4Driver4

Just for giggles, what is your location?

Gomer

My area is about 20 miles east of the bustling metroplis of Buffalo NY.That is one thing nice about the Quat,never far from snow.Actually the snow belt is about 25 miles south of me.We average maybe 60 inches a year and in the belt it's about 150 and up depending on your location in relation to lake Erie.This time of the year the sun will be shinning here and as look south and north[lake Ontario is also 30 miles away]I will see a black wall of clouds all day and they are getting hammered.Prevailing winds will put all of Ontario's snow on the east end[Tug Hill area] 400 inches per,snowmobile heaven.That lake does not freeze over,Erie does and then the snow machine is turned off.Too much info sorry,weatherman at heart.

turbo510

My Audi has never seen snow. It's about 80 today in SoCal.

Gomer

Sucks to be you, haha !

Pete@ECSTuning

+1 To snowbelt love! My parents are from the snowbelt, got 10 ft accum. last year, 11 ft the year before and 12 ft before that. When I was in high school the national guard had to come plow our roads with tanks because the snow was so high. No joke, a tank with a snoplow! It was absolutely amazing!

toddstebleton@mac.com

I agree with Gomer, just use an impact gun. Be sure the socket and head on the bolt are perfectly clean before you use the gun.

99.5a4JRB

Perahps one more trip to the dealer is in order. The price of one more oil change at the dealer may be a lot less than the price of a new oil pan or something else.

4Driver4

I’ve been trying to leave this alone, but the thread is still on the front page, and the inaccuracy of this statement is like a pea under my princely mattress.

An impact gun is a great tool. In addition to twisting force, the hammer action can also shock or vibrate stuck bolts or nuts loose. Still, I question the wisdom of using such a powerful tool that cannot be easily metered in small doses on a steel plug that has been overtightened into an aluminum pan.

Yes, you push the gun when you use it, but there are two problems with equating this to the pushing force when you use a hammer and chisel:

First, in most cases you aren’t pushing on the plug or the bolt head. Your pushing force only finds the bolt/plug head when the socket depth is less than the height of the bolt/plug head. If the socket is deeper, you are pushing the socket against the pan around the plug.

Second, regardless of how strong you are, you cannot apply more pushing force that a hammer can.

Using an impact gun a drain plug is a recipe for stripped threads on the oil pan.

Gomer

Inaccuracy? Impacts guns from 1/4" to 1" all have thottle control valves.Snap On sockets have a shoulder that stops the fastner at the lip of the socket so no contact would be made with the pan.Did you know that they make torque sticks and extensions that also limit the force that can be applied. A 100 ftlb stick will not allow you to go over that number even if you take a 600ftlb impact at full force it will stop rotating at 100.The only reason for the pushing is to keep the socket from jumping onto the edge of the fastner and rounding it out.The pushing has nothing to do with loosening anything.So if you took a 3/8 impact and set at half throttle you might make 125 ftlbs,, a quick shock that probably would break it free without damaging anything. The right tool or any tool for that matter in the hands of a uneducated person can be a receipe for diaster.I do wonder how he made out and what action was taken to facilitate it.Sorry to be the pea in your sheets.

4Driver4

I don't even know where to begin...

I am well aware of torque sticks and how to work an impact gun. It's still a poor solution.

"Snap On sockets have a shoulder that stops the fastner at the lip of the socket so no contact would be made with the pan."
An internal shoulder with a depth that can be set? I own several Snap-On sockets and have never seen this. Please provide more info or a link. Even with this shoulder, the only force against the plug that pushes it in is you pushing, which is far less that I can do with a tap of a hammer.

"The pushing has nothing to do with loosening anything."
When you use an impact gun, this is true...it is also the reason that the chisel method works better. By turning the plug and forcing it inward at the same time, you relieve some of the force on the thread with makes it easier to turn the plug and less likely that you will damage the threads.