Oil Drain Plug Crush Washer

HAVE to, no. Should you, yes. It will still seal and if you're really cheap or out of them you can get a few uses from a crush washer, but you're risking not only leaks but stripping the oil pan if you overtighten trying to seal it with a used washer.

Bill

Actually I think I ordered some but who knows where I put them... This is my first Volvo oil change

You don't have to but it's a good idea. I'd say change the oil and use the old one for now, but order a bag of them so you have them on hand next time.

As everyone else said, you (probably) don't NEED to, but you should. I'd just stop by the dealer and pick a couple up. The local Volvo dealer (and the non-Volvo side as well) doesn't charge me for little things like that.

I'll always remember what the other guy said the first time I met him "Here, don't waste a tree.".

Hah.

Your local hardware or auto parts store should also have a proper part, but you'll probably have to bring a sample for them to check.

- alex

(ditchin' the bricks)

From a point at sea, to the circles of your mind, this is volvowrench:

It's a popular fallacy, I'm afraid.

I wasn't strictly correct to say it had to be cooled slowly (I'm old, it was late, I'd been drinking whisky), but it is a myth that copper needs to be quenched to anneal it. In fact the rate of cooling is pretty much immaterial. My text book on metallurgy just states 'cooling at any convenient rate,' going on to state 'The rate of heating and cooling is almost without effect on the size of the new-formed crystals.'

There are some copper alloys that benefit from quenching, such as beryllium-copper, but the beryllium is added as a hardening agent in the first place. For a simple oil plug washer you would only quench it for convenience.

From a point at sea, to the circles of your mind, this is Stewart Hargrave:

I've also just found out that it is possible to embrittle copper by cooling it too fast - the rate of cooling needs to be in excess of 10 million degrees C per second. That equates to cooling it from cherry red to room temperature in about 1/25,000th of a second.

I reckon it's unlikely to be a problem in this instance.

And that's the hard part. How in the world do you take a sample with you? You'd have to walk to the parts store since the drain plug would be out of the car.

Gus

In article , snipped-for-privacy@MiserableOldGit.Me.uk by Stewart Hargrave dropped his wrench, scratched his head and mumbled,

My info is empirical. I worked in a factory where we made crimp connectors for distribution voltage splices. After all the machining on the copper was complete we annealed the crimp end. Just drilled the rod to make a crimp sleeve work hardened the connector enough to cause it to crack when using a hydraulic crimper to secure it to the conductor in the cable. After we built a trick little machine to anneal every crimp connector the problem went away.

There probably was a fair amount of Be in the rod. I never checked the Rockwell, but it was fairly hard to begin with.

Bob

The drain plug diameter is 18mm. The inside dia. of the washer is 20mm. The outside dia. of the washer is 26mm.

Brick_0

I went to the Volvo dealer and paid about $1.35 for one washer (I had hoped for a bad of 5 for 50 cents. So I have the parts and tools I need to do the job, no more excuses

From a point at sea, to the circles of your mind, this is John Robertson:

Don't know about teflon tape, put PTFE tape may help. I've never needed it, and a replacement washer is not difficult to get hold of.

I would also be a little concerned that PTFE tape does tend to split apart into strands, and the lube system of a car is the last place you want foreign bodies floating about.

Really bad idea. Shards of the teflon tape remain in the female threads and get pushed into the sump the next time the plug is replaced. Teflon tape is only for tapered pipe threads.

And, it's not a crush washer under the plug head. It's an aluminum gasket. A crush washer is designed to crush a specific distance when tightened to allow pre-loading or positioning a ball bearing or other device according to clearances.

Ken

message

Hi "G",

I guess you like to "live dangerously"............ After all, what are we talking about here? "Volvo part #18818 Gasket D1101, List $1.30, Net $1.00" Very cheap insurance. I buy them by the dozen from the dealer ($12.00 Canadian). I never changed the drain plug gasket on my first Volvo ('58 445, not 544... B16B motor) during oil changes. May be the dealer did on the occasional visit . No problem. On acquiring a '65 122S, B18 motor, tried the same practice........ it leaked. Fortunately I noticed the leak in time. Never again!

And I.