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Stripped the Oil Drain Plug - Removal ideas?

19K views 34 replies 23 participants last post by  Numbercruncher 
#1 ·
Well, I went to change the oil on my F800GS for the first time tonight. I found the drain plug and went to remove it. Well, it didnt budge, not even with an extension for the ratchet. I ended up stripping the damn thing, so now I have nothing to grab. What do you guys think is the best way to proceed?

1. use some sort of extractor?
2. try to hammer in a larger allen head socket?
3. see if the dealer will correct the problem? (it is waaaayyy over-torqued and dealer is 45 minutes away)
4. any other ideas?

Sorry if this has been covered, the drain plug has the round sides so I wont be able to grab it with a socket or anything.

TIA.
 
#3 ·
i tore off the head of a nut :( so i tried several drill extractors, each one failing and making the hole bigger to the point where i eventually jack up the whole bolt, AND drilled into the chassis.

I took it to the dealership. The fixed it in 45 minutes. Drilled a larger whole and got the whole thing out and inserted a "cert" ? so that a regular bolt can be screwed back in. cost me 75 bux... :(

BUT... in retrospect, i spent 4 hours of FAIL to try to get the bolt out...

so ... my advice: take it to a mechanic or dealer (dealer if u need the bolt replaced?)

ps: i broke 3 drill bits as well. :/
 
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#4 ·
What sort of drain plug is it ?

External 24 mm hex see above. For a rounded off internal 10mm hex, I would suggest trying to hammer in a M10 12 point spline bit, and give that a go.

I can see people having issues with the new plugs if they try and undo it with a 3/8 allen key....:rolleyes:
 
#5 ·
I am thinking I will give it one go with a larger bit that I try and hammer in and if that doesnt work, I will just go to the dealer. It is frustrating because I knew something like this could happen and I kept telling myself not to screw it up. Well, i screwed it up [:(!]

Thanks for the tips. I appreciate it.
 
#6 ·
Problem Solved!

I applied some penetrating oil and let it sit for awhile. Then I purchased a large extractor bit from the hardware store. I hammered that sucker in, hit it with the impact gun and the plug backed itself out after a few seconds. It was really in there!

I will pick the new one up tomorrow. Everyone should be careful in the future of the soft material that the plug is made of. It will strip easily.
 
#9 ·
Good deal!!!

A 6-point socket gets a better grip on the nut and so is less likely to slip and round off the nut corners. The benefit of a 12-point box-end wrench was that it gave you a better range of movement, but that is unimportant on a racheting socket wrench. On a non-racheting socket wrench (i.e., a breaker bar), the 12-point socket might be useful. So, use a 6 pt socket on your Drain Plug...[:D]
 
#8 ·
Hey Dunny, with all that time spent doing maintenance, it's a wonder you ever have time to ride your bike[:)]
 
#12 ·
The same thing almost happened to me just a few days ago.
I own a 2009 f650gs twin. I went to remove the oil drain plug and almost stripped it. So I immediately went to Max Bmw and ordered a new one. The drain plugs for the
new f650gs twin are completely redesigned because the old drain plug is so easy to strip. It now uses an allen wrench.
Your dealer could get that thing off in 2 minutes. Any automotive shop could get
that thing off easily.
 
#18 ·
On my 800S I usually take the bike in for service every 12,000 miles and I change the oil at the 6000 miles in between (I have 76,000 miles). I had been using a 24mm wrench and standing on it to get it loose which has worked. My wife has an 09 F650GS and we have been taking it in every 6000 miles but last Winter I thought I would change it at a 3000 mile interval and the wrench slipped off; so we bought a 6 sided socket and it still was going to slip so we just waited and took it to the Dealer at a 6000 mile interval and let them change it and got a new plug which still was like the one that was in it; I was hoping for an allen type. She has 32,000 miles on it. She will be out of warranty soon and I was hoping to at least change it ourselves every other time but I am fearful of getting it out but I guess it won't hurt to try. I may try to hit it with a hammer. In over 600,000 miles of airheads and oilheads I never ever had a problem and I did nearly all the oil changes on them.
 
#21 ·
...I had been using a 24mm wrench and standing on it to get it loose which has worked. ....
Plug torque should only be 40 Nm; hardly a bolt stripping standing on force. :confused: Perhaps it's more a case of the gripping head being so thin that the socket is cocked crooked when the force is applied ??????

A closed end wrench will at least guarantee the force will be applied perpendicularly to the head :).
 
#19 ·
Why are these plugs so tight? It sounds like they are even tight for people that reinstalled the plugs themselves. Torque level too high? Magic tool needed?
 
#25 ·
Just to clarify, I would never use an impact to take out a non-stripped drain plug. It was needed to get the extractor bit to dig in and do its job.

That being said, I take the blame for stripping the plug. I should have though a better way around the problem that trying my half-assed methods that ended up with a stripped plug.

On the plus side, oil is changed, new plug is in and all is right with the bike.
 
#26 ·
Re impact wrench or constant torque, I find an impact wrench is useful for overtightened nuts/bolts as the jarring is momentary and breaks the friction of the threads. Not my weapon of choice though if I can help it - a fairly crude way of doing things, and I'd never use one to tighten a nut/bolt (damned car tyre fitters always use them though, and don't tighten the nuts progressively across the wheel). Good solution for JJahp though, combined with the extractor.

An alternative for an overtightened nut/bolt/plug is to use a socket and plain bar, fit it squarely (very important), then apply torque and at the same time tap the end of the socket with a hammer (can be a two-person job to do this, unless you have three hands). The tapping action reduces the tension on the threads. This mimics the action of an impact driver like we used to use 'in the olden days' on phillips head screws in engine covers of our beat-up Japanese two-smokes (a useful upgrade was to replace all such screws with allen head type).

40Nm is the specified torque for the drain plug (30 ft-lb) - it's much larger diameter than bash-plate screws and hence needs higher torque to ensure it remains done up. 'Just past finger tight' sounds a bit too risky for me Josh - there's a reason why racers are required to wire their oil drain plugs etc! May never happen on an F800, but catastrophic loss of oil is not something I want my bike (or me) to suffer.

6 or 12 point socket shouldn't make any difference unless you've already rounded off the corners of the nut/bolt/plug - 6 point will just give you a bit more time before it's completely rounded!
 
#28 ·
Phew!

Dodged that one. Just barely.

Went to do the oil change today, and yep, I had one stubborn oil pan bolt!

Seemingly no amount of force could remove the damn thing, and the bolt slowly was getting rounded at each try. [ahh]

Last attempt, put the socket back on, and tapped the crap out of the ratchet with a hammer, trying to simulate a "impact" drill.

Lame, I know, but it worked!!

Ordered the new "redesigned" bolt from local dealer. Should be here by 9am tomorrow, and they are open on Saturday. YES!!!, I was hoping it wouldn't be one of those "it must come from germany on the slow boat and will arrive in 4 weeks stories". Last thing I wanted to do was put the old bolt back on and go through this process again.

$30.77cdn for a freakin bolt?? :shocked:

BTW, for anybody who experiences this on their next oil change, the mech at the dealer says they just hammer on a socket one size smaller, and get going at it.

EDIT : Just saw Mokky bears post above. Follow that advice.

.
 
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