Showerthought: a stripped oil drain plug in a '17 F-150 almost made me miss my kid's game

I was at the shop in Bakersfield, trying to do a quick oil change before my son's 4:30 baseball game. The last guy must have cranked the plug on with an impact, because the head just rounded off completely with my socket. Ended up having to weld a nut onto the plug stub, which took an extra hour. Anyone got a better trick for those aluminum pans besides just being careful?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_blair2mo ago

Why not just use a bigger wrench next time?

nancy8202mo ago

Yeah, hammering a smaller socket on is what I had to do last year on my old Ranger. You gotta get a cheap, six-point socket that's just a little too small and really drive it on with a heavy hammer. Once it bites, you use a breaker bar slow and steady. It's nerve-wracking for sure, but it got the plug out without needing a welder.

ivanc452mo ago

Bigger wrench? That's how you end up with a bigger problem on an aluminum pan. Once those threads are gone, you're into extraction territory. What do you actually do when the socket just spins? I've heard of hammering on a slightly smaller socket, but that feels risky.