10 replies to this topic

[Prawn]

hey guys, when i changed my oil, i was horrified to find as i pulled out the sump plug, that the threads were seriously damaged.... on further inspection when it had drained, they are gone.... all the thread inside the box has gone....

not good!

so, whats my best bet? has anyone had any joy with the taper plugs ive heard about?

or

preferably.... can the sump thread be drilled and helicoiled with the engine in place? i really dont fancy pulling it out just to do the sump plug thread!

thanks guys

nick

[tommy cooper]

snap!had same thing happen last week.took car to local garage who got engineering co. in to place metal thread insert in sump.relatively straight forward job done with engine in place.only painful bit was having to cough up 94 pounds for it to be done!wanted it done though as needed car for stanford hall show.try shopping around.if no luck with trying to find local co. to put in insert,how about fitting a second hand sump from another engine from car breakers.
good luck.

[TimS]

the same happened to mine, I ended up going to the next size thread and putting a different bolt in

[Guess-Works.com]

The easiest thing is to helicoil the hole, or as flappy has done, get a bigger plug of another vehicle and tap the hole to suite...

If you tap carefully then the majority of the swarf should come out as you tap the hole, but after complete, I suggest flushing the gearbox with petrol, which can be done by pumping it in through the sump plug and watching for what drains out... You'll be surprised what will come out... also as the casing is aluminium, then at least its not as abrasive as steel and will get fairly well ground by the gears anyway...

[Prawn]

does anyone know what the thread size is? and isnt £94 a bit steep to do it?

flappy-what vehicle did teh larger plug you used come from?i couldnt believe it when mine stripped! i looked inside at teh thread, and noticed that 3 bits were missing, so i probed tiwh a knife to make sure no other bits were about to fall off, and the whole thread came out in 3 bits! BUGGER!
a well!

thanks guys, ill ask for a price to get it helicoiled, but giving teh current financial status (after a £250 round trip to spamspeed yesterday) i guess itll be retapped to teh next size.... whatever that may be?

[Madmax]

i think his sump plug is just a massive alan key bolt that was bought from a supplier, not entirely sure though

[Bluemini]

Take it to Inchy Nick, he'll sort you out and I bet it won't cost £94 either, or you can just give me your 'box and its contents so I can have it instead

How did you get on on the rollers???

[Prawn]

Take it to Inchy Nick, he'll sort you out and I bet it won't cost £94 either, or you can just give me your 'box and its contents so I can have it instead

How did you get on on the rollers???

i will take it to inchy rich.....

thanks for the help guys!

as for teh rollers rich.... id rather not talk about it.... i was rather disappointed

[MiniMadMartin]

there is a garage up the road form me about 18 miles from plymouth it cost me somethibg like £58 to have it done

[dklawson]

I believe the drain tap is 5/8 UNC... but don't hold me to that.

I'd avoid taper plugs in an aluminum sump. Taper plugs act like a wedge and will work to split the tapped hole apart slowly. The other problem with putting a tapered plug in there is that I doubt you'll find one with a magnet. All the Mini drain plugs I've worked with have benefited from a magnet to catch engine debris before the oil pump does.

94 GBP sounds like an AWFUL lot for this job. Mini Mania (the U.S. equivalent to Mini Spares) sells the HeliCoil kit for the sump for about $50 (25 GBP) which is a great deal. One problem with installing the kit with the engine in the car is keeping everything "square". It's easy to tap at a slight angle which makes sealing the drain difficult. If you're at all in doubt, don't use the stock copper sealing washer. I believe you'll find that 14mm nylon drain plug washers will fit the drain plug well and these will "crush" to fill any gap created by a tapped hole that isn't perpendicular. I run a drain plug seal from MotorMite. This is a metal ring with an o-ring bonded to it's center. The drain plug pulls up tight against the metal ring limiting the amount of crush you put on the o-ring.

[Bluemini]

as for teh rollers rich.... id rather not talk about it.... i was rather disappointed

Why, what did you get???