There's many a slip . . .

[Benzadmiral]

. . . twixt the cup and the lip, as the old proverb has it.

This afternoon I was all set to change my oil. Had the cardboard, the pan, a new strap from O'Reilly's for the filter (which had proved stubborn yesterday). This time the strap wrench manhandled the filter, no problem; the gasket remained with the filter. Okay. Now the bolt.

And none, not one, of my sockets in my SAE/metric kit would fit the bolt. The 9/16 was too small, the 11/16 too big. I found an old and cheap closed-end wrench at 5/8, and it fit . . . sorta; it kept slipping.

Shoot fire and save the matches. I put the old filter back on (it's a NAPA Gold, and has only 5700 miles on it), changed, and drove to O'Reilly's for a 5/8 socket.

Back to the car, crawled under, found the bolt fit . . . but it still slipped! I hope I haven't rounded the darn thing off!

I'm done with this. I buttoned everything back up. Friday morning early I'll take it to my regular mechanic, and ask him, purty please with cinnamon on top, when he changes the oil, not to wrench that bolt down so hard. Maybe I'll be able to do it next time, in November. At least I got some experience, and some exercise.

Gee. And it was gonna be fun to change the oil for the first time myself on this car!

 

[tig1]

Your Buick should have a metric drain plug.
You may have damaged it trying a SAE socket. Best to use a 6 point socket. grips much better. Also if you have a mechanic drain your oil have him replace the plug with a new one.

 

[sciphi]

15mm for the oil drain bolt on my 1999 LeSabre. Fits like a glove.

I've done every oil change myself for the past few years on this car. Everything goes on just over hand-tight, to make getting it off again easy.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Your Buick should have a metric drain plug.
You may have damaged it trying a SAE socket. Best to use a 6 point socket. grips much better. Also if you have a mechanic drain your oil have him replace the plug with a new one.

Oh, I did try the metrics! I couldn't imagine why an American car would have a metric bolt, but I tried them anyway. None of those in the kit fitted. 13mm, the socket I used for my W126 Mercedes' drain plug, was too small; so was 14mm; and 16 mm was way too big.

Yes, a new plug would be a very good idea.

ETA: Sciphi, I just saw your post. I guess 15mm would be right -- but I think now I'd better have my regular shop remove and replace. I'll be sure to pick up a 15mm next week.

 

[Johnny]

Get a new plug and a 15mm socket and you will be set.

Be sure your mechanic puts in a new "GM" drain plug, not one of those generic plugs bought at the parts store.

 

[Panzerman]

Well. You dont ever not want to tighten the oil drain plug. Make it tight, dont put a pipe on it, but you want it tight. Most cars are metric so thas probably what it was. Even if you did damage the head, its no biggie. You can easily buy a new drain plug(even a magnetic one) at Advance Auto, Napa or Autozone. You can buy yourself a nice set of sockets at Sears in metric (8mm thru 17mm) for about $10. Even one of the cheap socket sets at Harbor frieght would be all you need.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Panzerman, I think my socket set is from Sears, with both metric and SAE. On my Benzes, of course, I used mostly the metric ones. The set is old, though; there's rust on spots around the blue metal lid, and I'm pretty sure I've had it since the early to mid-'90s.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Panzerman
Well. You dont ever not want to tighten the oil drain plug. Make it tight, dont put a pipe on it, but you want it tight. Most cars are metric so thas probably what it was. Even if you did damage the head, its no biggie. You can easily buy a new drain plug(even a magnetic one) at Advance Auto, Napa or Autozone. You can buy yourself a nice set of sockets at Sears in metric (8mm thru 17mm) for about $10. Even one of the cheap socket sets at Harbor frieght would be all you need.


I needed a set of 6 point sockets and did buy them at HT. I must say they are great sockets. Most of my tools are brand name but the Pittsburg sockets are as good as any of my other stuff.

 

[cwing6]

I use a quick oil drain valve from YM International (used to be fumoto) on two of my vehicles. Will be ordering some more shortly. No worries of rounding or stripping anything once you have it on.

 

[mechtech2]

Flank drive sockets or wrenches are a must have in your tool set.
No need for the other types, except for impact sockets.

For emergencies, sand or heavy grit polishing compound will help a socket grab a worn head.

 

[labman]

5/8'' = 15.875 mm. I don't who the idiot is that chooses what goes into a wrench set, but some of the metric sets I have bought had a 16 mm wrench, but not a 15 mm one. Now I see very few 16 mm nuts, but 15 mm ones are very common on my LUV and the 3 GM domestics I have owned since 1981. Even if you need a 16 mm wrench, a 5/8'' usually is close enough. My first Metric wrench set had every size from 6 to 14 mm, then a 16, a 17, and a 19. Of course I had to buy a 15 and an 18. Note 3/4'' = 19.05 mm. Exactly the 2 wrong sizes out of 4.

So likely, as mentioned your Buick has a 15 mm drain plug.

I have a set of Pittsburgh metric deep well sockets from HF, and have been happy with them, except once again, a 16 and a 19 and no 15 and 18.

 

[XS650]

15mm is a non-standard size that will eventually go away. My 1996 and 2006 domestic GM products both have 16mm hex heads.

Between DIN, ISO and JIS there has been an unfortunate mish-mash of metric hex sizes. A hex on them.

 

[labman]

If DIN, ISO, and JIS mess with the 15 mm nuts common for at least 30 years, They need to have their nuts removed. I suppose they are the stupid idiots that replaced the common #10 screws with 3/16''.

So far, in 170 K I haven't worked on my 02 Cavalier enough to be sure it doesn't have 16 mm ones. The oil drain plug is 15 mm.

The last thing we need are new standards.

 

[fdcg27]

Changed the oil in a friend's GMer in Sept, and the drain plug is indeed a 15mm head.
The socket was like new, because I have never seen a 15mm on any Japanese or German car we have owned.

 

[sciphi]

On my old Hyundai anything could be taken off with a 10, 12, 14, 17, and 32mm socket/wrench, a pair of pliers, and a medium Philips screwdriver. My Buick needs many more metric sockets. Although some small bolts are 1/4".

 

[Gary Allan]

Next time: Small pipe wrench. Vise grips. New plug.

 

[eljefino]

My "Cal-tech" impacts are missing 15mm which are of course all over my saturns. All the 3/8" drive chrome socket sets go 10-19mm without skipping anything in the middle though.

Now that I think about it, the only time I've used my 16mm was on friends' cars drain plugs, maybe they were 5/8"... hmmm...

Now for fasteners (not drain plugs) the "standard", FWIW, is a 8mm bolt gets the 13mm head while the 10mm gets a 16mm. There appears to be lots of "cheating" on these standards at the factory for my vehicles.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I'll try picking up a 6-point 15mm this week, and give it the old college try. Naturally I want to get this done before the weather gets too hot. That's the only time crunch; the oil has 5700 miles on it, but it's NAPA Synth, and even my OLM is still saying I have 25% life left.

 

[L_Sludger]

I have 11, 13, and 15mm sockets up to my ears. I hate them and never use them.

 

[Gary Allan]

Anyone still have a 4.5mm socket for some GM module? The tool industry thanked that fine man for a good bit.


I liked my BMW tool kit in the lid of the trunk. Just about everything was reduced to two sockets/wrenches.