sucks the oil out!

Talking of driveways! my driveway is tarmac and the oil soaks into it. Tryed everything to get it off but, to no avail!

[Raduque]

Mario, lemme know how much it'll be to ship to zip 25427.

[86LXItooFAST4me]

here is another temp fix, motormite (help) makes some copper oil drain plug gaskets that have a rubber lining in the middle. these work great in all cases ive encontered. they also have rubber washers and teflon washers and just plain copper washers. just go to a parts store and ask where the motormite oil drain plug washers are. they are usuall in the area of the grease guns and fittings for some reason

[Raduque]

Ok, well I put teflon tape on the bolt and put it on without the rubber gasket(which didn't make a difference either way, it wasn't even compressed on one side) and now it's just barely dripping at all, like 1 or 2 drops an hour, if that. To fix it once and for all, I'm going to get an even larger plug and tap the hole up one size.

Also, the bottoming out isn't hitting the oil pan, because it's not scraped like it would be if it were smacking pavement every day.

Thanks everybody.

[Civvy]

how about using a flat headed allen key recsessed type of bolt and matching to those threads and then there's almost nothing to stick out.

But then if your going to the trouble of removing the pan to tap u mite aswell swap it for another?