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So I went to do the first oil change since owning my new to me 06 mcs and 5 days later it is done...
Longer version:
Last Saturday evening I get everything ready to go..."man this should only take about 10mins, then I can focus on some additional cleaning it needs"
An hour later I still don't have the drain plug out. At this point I'm ticked. How can a guy who has worked on his dad's classic cars and drag cars, swapped the motor in his own car, and done countless oil changes on multiple vehicles be unable to change the oil in his own car????
Sunday rolls around and I decide I'm going to win against this drain plug...Yeah well a couple more hours, two trips to Lowe's, a new 700ftlb impact gun, propane torch, and an easy out later this thing still won't budge.
Today it went to the shop my dad works at and they put it on a lift and bam...off it came.
Moral of the story...leverage is important and for the love of God don't ever use an impact gun to tighten a drain plug (this is the only way I can figure it got to be that tight)
No oil pans were harmed in the making of this story.
The factory drain plugs have a built in rubber washer that frequently seize when overtorqued, not impact gun torqued, just over-torquing with a wrench or socket and sitting for a few thousand miles. I ended up replacing mine with a standard (M14-1.5??) drain plug and metal washer.
So I went to do the first oil change since owning my new to me 06 mcs and 5 days later it is done...
...How can a guy who has worked on his dad's classic cars and drag cars, swapped the motor in his own car, and done countless oil changes on multiple vehicles be unable to change the oil in his own car????
I needed to utilize a plumber's basin wrench to get a stuck-on plug off my R53 when I first acquired it. It appeared the previous owner (or a hack JiffyLube type shop) had used an air wrench to tighten the plug, which was completely rounded off...
The stock MINI plugs are made of very soft steel, and because of the integrated rubber seal, are recommended to be discarded and swapped for new plugs every oil change.
Get the Fumoto and never worry about removing the oil drain plug again.
Last edited by AoxoMoxoA; Jan 19, 2017 at 06:24 AM.
I needed to utilize a plumber's basin wrench to get a stuck-on plug off my R53 when I first acquired it. It appeared the previous owner (or a hack JiffyLube type shop) had used an air wrench to tighten the plug, which was completely rounded off...
The stock MINI plugs are made of very soft steel, and because of the integrated rubber seal, are recommended to be discarded and swapped for new plugs every oil change.
Get the Fumoto and never worry about removing the oil drain plug again.
Very cool, I checked out the link, didn't have a price. If you don't mind giving the cost, it would be much appreciated.
Put a pipe on the end of it if the bolt still isn't moving.
It's an essential tool if you don't have a good enough impact.
Nice story though, I did think it was going to end with you stripping the bolt or something worse
Yes I do have a 1/2" breaker bar, no that did not work from under the car. Once the shop has it on a lift and could use a breaker bar with leverage it came right off.
I did go ahead and purchase three magnetic drain plugs and plan to replace them each time or every other depending on how it goes. Now that the job has been done properly, I don't foresee future issues.
In better news I did get my mud flaps and m7 strut brace installed. Rear sway bar comes next week
And for fun here is a picture from a quick run to staples last week.
the metric they recommend is not tight and when the plastic seal sticks it is EASY to damage the head (soft) and things go down hill from there. Note too that the factory says the stock bung is a one time use item ....
mangled one is one I rounded off with a metric socket and then took an extractor to .... took the new one to the tool box and discovered the size difference. I too went FUMOTO and highly recommend this .... too many stories of people stripping the soft oil pan .... when folks bring a GEN1 to me, I recommend it first thing ...
been written up many times .... I know I've rehung it several times myself .... now plus one
Fumoto valve: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I pull the car up on ramps, toss a drain pan underneath, flip open the fumoto valve and loosen the oil filter cap. Come back in a half hour and finish the job. The OPs story reminds me of stripping heads on the oil plug on the R50 I used to have. Not worth it. I got my fumoto from outmotoring or ecs for $28 while ordering other stuff.
I did my first oil change on my new to me mini several months ago. I used the fluid extractor pump thing to suck the oil out through the dipstick, then I pulled the drain plug and maybe got a few tablespoons out. No more pulling the plug. The extractor is super easy. The key is the oil needs to warm for it to work effectively.
