Help! Stripped Oil Drain Plug

[TechWrench]

I believe he earlier stated that he has an '07 vehicle. If so, then he has one of those 'sealed' transmissions, which given his apparent level of expertise I think the best option is to have it towed to a shop and let them fill the trans of the proper operating level so as to not do any further damage.

 

[hjkim]

Update - My First Experience with the Stealership

So.......since my last post I've done the following.

I had the truck towed to the stealership, $30 with AAA, no biggie.

They called me back and told me that it's going to cost $339 for a full flush (drop pan, look for metal bits, replace filter). This seemed steep as I think I've read that someone with the same problem got charged a little less than $200. But, I live in NYC and everything costs more so I just sucked it up and said fine. Also, I really want the truck back, god I love that thing.

So I got a call back saying that it's going to cost $850 because the mechanic can says the thread on the drain is stripped, the service guy emphasized that the pan alone costs $400. On top of this he said my brake pin is frozen and my rotors are rusted and to do everything it would cost $1850.

I'm not a math guy but it seems that since they were going to drop the tranny pan anyway, it should cost $339 (service)+ $400 (new pan) which would add to $739? In all fairness, there may be something else that the service guy didn't mention on the phone. I'm pretty sure I can find a replacement pan online for about $100 give or take.

So I told him not to do any work and I'll just have the car towed back to my house. At this point he told me that since I'm not having work done they would charge me a diagnostics fee of $141. Fair enough, they put the truck on the lift to do a maintenance check. I just want my truck back.

I got a voicemail from the service manager so I have to call him back. I'm guessing he's going to try to offer me a discount on the repair but I'm also guessing that we're probably not going to see eye to eye on how much the repair should cost. I'm going to flush on my own, do the drain/fill to the right level.

So I need to get the truck back. Having it towed would be the easiest but the costliest.

Or, I could refill the tranny on the street then drive it back (9 miles) back home. I'm not sure that this is advisable. I pretty much drained the tranny and got about 4 quarts out so I was going to replace with that much. I'm wondering how sensitive the tranny is to over/underfilling for a 9 mile trip.

If anyone has any recommendations or experience, I would really appreciate it.

 

[KB084RUNNER]

Dude: Have them fix it. A new trans will cost you $2k. Then find an indy Toyota mechanic to do the rest of your issues. I doubt you will find a used oil pan for that trans.

 

[SjamesT4R]

Usually the pan wont strip unless its an alluminum pan.. stick a flat head in between the nut and pan and lossen it.. should come out.. worst case you will have to re tap the pan and replace plug $3-$4 for plug.. $20 for a tap and die set at a local hardware store like ACE.. Harbor Fraight.. ( if availible in ur state) but most cases the plug will strip before the pan because its allluminum and pans are usually steel.. and also using a torqe wrench on an oil pan is the right thing to do by the book but after working in a shop for years with plenty of techs stripping out oil plugs and pans.. best way to tighten them up in my opinion is to just pull wrench till snug than just a little extra nudge will do it.. never had a problem with any of my customers.. save the torqe wrench for the motor..

 

[SjamesT4R]

So.......since my last post I've done the following.

I had the truck towed to the stealership, $30 with AAA, no biggie.

They called me back and told me that it's going to cost $339 for a full flush (drop pan, look for metal bits, replace filter). This seemed steep as I think I've read that someone with the same problem got charged a little less than $200. But, I live in NYC and everything costs more so I just sucked it up and said fine. Also, I really want the truck back, god I love that thing.

So I got a call back saying that it's going to cost $850 because the mechanic can says the thread on the drain is stripped, the service guy emphasized that the pan alone costs $400. On top of this he said my brake pin is frozen and my rotors are rusted and to do everything it would cost $1850.

I'm not a math guy but it seems that since they were going to drop the tranny pan anyway, it should cost $339 (service)+ $400 (new pan) which would add to $739? In all fairness, there may be something else that the service guy didn't mention on the phone. I'm pretty sure I can find a replacement pan online for about $100 give or take.

So I told him not to do any work and I'll just have the car towed back to my house. At this point he told me that since I'm not having work done they would charge me a diagnostics fee of $141. Fair enough, they put the truck on the lift to do a maintenance check. I just want my truck back.

I got a voicemail from the service manager so I have to call him back. I'm guessing he's going to try to offer me a discount on the repair but I'm also guessing that we're probably not going to see eye to eye on how much the repair should cost. I'm going to flush on my own, do the drain/fill to the right level.

So I need to get the truck back. Having it towed would be the easiest but the costliest.

Or, I could refill the tranny on the street then drive it back (9 miles) back home. I'm not sure that this is advisable. I pretty much drained the tranny and got about 4 quarts out so I was going to replace with that much. I'm wondering how sensitive the tranny is to over/underfilling for a 9 mile trip.

If anyone has any recommendations or experience, I would really appreciate it.

First of all dont go back to a Stealership.. they charge 40% more for parts and $140hr for labor.. go to a shop that charges $90 and hr..

 

[blaniac22]

Soo.....what happened??? This was like reading a good book only to find the last 10 pages were torn out.

 

[R.A.]

Soo.....what happened??? This was like reading a good book only to find the last 10 pages were torn out.

hehe I was waiting for the ending too!

 

[Ross]

delete

 

[Ross]

20 second with over filled oil is no big deal because the oil is still cold so the oil pressure wont be high enought to blow anything, just drain the oil and the tranny completely, and refill no need to pay the tow truck guy couple hundred bucks when you can fix it ur self for 50.

Agreed /\, why pay a dealer for this when you can do it yourself. It seems you have already had practice doing it.

If you are worried about contamination just drain and re-fill thing out a few times.

I just did an oil change this weekend and know you have me all paranoid about what I drained.

 

[hjkim]

Sorry for the delay, been busy

So last I left it the truck was at the dealership.

Not sure if I mentioned it but apparently my rotors were rusted over I (didn't realize this was in issue), the pin on my left brake caliper was frozen (Not sure if he was referring to the cotter pin) and a couple of other things that didn't seem immediate were wrong with the truck. He offered approximately $1900 to do all the work.

I pretty much had steam coming out of my ears at this point but politely asked him to stop all work and that I would have the car towed back to my place. It cost me approximately $100 to get it back. Luckily there was a parking spot when the tow truck showed so I got him to help me into the spot. I recruited a couple of friends to help me push it into my garage (I live in Brooklyn with alternate side parking and a $45 ticket) which was uphill so that took a little bit of time.

At this point, I was horrified by what I had done. I took the truck back in a fit of rage but now I had to do all the work myself. So I decided not to think about it for a few days.

A few days passed and I set to work on getting out of the mess. I ordered Amsoil for Toyota WS. New gaskets (just in case I messed one up, I've been known to make mistakes), new washers, a new tranny pan for about $90 not $400 as the dealer quoted me, a new filter (I knew it probably wasn't necessary but figured it probably couldn't hurt) and feeling ambitious got a bunch of gear oil for the xfer case and diffs.

I got all the items and set to work on the truck. It probably took me a good 30 mins to get the truck level. Oh forgot to mention my garage is tiny with only about a foot of space on either side of the truck when centered so maneuvering around was difficult. After getting the truck level I took off the pan (spilling a bunch of fluid on the garage floor). I took a look at the magnets and it had a little bit of metal but nothing bigger than a grain of sand.

I cleaned the contact point where the gasket would touch then replaced with the new pan tightening the bolts in a cross pattern like on the lug nuts. I pumped new fluid in (I would recommend getting a decent pump as mine was cheap and it leaked between the pump and hose making a mild mess) and began the flush.

Unfortunately, I disconnected the wrong end of the hose where it meets the metal tube that connects the radiator and made a mess. After I reconnected that end and disconnected the other end the flush process was, well fluid. The oil was very dark and looked more like used motor oil than tranny fluid.

After reconnecting. I filled more and followed the procedure for leveling by jumping the terminals (4 and 13 if I recall correctly) with a small bit of wire then going from moving the shifter from D to N.

I used a hand held IR thermometer to wait until the pan reached operating temp after the Oil Temp light came on solid indicating operating temp then unscrewed the overfill plug to let the fluid drain until a trickle. At this point I went to take a look at the dash and the Oil Temp light was flashing indicating the fluid was too hot. Well damn. I wanted to make sure I did it right before taking the truck off of jack stands so I waited for the truck to cool. Unfortunately, it was like 85 degrees out and even hotter in the garage so I had to wait until the next day for it to cool down.

Second time I followed the same process for leveling the fluid but decided as soon as the hand held thermometer hit the right temp I would drain quickly before the oil got too hot. I drained the fluid until trickle and ran back to look at the dash and it was still solid on. I let the truck cool overnight then went the next day to torque the bolts and plugs to the right spec.

I took the truck off the jack stands and drove around the neighborhood a little to see how it shifted and it shifted fine. I parked and put the car through the gears to see if I could hear anything funny. I heard a small clackingish sound when I went from D to R which got me worrying.

I decided to add 1/5 of a quart of fluid then start the truck and shift to see if the sound was still there. It was.

Added another 1/5 of a quart and repeated the process and the sound was still there.

After adding 4/5 quarts I had my mother in law shift the truck. Well, this is the point where I realized that the noise I was hearing wasn't the transmission but the rear brakes creaking when the truck was shifted from D to R. Dag.

Back on jack stands.

Rinse and repeat on the fluid level. Add fluid, run truck until the light comes on, drain to trickle.

I figured while it was on jack stands I would replace the gear oil. The biggest problem I had was that the bolts were on tight even after I had sprayed PB Blaster on them. I used the handle of my jack over my socket wrench as a ghetto breaker bar and they came off fine. I replace all the oil using someone's post on this board as the guide and it took me probably 40 mins from start to end. I was surprised at how straight forward it was.

Took the truck off jack stands and drove it around. I'm getting the kerchunk while stopped at the intersection but I think that's because I need to lube and not due to the transmission.

I've driven the truck maybe 800 miles since then (it was time for vacation after that) and it seems to run fine.

Thanks to all on the board for the help. Thanks to all that have posted how to's in the maintenance section of the board. Also a shout out to the tacoma forums for info on tranny fluid change.

Apologies for the long rambling post.

 

[ridefast]

I bought one of these valves about 5 years ago and these things are great. I must have a combined 100k miles on my t4r and tacoma with these valves with no problems.

When I get home at night I flip over the lever on the valve and let the oil drain all night (it really only takes a few minutes) then in the morning I add oil and remove the (cold filter without burning my hand. Now there is 0 clean up with a rag and i don't get oil on my hands.

QuickOilDrainValve.com - the best way to change oil

 

[Doctor Subie]

glad to hear everything turned out well--take pride in the fact that you didn't have to pay a stealership too much!

I second the Quickoildrainvalve (formerly known as Fumoto oil valve)...I have one for my 4runner, as well as Subaru (though it won't fit on my wife's A4)-great time saver, and no more potential for stripped oil drain bolt!

I actually did something similar to the OP--ended up draining my automatic transmission fluid thinking I was doing the oil pan (they are surprisingly quit simillar)...had to pay the stealership ~$150 to fill it up, lesson learned...