I want to give magnetic drain plugs a try (oil pan and lower transmission). I'm trying to decide between Gold Plug or Dimple.

Dimple seems to be the most widely used plugs, but Gold Plug claims to use the same magnet, and it's half the price:

http://goldplug.com

Does anyone here have real-life experience with Gold Plug's products?

Thanks!

 

Hey Matthew,
I'm looking into a magnetic plug. Which one did you end up with? Would you recommend it?
Thanks

 

Hi,

Your timing couldn't be better.

I finally ordered the Gold Plug magnetic drain plug:

http://goldplug.com

The fit and finish seemed to be good and the magnet strong, but it appears as though the fitment recommend by the company (I actually spoke with the owner prior to ordering) is inaccurate.

When I pulled the Gold Plug for the first time last week I discovered two things.

First, the magnetic plug collected only enough metal from my oil to finely coat the magnet (maybe that's enough to be considered helpful, I don't know). Second, and quietly alarmingly, some of the thread from my MINI's oil pan came out with the Gold Plug.

I hand-tightened the Gold Plug when I installed it, but obviously I wasn’t paying enough attention to how many turns it took to torque the plug to spec. I don't know if it's question of the tolerance being off or if the threads are the wrong pitch (I don't care at this point), but ultimately this is on me since I installed it.

Fortunately, I didn't have to tap and re-thread the oil pan. The OEM MINI drain plug is about twice the overall length of the Gold Plug and it caught enough of the oil pan's remaining original tread so that I was not only able to hand-tighten and then snug the OEM plug, I was able to torque it to spec. The OEM plug's been reinstalled for about 300 miles and it's dry as a bone...so, so far so good.

Unfortunately, I was an idiot and installed the Gold Plug magnetic transmission plug into my MINI at the same time I installed the Gold Plug oil pan plug. I do not look forward to removing that plug when the time comes. Ideally, I'd like all of Gold Plug's products out of my MINI, but it's the same length as the OEM transmission drain plug and I might be stuck with it.

So, yes, I've tried the Gold Plug magnetic plug and, no, I can not recommend the product. Either their fitment advice is wrong, or Gold Plug is quite comfortable selling a close-enough self-tapping replacement oil pan plug. If it's the latter, the company doesn't mention that fact in the product's description. That's simply wrong no matter how you slice it.

 

Many thanks,
I'm off to the Dimple website.

Cheers

 

OP you will eventually have to Heli-Coil the drain plug, it's a fairly common failure on the G1 cars due to the pan being aluminum and people over torquing the drain plug.

 

FUMOTO

I'll say it again

FUMOTO


and never futz with the soft pan, stuck plug, plastic washer, over torqued issue again

and I do not get anything from this recommendation ... it is simply a GOOD product in this application

you don't need a magnet on a MINI

a Mini on the other hand . . . I wouldn't go without one

trivia question ..... WHY?????

 

+1. I've had my Fumoto for quite a long time on my '03, and it works perfectly. No worries about stripped threads and the oil change procedure is easier, too.

 

I've had my Fumoto for a couple years now and it's working as intended, it only leaks when you open the valve. :p

 

Fumoto

 

Fumoto is great and I've used them on many current and previous cars... but he's also asking about the lower transmission drain plug too.

 

Personal opinion, if you have ferrous debris enough to warrant a magnetic plug there are other issues to attend to, whether in an engine or transmission.

 

We sell both the Fumoto and the Mag drain plugs. But personally I'd say 50% or more of the cars that come in with the Fumoto valves are leaking so I don't recommend them.

 

Another issue with the Gold Plug MP-10 18mm plug for the 6-speed R53 transmission is that the flange is too large to fit in the drain. It's not an issue if you use it where the fill plug is, but I think you'd want your magnet near the bottom, so that when the car is a rest and metal particles are slowly settling, they'll be held by the magnet down there.

It's easily fixed. A few turns on the grinding wheel and I got the flange narrow enough to mate up fine. Considering it's $18.99 vs. $34.95 for the Dimple, it's not so bad.

 

I bought my Dimple years ago. Yes it works but if the Gold Plug Magnets are the same you make the choice.

I would contact Dimple and Gold Plug and ask for samples of their magnets used in their products so you can compare between the two.

 

The fumoto valves themselves leak? I've always run the factory plug and switch it out every couple of years but I've always thought longingly about the fumoto plugs. If they leak I'll probably stick with the MINI plug.

 

Yeah, I looked at those Fumoto valves and they seem really cool. But it's hard to get around the fact that you're exchanging one point of failure for three.

 

My first oil change I used the vacuum pump that I use on my boat and waverunner. I used the Moeller pump through the dipstick. I then pulled the plug to see what remained in the pan and barely a drip came out.

I won't be pulling the plug again, no jacking, no fuss, no mess..


Super Easy,

 

Never mess w the plug again.

 

I just used that exact pump for the 3rd time.
This time I decided to also drop the drain plug to see how much I did not get with the pump. It was less than 1/3 of a quart, but... It was a thick, kinda sludgy last 1/3 quart. Glad I dropped the plug this time.

 

I have a Gold plug and use their crush washers with great results. I do catch some metal on the magnet but so do alot of cars when the engine wears as normal. I don't have chunks of metal on the magnet.

 

Looks like someone filed 2 flats to use a wrench on it. Could have even put it back in!

I would file it some more ti get 2 clan parallel flats; hopefully you can get an adjustable wrench to bite.

Otherwise, you could drill thru & tap it LH, then use a LH screw to unwind it.

Good luck.

 

For me it seemed to grab the threads better than the OEM drain plug. As a result of overtightening (by either me or the shop trying to do the previous oil change), the OEM drain plug didn't fit/grab. The shop temporarily put one on with a longer bolt which for some reason worked, and was told I needed a new oil pan.
I ended up grabbing a Fumoto valve and was going to try JB Welding it to the oil pan. When I tried to screw it on, noticed it seemed to have a good grab, so wanted to try without having to JB weld it on. It has been fine since (been about 30k-40k kilometers since).