tkotitan
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Vermont, USA
This is borderline a OEM/ModTech question so I am just posting here.
After monkeying with my oil pan drain plug last year, I got an oversized self tapping plug and it leaks a tiny bit of oil on the ground. Maybe a quart in 1 month, but it can be more depending on temperature and how much I drive it.
Question: if I let it all dry next oil change can I use silicone grease on the drain plug to prevent the oil leak? Someone recommended this and the idea is after the oil drains, wipe everything clean, apply grease, let it sit for a bit and then add oil. Is this safe and will it work? I like being able to change my own oil so I need to get the plug off later by hand. I don't care about the oil loss so much as I just don't like polluting in my friend's driveway and it smells bad when the leak hits the exhaust during driving.
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If you're bored and curious about the whole debacle of my oil pan plug saga, I apparently am bored too so I will relay the story.
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It all started a few years ago when I stopped on a long road trip and checked my oil, and put a quart in. While driving, I said to myself "did I leave the oil cap off? nahh, if I did the oil pressure would drop and my dummy light would come on" well I DID leave the cap off, somehow it stayed on top of my engine in the intake area and I drove it 100 highway miles with the cap off. I lost over a quart of oil but it all concentrated in one spot under the hood. The 4.0 didn't even flinch.
I panicked - we had fresh snow so I couldn't do the change myself and I had to drive the next day so I bought the oil and went to a mechanic down the road to change it for me and he did.
Next spring, I went to change my oil and couldn't remember what I did last, I thought I always do my own oil. I drain the oil, and the plug was on there TIGHT so much that I almost couldn't get it off with the wrench but somehow it worked. Then I went to do the filter - it wouldn't budge. I end up breaking my nice flex-head filter wrench. I call my friend who has a socket-drive wrench, the cap kind that goes on the end, and we can't get the filter off. So I put the oil in with the dirty filter and then go to another mechanic who happens to be the brother of the guy I went to last winter. I start to recall that he was the one who did my oil and he over-tightened everything. He just saw his brother for the holidays and was like "man, if I knew about this I would have given him hell last week!" We end up having to tap a crowbar through the filter and somehow it comes off. The funny thing is these two brother used to work together and when the one left the other was like "all of a sudden nothing was over-tightened."
After that I started to have a slight oil leak but I didn't know from where. I would see oil dripping from the plug, so I assumed it was the plug since it was on there tight maybe it stripped a bit. But I was dumb - it was the filter adapter seal and the leak was beading on the plug.
So I just tell my mechanic to put in a single oversized self-tapping plug. Bad idea. He was barely able to get it fit and it was impossible to change by hand without a lift. I had a good grip on the wrench and I swear the bones in my wrist were going to snap before that plug came out. So now I can't change my own oil, and can't revert to an older normal plug.
Somewhere along the line, my rear main seal on the pan was leaking a lot too so that when I drove it, I was getting a free undercoat! The transmission was silver it was so purty.
So this past year, I change the filter adapter seals and the rear main seal, and I get a Fumoto plug from a friend. So all I need is my mechanic to re-tap the oil pan and it will be the end to this nonsense. My guy has two re-tap kits, and it turns out both matching bits are of different real sizes. He retaps and the Fumoto is barely too small. So we get a collection of oversized self-tapping plugs that are all too small and then finally one fits.
And it is loose enough that I can change my own oil again.
And it leaks constantly out of the pan. With the rear main leak, it only leaked when running and with the filter seal, it only leaked when running or until the filter drained. Now it leaks all the time and for some reason this bugs me more.
Hopefully this story has a happy ending where silicone grease saves the day. And if that sounds dirtry, it's because Jeeps are dirty.
After monkeying with my oil pan drain plug last year, I got an oversized self tapping plug and it leaks a tiny bit of oil on the ground. Maybe a quart in 1 month, but it can be more depending on temperature and how much I drive it.
Question: if I let it all dry next oil change can I use silicone grease on the drain plug to prevent the oil leak? Someone recommended this and the idea is after the oil drains, wipe everything clean, apply grease, let it sit for a bit and then add oil. Is this safe and will it work? I like being able to change my own oil so I need to get the plug off later by hand. I don't care about the oil loss so much as I just don't like polluting in my friend's driveway and it smells bad when the leak hits the exhaust during driving.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you're bored and curious about the whole debacle of my oil pan plug saga, I apparently am bored too so I will relay the story.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
It all started a few years ago when I stopped on a long road trip and checked my oil, and put a quart in. While driving, I said to myself "did I leave the oil cap off? nahh, if I did the oil pressure would drop and my dummy light would come on" well I DID leave the cap off, somehow it stayed on top of my engine in the intake area and I drove it 100 highway miles with the cap off. I lost over a quart of oil but it all concentrated in one spot under the hood. The 4.0 didn't even flinch.
I panicked - we had fresh snow so I couldn't do the change myself and I had to drive the next day so I bought the oil and went to a mechanic down the road to change it for me and he did.
Next spring, I went to change my oil and couldn't remember what I did last, I thought I always do my own oil. I drain the oil, and the plug was on there TIGHT so much that I almost couldn't get it off with the wrench but somehow it worked. Then I went to do the filter - it wouldn't budge. I end up breaking my nice flex-head filter wrench. I call my friend who has a socket-drive wrench, the cap kind that goes on the end, and we can't get the filter off. So I put the oil in with the dirty filter and then go to another mechanic who happens to be the brother of the guy I went to last winter. I start to recall that he was the one who did my oil and he over-tightened everything. He just saw his brother for the holidays and was like "man, if I knew about this I would have given him hell last week!" We end up having to tap a crowbar through the filter and somehow it comes off. The funny thing is these two brother used to work together and when the one left the other was like "all of a sudden nothing was over-tightened."
After that I started to have a slight oil leak but I didn't know from where. I would see oil dripping from the plug, so I assumed it was the plug since it was on there tight maybe it stripped a bit. But I was dumb - it was the filter adapter seal and the leak was beading on the plug.
So I just tell my mechanic to put in a single oversized self-tapping plug. Bad idea. He was barely able to get it fit and it was impossible to change by hand without a lift. I had a good grip on the wrench and I swear the bones in my wrist were going to snap before that plug came out. So now I can't change my own oil, and can't revert to an older normal plug.
Somewhere along the line, my rear main seal on the pan was leaking a lot too so that when I drove it, I was getting a free undercoat! The transmission was silver it was so purty.
So this past year, I change the filter adapter seals and the rear main seal, and I get a Fumoto plug from a friend. So all I need is my mechanic to re-tap the oil pan and it will be the end to this nonsense. My guy has two re-tap kits, and it turns out both matching bits are of different real sizes. He retaps and the Fumoto is barely too small. So we get a collection of oversized self-tapping plugs that are all too small and then finally one fits.
And it is loose enough that I can change my own oil again.
And it leaks constantly out of the pan. With the rear main leak, it only leaked when running and with the filter seal, it only leaked when running or until the filter drained. Now it leaks all the time and for some reason this bugs me more.
Hopefully this story has a happy ending where silicone grease saves the day. And if that sounds dirtry, it's because Jeeps are dirty.