Messed up my gf's 2007 Denali when doing an oil change - HELLLLP

[jbluemke]

Well, I'm apparently an idiot. She's been having nothing but trouble with this truck since she got it and I was giving it an oil change. All was seemingly fine until 3 to 4 weeks later when the "low oil" light came on.

I don't know if it was me or the drain plug I ordered off amazon that "fits your 2007 denali" but doesnt.
Needa 653096US M12-1.75 Oil Drain Plugs and Gasket for GM
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NYMUWI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

She took it to a place to get another oil change or to see what was wrong with it. They said that the drain plug was stuck/misthreaded/cockeyed (I forget) and they would have to replace the whole oil pan for like $400-$600 - so now I feel like a POS.

Is there ANYYYY way to fix this??? PLEASE say yes!! I feel so bad. Thank you for the help!!

 

[Bill 1960]

Without a first hand examination of the threads, I won’t hazard a guess. Lots of times thread damage can be corrected with a tap or merely by screwing the correct bolt in at the correct angle.

Or perhaps you did too much damage.

It’s also possible the damage preceded you. What caused you to buy a new drain plug to begin with?

If I was a gambler, I’d say the odds of a non tech savvy consumer being sold a new oil pan in these circumstances are damn near 100%. And the odds of the selling service writer putting a new oil pan on their own wife/girlfriend’s car near zero. They’d tap it or put in a helicoil.

You might want to read about helicoils if you’re not familiar.

 

[jbluemke]

Okay thanks a lot! It seemed like an excessive "fix" to me as well.

I will look into helicoils.

Without sounding TOO stupid (probably too late) how would I go about tapping it?

I might just give the old plug a try as well.

 

[Geotrash]

Okay thanks a lot! It seemed like an excessive "fix" to me as well.

I will look into helicoils.

Without sounding TOO stupid (probably too late) how would I go about tapping it?

I might just give the old plug a try as well.

Yes, try the old plug first.

Is the truck still in their shop? If you have it back home, you can get yourself a metric tap and die set with the proper size tap for the threads on the drain plug, and screw it in and out of the hole a few times to "chase" the threads and get them back to spec.

 

[Bill 1960]

With respect, repairing threads is a job where experience and having the muscle memory for what’s right vs wrong matters. Not having that experience got you in hot water with the GF. Don’t keep digging when you’re in a hole. Pay a trusted mechanic for ten minutes of his time and come out a winner having saved the day with no more mishaps.

 

[91RS]

You can try and helicoil but they usually don’t stay for drain plugs because they keep getting removed and reinstalled. Generally when you fix a bolt it never gets touched again. Just replace the pan and know it’s fixed for good. Look around online and see if you can find a used pan or get one from Rock Auto or GM Parts Direct.

 

[FrankU]

Try NAPA on line , they have a kit to repair stripped out oil drain plugs.

 

[George B]

With respect, repairing threads is a job where experience and having the muscle memory for what’s right vs wrong matters. Not having that experience got you in hot water with the GF. Don’t keep digging when you’re in a hole. Pay a trusted mechanic for ten minutes of his time and come out a winner having saved the day with no more mishaps.

This is sage advice.

 

[wjburken]

You can try and helicoil but they usually don’t stay for drain plugs because they keep getting removed and reinstalled. Generally when you fix a bolt it never gets touched again. Just replace the pan and know it’s fixed for good. Look around online and see if you can find a used pan or get one from Rock Auto or GM Parts Direct.

This is sage advice.

Agree completely. This reminds me of a saying I heard once, “When you dig yourself into a hole, the best way to get out is to quit digging and ask for a hand up.”

 

[Just Fishing]

Oh man, this one time i drank too much beer before doing a real basic automotive task.
Swapping out my winter thermostat for a summer one...
one of the bolts was slightly stuck in there, and had i been 100% sober i'm pretty sure I would have noticed the bolt was not budging.
that turned into a broken bolt.
then an attempt to extract it turned into a total mess.

luckily the intake was super cheap, and i had a backup car to drive for a week while i waited for the replacement.
It was also good to update the intake gaskets while i was there...


I now have a strict rule of no beer until after the job has been completed.


..... If you were 100% sober and you managed to cross the threads so bad that the plug was in there crooked, pay someone to fix it.
Learning to tap threads is not something you want to do for your first time under a truck.

 

[wsteele]

There are a number of drain plug “repair kit” options, none as professional as replacing the pan. Definitely, if you cross threaded an old drain plug, you don’t want to be doing anything too fussy or involved. leave it to a pro.

You might try and find a shop that gets good reviews who will consent to trying to fix it by chasing the threads with a tap. Pretty much any auto shop will have a set of taps that can do the job. If they don’t think the threads are salvageable, but are still willing to work with you, you might ask about a piggy back drain plug. They come with a self tapping oversized bolt that has the center drilled out and tapped for a smaller bolt. The main self tapping bolt is threaded into the bunged up original hole with a seal and the piggy back drain plug threads into the self tapping bolt and is the one you use to drain the oil going forward.

 

[OR VietVet]

@wjburken, @Bill 1960 and @George B are all correct that only a trained tech should even attempt this repair and @91RS is also correct that using a helicoil is only recommended for a one time fix that will not come apart again and should also only be by a trained tech. The threads may not be cross threaded but just stretched from an untrained person over tightening the drain plug, you in this case if in fact that is what happened, and if you want to attempt any of these repairs and get in even deeper shit with the girlfriend and possibly do more damage to the engine, then by all means do what you want to try and put a bandaid on this problem. Ask for the old pan and drain plug back and show close up pics of what the tech said is damaged and also pics of the original drain plug, if you still have it, that you swapped out in the beginning that you still have not fessed up to why you changed it out in the first place.

Oh, by the way, welcome to the forum from Oregon.

As a guy that was in and ran shops for 35+ years, I have often said that I heard people talk about how easy an oil change is to do. It is, when done correctly. I originally thought you were leading up to a story about not removing the old oil filter gasket when it stuck to the oil filter housing when you removed the old oil filter and you did not notice and then you spun the new filter on right on top of it and then it spewed oil all over the place. Did you remember to look for the old oil filter seal when you dropped it down during removal, like you should have, or did you just get lucky and it did come down with the old filter, even though you did not look? Did you lube the now oil filter seal before spinning that filter on? How many turns after seal contact did you tighten the filter?

 

[gooffeyguy]

Helicoil a one time use?

The aluminum cylinder heads I have on my mustang came with helicoils in the majority of the threaded holes[emoji848]

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[jbluemke]

SOOOO......what you're telling me.....is that Im pretty much screwed?

I may just try taking it out and using the old one first.

And if that doesn't work..... I guess I'm screwed and have to pay the $400 that we dont have???

I have never run a tap on anything so after seeing some people warn against it ..... maybe I should leave that one alone

damn man..... this has never happened to me. Im so f'd

 

[wjburken]

SOOOO......what you're telling me.....is that Im pretty much screwed?

I may just try taking it out and using the old one first.

And if that doesn't work..... I guess I'm screwed and have to pay the $400 that we dont have???

I have never run a tap on anything so after seeing some people warn against it ..... maybe I should leave that one alone

damn man..... this has never happened to me. Im so f'd

Talk to your friends and see one of them would know how to do it and might do it for the cost of the parts and a pizza / beer dinner

 

[Bill 1960]

You’re not listening. We’re telling you it's maybe a $50 repair from an honest mech. $100 worst case if he needs to use a new oversized specialty plug or thread insert.

 

[George B]

SOOOO......what you're telling me.....is that Im pretty much screwed?

I may just try taking it out and using the old one first.

And if that doesn't work..... I guess I'm screwed and have to pay the $400 that we dont have???

I have never run a tap on anything so after seeing some people warn against it ..... maybe I should leave that one alone

damn man..... this has never happened to me. Im so f'd

Where is the truck?

 

[1BADI5]

Just take it to a shop and have a professional tap it and be done. Should be no more then an hours labor and $15 in parts.

Don't let your pride and frustration make matters worse.

 

[OR VietVet]

Helicoil a one time use?

The aluminum cylinder heads I have on my mustang came with helicoils in the majority of the threaded holes[emoji848]

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

In most instances, not all, I believe that a helicoil is a one time use thing. Everything has to go perfectly for reuse. We are talking about a repair to install a secondary set of threads instead of the factory cut threads. The area where the helicoil is threaded in to has to withstand the stress as well. It is only my opinion, not the final call. In my shops I have seen guys use them and even did it myself with success but I chose to always think of them as a REPAIR and a temporary one in the long run. They can just as easily be stretched if over tightened during reuse.

 

[gooffeyguy]

In most instances, not all, I believe that a helicoil is a one time use thing. Everything has to go perfectly for reuse. We are talking about a repair to install a secondary set of threads instead of the factory cut threads. The area where the helicoil is threaded in to has to withstand the stress as well. It is only my opinion, not the final call. In my shops I have seen guys use them and even did it myself with success but I chose to always think of them as a REPAIR and a temporary one in the long run. They can just as easily be stretched if over tightened during reuse.

My heads came new from Edelbrock that way. Granted, it's been about 15 years, so head material and technology may have changed since. I always thought helicoils in aluminum helped prevent steel bolts from stripping the threads in softer aluminum.

Heck, I think even the standard repair for stripped or blown out spark plug threads in aluminum heads are helicoils. Spark plugs get installed and removed quite frequently

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