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Oil Drain Plug

BlueScapegoat

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Silly question maybe but are the oil drain plugs on the ecodiesel one time use? Or is there a crush washer or some sort of gasket washer that's supposed to be used there? I'm about to drive 800 miles and changed the oil last night. Wiped down the oil pan. Came out this morning to a wet pan below the bolt and a small puddle.

I just snugged it up more but at this point it's a good bit tighter than I ever tighten drain bolts on anything else.

I'll grab another bolt somewhere along the way if I need to.
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BlueScapegoat

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Well it's not leaking anymore. I guess you just tighten the shit out of them.

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"tight" is such a relative term, a subjective term. What's tight to some may not be to someone else.
Most drain plugs of the past have an aluminum, copper or nylon washer/gasket. Dunno what your diesel has - but your description doesn't really tell anyone how tight it is.
As I'm used to working on tractors, lifting, carrying, torqueing head bolts on V8s while in the car, or 250 pound/ft axle nuts, if I tightened the shit out of an oil drain plug there'd be no threads in the pan LOL

If it was mine and was seeping - I'd see what Jeep says it should be torqued to - and if following their torque spec it still leaked, I'd be after them for a new plug/seal.
 

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If its a metal crush washer I would 100% replace it everytime you do an oil change. We have those on Kias and they'll leak when reused and they actually squish so much they'll move up the threads and damage the oil pan
 

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If its a metal crush washer I would 100% replace it everytime you do an oil change. We have those on Kias and they'll leak when reused and they actually squish so much they'll move up the threads and damage the oil pan
And yet I have the original on the drain plug of one of my engines.......... and the other got swapped at 100,000 miles.
Those Kia versions must be nasty.
I do keep a few of various sizes in a drawer in my shop - aluminum and copper flat washers. They aren't like the ones used on spark plugs.
Nylon ones are what I change out every so often - can tell by the look and feel if they are going to be trouble.

If the OP is having trouble - sounds like time to change it, but then again, maybe it wasn't all that tight, either.
 

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Silly question maybe but are the oil drain plugs on the ecodiesel one time use? Or is there a crush washer or some sort of gasket washer that's supposed to be used there? I'm about to drive 800 miles and changed the oil last night. Wiped down the oil pan. Came out this morning to a wet pan below the bolt and a small puddle.

I just snugged it up more but at this point it's a good bit tighter than I ever tighten drain bolts on anything else.

I'll grab another bolt somewhere along the way if I need to.
It's a rubber molded gasket bolt that don't require an aluminum crush washer. Sounds like you had over torque and possibly damaged the rubber gasket. Buy another bolt or just add a crush washer.
 
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BlueScapegoat

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"tight" is such a relative term, a subjective term. What's tight to some may not be to someone else.
Most drain plugs of the past have an aluminum, copper or nylon washer/gasket. Dunno what your diesel has - but your description doesn't really tell anyone how tight it is.
As I'm used to working on tractors, lifting, carrying, torqueing head bolts on V8s while in the car, or 250 pound/ft axle nuts, if I tightened the shit out of an oil drain plug there'd be no threads in the pan LOL

If it was mine and was seeping - I'd see what Jeep says it should be torqued to - and if following their torque spec it still leaked, I'd be after them for a new plug/seal.
Lol I don't know why this kind of rubs me the wrong way but it does. I've changed the oil on lots of vehicles. I've never put a torque wrench to them. Tighter than normal is just tighter than the 100s of other oil changes I've done. I suspect you don't use a torque wrench on your oil drain plugs either, and I suspect you would also tighten one up a bit more if you saw it seeping the next day and say to yourself "huh, that's tighter than normal."

Weird quoting the 250 ft lb axle nut. The rear control arm torque spec is higher than that (edit-wrong about this, I think they're 200 or something like that. But I've done plenty of axle nuts as well, that wasn't the point) and yet somehow I managed to torque those then do the oil change without shredding the whole oil pan. Man am I good


Either way I was just wondering if I'd lost a gasket or crush washer in the oil catch pan.

It's a rubber molded gasket bolt that don't require an aluminum crush washer. Sounds like you had over torque and possibly damaged the rubber gasket. Buy another bolt or just add a crush washer.
I didn't even realize that was rubber and not just a flange bolt, that's some stiff stuff. It all makes sense then.

Anyway folks crisis averted, it's not leaking and I didn't use a breaker bar and pipe on it. I just tightened it some more with a 3/8 ratchet lol.

And yes, some cars like my girlfriend's Forester have a crush washer that needs replaced every time, or it will leak. I've tried reusing them before lol
 
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"tight" is such a relative term, a subjective term. What's tight to some may not be to someone else.
Most drain plugs of the past have an aluminum, copper or nylon washer/gasket. Dunno what your diesel has - but your description doesn't really tell anyone how tight it is.
As I'm used to working on tractors, lifting, carrying, torqueing head bolts on V8s while in the car, or 250 pound/ft axle nuts, if I tightened the shit out of an oil drain plug there'd be no threads in the pan LOL

If it was mine and was seeping - I'd see what Jeep says it should be torqued to - and if following their torque spec it still leaked, I'd be after them for a new plug/seal.
For those that would like to have a gasket on the bolt, I had a few oil drain plug gaskets from my last Tacoma left over and tried to use one, but the diameter of the plug on the Toyota is larger, so it could work, but you'd have to hold it in place around the edge. I didn't do that, just torqued it to 20 ft. lbs as per spec.
 

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We had a Nissan Armada that had to have a new crush washer after each oil change or it would leak. My BMW motorcycle has a crush washer but I just flip it over every oil change and it hasn't leaked in 47,000 miles. They are cheap though, I should order a few to have on hand just in case.
 

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Buy a Fumoto oil drain valve and never have to worry about if it's tight enough again.

Buy a mighty vac and suck it out of the dipstick tube and youll never have to worry either and stay way cleaner :)
 
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BlueScapegoat

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Buy a Fumoto oil drain valve and never have to worry about if it's tight enough again.
I never wanted one hanging off the oil pan on my TJ for clearance reasons but I might get one for the ecodiesel. Can you confirm it's an M14-1.5?
 
 



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