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oil pan leak and blue silicone

Question: Is my mechanic being reasonable or am I paying for an unnecessary repair?

I just took my car to get an oil change. The Toyota dealer (I just moved here, 1st time I've used this dealer) refused to do it because he said the threads for the plug in the oil pan were stripped. He said my previous mechanic had sealed it with blue silicone and he refused to use such stop-gap measures and insisted I replace the oil pan.

I've had regular oil changes since buying the car used last year and have not had any problems with oil leaks. Car is a `98 Lexus ES 300 with about 95,000mi on it. (I don't use the Lexus dealer because they charge $74.00 for an oil change!

Question 2: how long should replacing an oil pan, gasket, etc. take? His estimate includes about 2hrs of labor at $90/hr.

-Thanks.

Reply to
mailbox26
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Might be reasonable. Might be completely unnecessary. Only way to know is to pull the drain plug and see if it's really stripped or not. (it's conceivable that it's not stripped but the mech. used silicone because he dropped the copper sealing washer and didn't have a replacement.) At this point if it *is* stripped, you need a new oil pan.

Depending on the particular vehicle (and I'm not familiar with yours) this might be an easy job that you could DIY. It might be a PITA. Wait for an informed opinion.

Alternately, you could buy an oversized, self-tapping drain plug from your FLAPS and do this oil change yourself. If the plug really is stripped the oversized one might solve the problem without pan replacement.

good luck,

nate

Reply to
N8N

There used to be self tapping bolts that could be used to repair a stripped pan. I don't know if they still available.

OTOH, a 98 Lexus still has a lot of life. Might pay to get it fixed right.

Reply to
kgold

Does the oil pan have enough metal around the plug to tap and insert a "helicoil" thread repair ? This is a 10 minute job as opposed to replacing the pan.

Reply to
marks542004

I had a similar problem on my 86 jetta at about 150k miles. the local mechanic i took tha car to put in what he called a rubber plug in the drain, for which he charged me $8.00, with the caveat that it would have to be replaced every time I did an oil change (and am implicit assumption that I would get him to do that, i guess). i was changing oil about once a year for that car (bought for $400, and had already gotten about 4 years worth out of it).

I didnt see any oil leaks etc., and compared to the $150 that he was going to charge me for the new pan etc, i think it worked out pretty good...

Irax.

Reply to
Iraxl Enb

Dorman P/N 090-081 oversize drain plug, M12 thread, 1.75" overall length, self-tapping. Will cost you less than $6 wherever Dorman/Motormite products are sold (well-stocked parts and hardware stores, look for the orange drawers). This plug, carefully threaded into the stripped original pan, will cut its own new oversize threads and then seal into them. Perfectly fine repair, nothing wrong with it, and it'll save you the hassle and expense of having the pan replaced.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

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