Stripped the oil pan on 2010, labor hours

You can't just have a Helicoil installed?

 

Here's a Prius oil pan.

 

Rock Auto, oil pan $59.79, gasket $7.03. If you change your own oil, easy to replace the oil pan, should take about 30min. after you get the car lifted.

 

One of the main reasons that I DIY!

 

Simplest solution!

Drill out the damaged hole carefully with a half inch drill bit.

Get a M14x1.5 tap and carefully tap out the hole.

A Honda spec M14x1.5 oil drain plug with a 14mm hex works just fine.

I had a friend who owned a service garage in California. I taught him this technique 35 years, ago, and he was amazed with how easy it was and how well it worked.

The new threads are larger and less likely to strip than the originals.

 

Lather your tap with grease so that it picks up most of the chips. The oil-pump screen should stop the rest.

 

A magnet can also be used to pick up any steel swarf.

A magnetic drain plug might not be a bad idea either.

 

Some very good suggestions in this thread. If it was me, I would fire up the wire welder and weld a fine threaded nut to the pan where the hole is located (I've done this before) ..... but after reading this thread, I would probably be lazy and just buy a new one if it's only $60.00.

 

If I was going through the trouble to take the pan off I would weld over the original hole and weld in a new bung to accept a side position and install a fumoto valve. I like the Fumoto but it seems like it would be very low if just added to the drain hole. A custom re-positioned on the pan low profile position of the fumoto would make it worth the expense.

With a fumoto its almost then tool less to change the oil. Very very nice.

If you go this route please post pics please as I would like to do this myself is doable.

 

No longer made, but still available on eBay is the Fram Sure-Drain oil change kit.



I've used them on every car since they came out with them 12 years, ago. It's on my Prius"v," now.

I can drain the oil directly into a disposal bottle through the orange tube. An anti-freeze or windshield washer fluid bottle works great.

 

I put a sure drain on my 96 Tacoma when i stripped the threads taped the threads and never had anymore problems.Use a torque wrench on my other cars never stripped any others.

 

The oil pan is easy access and not a big job to replace. If you are unsure of doing the work yourself, have a friend, family member or a mechanic replace it. Not worth trying to weld another bung onto the existing pan, when its' easier to replace.

Just my .02,

DBCassidy

 

I'd NEVER us the 28ft.lb. recommended on the oil plug. That value is the recommended torque for M12x1.25 bolts.

16-20 ft. lb.'s is all you really need. That's about 1/4 turn after finger tight. The large flange and washer surface friction means that it will NEVER loosen from road vibration.

 

Who was doing all the oil changes. If the dealership, maybe you could go after them.

 

If you do not do your own oil changes, and you are a worry wart, get an aluminum oil plug and have them install it.

The threads on the aluminum plug would be more likely strip than the steel captive nut welded to the interior of the oil pan.

 

I doubt the pan threads would strip if whoever's changing the oil was using the spec'd. torque. Likely just slamming it in with air wrench.

 

I've noticed a weird phenomena with another car I'm changing the oil on, a Honda: I know I've torqued the drain bolt (spec is 29 ft/lb), but when next oil change comes around the bolt seems little more than finger tight. I suspect the new wave of composite material drain bolt washers is the culprit. Honda washers (and Toyota's are similar) have an integrated compressible material, some sort of rubber/plastic. I think it's contracting slightly between changes.

Bottom line, I don't think you can go wrong with the spec'd torque, and undertorquing one of these composite washers could leave it it loose, over time.

 

I have three different range torque wrenches. It doesn't take much extra time to use them.

 

Maybe on a Honda, but I have not noticed it on a Prius.

The polymeric surface on the washer tends to promote friction.

Over torqueing cause the "flexes" the threads of the NUT. It's like grass moving in the wind. While the stalk of the grass is flexible and resilient, metal bend over and over again will eventually separate at the boundary layer between the crystals that make up the amalgamation of the alloy. When the bonds separate, metal fatigue cracks develop. When the bonds are too week to flex back when the stress it released, the stress exceeds the elastic limit of the material. That means failure, and the threads come off the nut.