I can't remove my oil drain plug.

I am trying to change my own oil in a 1999 Ford Explorer XLS 4.0 6 cyl.

This is my first time doing it. I went under my car and thought I found the oil drain plug. I was under the impression it would be facing towards the back of the car, but the only plug I found faces down towards the ground. It's a 13mm bolt, but I just cannot remove it. My socket and vice grips just keep rounding the head off. I'm definitely turning it the right way, I just cant break it free. Does anyone else have a 1999 explorer and could you give me advice on what I might be doing wrong? Thank you.


Edit: Posted in wrong forum, sorry.

Some heat might help. If you don't have a torch, drive the car around for 25 or so minutes and then try to break the plug loose (but don't remove the plug yet as the oil is still hot).
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orange256 said:

Edit: Posted in wrong forum, sorry.

Click to expand...

Fixed.. moved to the 2nd gen stock forum..

~Mark

Welcome to this forum! Do you have a bolt out socket? You could use one of them with a breaker bar.

I always change my oil hot, it gets more gunk and old oil out. you have to be careful though

Get some PB blast and soak it down, DO NOT AND I REPEAT DO NOT use the vise grips they will round it off more. PB blast wait an hour or so go out again and add more wait another hour if that doesn't help and you make it so totally rounded go get some gator lock sockets that grip rounded plugs and buy a new drain plug and gasket.

Also, on my 98 the plug is on the passenger side of the pan it is 13mm and when you pull it out it hits the sub-frame so I'd put old rags on it to minimize the "damage"

i sometime have that problem as well and i always do my own oil changes. if you took it somewhere b4 to get the oil changed the oil shop just overtightened it. all i do is put the 13mm boxed end wrench on it and give it a few good hits with a hammer... it should break loose then. might want to go bigger and use a good size cresent wrench. good luck

Drive or warm up, some PB blast and should come off. Mine was tough as the last shop musta used an impact wrench, had a ***** of a time getting that bolt loose. I don't know on the V6 but on the V8 its easy to do even hot without getting burned, I just wore normal latex type gloves but as the bolt losens start losening it by hand while pressing it to keep a seal, you'll feel when your at the end and then pull away and make sure your pan is right there or holding it. On the V8 I just pull away and it goes right into the pan without spraying everywhere or getting on me.

I experienced this with my 96 before I was fortunate enough though that vise grips did the trick, but I would say do what others said by warming the truck up and use some PB on it, worse comes to worse go to a shop and have them weld a nut on the head so you have something to grip onto.

You can do this. It just takes some time. Wise-Grips are the best once the bolt is screwed up. I worked as a luber as a kid and there was nothing we couldn't take off. The thing that is probably screwing you up besides the stripped bolt is your leverage, you have to have good leverage and working under the car is tough.

First put the wise grips on as tight as you can , you may have to keep on locking it and tightening more and more to compensate for the stripped bolt, and then once it is on there super tight use a straight arm and pull, you can get way more strength on it with a straight arm and pulling as opposed to a bent arm or pushing. If the straight arm doesn't work put the wise grips on again and use hand to hand tapping , you put one hand on the wise grips and you make a fist with the other hand using the underside of your fist hammer down on your other hand, this is how we did all bolts at the lube spot. we put a wrench on , one hand on the wrench and a single smash on your hand would do it. All you need is one good crack and a 1/4 turn will make it come loose. If your hand hurts from smashing it on your other hand the final step is to use a hammer on the wise grips.

As a last resort, if you have the SOHC engine, replace the oil pan . The engine has a ladder frame design at the bottom so the oil pan is fairly small and simple to replace (compared to the traditional oil pan which encompasses part of the crankshaft).
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IMPORTANT: b4 you do any of that be sure you go to the autoparts store and get a repalcement drain plug.it not expensive only $5.00 at autozone. the last thing you need is to get the plug out and realize your not going to be abel to put it back in due to the fact that it is stripped out at the head.

the last guy who changed your oil probably used an impact gun to take it off/put it back on. super unnecessary but its fast. if you have an impact gun i would try that first thing.

Get a new plug from Ford, they should have them in stock. I'd only use theirs, because it's made of a soft metal that won't damage the oil pan threads if someone gets stupid with it.

My dad has a set of "Craftsman bolt-out" sockets that worked perfectly for getting the old one out.

take a right angle grinder and "carefully square the bolt head" to a size of one of your open wrenches... then use that wrench to "crank" it off. The heating from the grinding plus the "nice" square surfaces will likely result in an easy removal.

Three key points:

1) A vice grip is the wrong tool for the job.
2) A SIX point socket is your best friend.
3) Do have a replacement drain plug on hand as you've already damaged the one on your truck.
4) Do you have an oil filter wrench to change the filter?
If not, stop before this job gets any worse.
Make sure you can get the filter off before you drain the oil.

BP blaster is not going to help here; the bolt is not rusted in. Likey some Yahoo use an impact on it. An impact will take it out as well, or jack it up a bit and use a long breaker-bar. 12 lbs of torque is all they need

If everything fails, do one more oil change at Jiffy-lube, and get them to take it out...

a wise grip is all he can use at this point, or a plumbers wrench, the OP said it is already rounded so a socket or impact gun ain't gonna help. trust me I've done this 100 times. even if you round down a 13mm to a 12 the grips will still get it out.

Thanks for all the advice. I bought a 6 point socket head yesterday and tried again this morning, but still couldn't break it free. The head off the bolt isn't rounded, I'm thinking I just don't have enough leverage to break the plug free. I don't have it on jacks, I've just been crawling under it. I'm going to take the explorer back to Jiffy Lube this weekend, I'm assuming they used an impact wrench the last time i was there, hence why I am having trouble. Will try again 3000 miles from now, hopefully with better luck. Thanks again.

http://www.mygriptite.com they sell them at sears. They worked great on rusted bolts on my outboard.