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aw4 stripped oil pan bolts

S

sumofatguy

NAXJA Forum User
Location
alberta
Hi everyone,

I have a 2000 XJ with the aw4 which I picked up used recently. I have noticed a slight amount of oil leaking out around the oil pan on the transmission, and upon further inspection found that several of the bolts holding the pan on are stripped.

I'm wondering if anyone out there has run into this and how you have fixed it. Would simply dropping the pan and re-tapping the holes work, or do I need to use something like a heli-coil?

2 of the 3 bolts at the rear of the pan close to the transfer case are stripped and this is where most of the oil leaks out

thanks
 
Use a Heli-Coil repair kit. Simple, relatively inexpensive, fast, same size as the original threads, and stronger too.
 
X2 on the heli-coil best way to fix it and keep everything the same size.
 
X2 on the keenserts but they are expensive and a little difficult to deal with. a helicoil will work but make sure you cut it to length to assure a good seal. i myself would just go cheap and retap the holes a larger size and forget it ever happened. :greensmok
 
another thing I never heard of, have many people used these helicoils with success, never heard of them.
 
Heli-Coils work great in all metals and are especially useful when you strip out a brake caliper retaining bolt since you need to maintain the same size bolt.
 
Heli-Coil: http://www.helicoil.in/

Kit comes with thread inserts, correct tap, installation tool--you provide the drill and appropriate size bit.
 
I've found a 3/4" long bolt instead of the 1/2" works sometimes. I just ran into this when I did my oil pan gasket last week, if you do you the heli coil be careful not to run the insert in too far past flush because if your planning to use the original 1/2 bolt it won't catch. Ask me how I know.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I'll probably go with the heli-coils then... I'm thinking as soon as I drop the pan I'll find more stripped holes. I'm guessing the guy before me just cranked them as tight as possible for some reason, not realizing they're in aluminum.
 
They are not aluminum, the block is cast steel and the bolts are hardened steel. It's just that the bolts are really short, only 1/2" long, so they have very little thread contact making it very easy to strip out the few threads in the block that they are actually making contact with. Because of this and the fact that it's only a 1/4" diameter bolt the torque spec is very low. You have very little margin for error. You go over it too much and the threads just disappear.
 
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