Hi everyone, so today I took my 2002 Civic to a Merchant dealer to get it's oil changed. I brought my car, which was 1000 miles past its due. After half and hour an employee walked up to me and showed me some stripped out aluminium and told me that a the LAST dealer over tightened the plug and stripped it out. They said that I will need a new oil pan.
The last time I got my oil changed was a couple months ago, so if the LAST dealer stripped it out, then that means I've been driving my with a stripped out oil plug and NO leakage.

 

I've seen it more than once. The first time the plug is over tightened it will seal and damage the threads, when you try and retighten it the next time the damaged threads will pull out of the pan. If the tech was experienced, he should have recognized the plug threads were damaged within the first full turn removing the drain plug and informed you of the situation before attempting to reinstall the plug and stripping the threads to avoid this situation. Or he is a butch and overtightened the **** out of it. If you bitch enough, one of the shops should offer to cover labor if you pay for the parts.

 

Having threads stripped out of your oil pan does not necessarily mean you need a new oil pan. I work at a garage myself and I have seen this happen before, you can usually use what's known as an oversized drain plug. It generally cuts it's own threads back into the oil pan like a thread tapper, it's a pretty easy thing to do.

 

Had this happen to mine too.

On my next visit to Honda, for some other repair, the were able to insert a heli-coil/"thread repair kit" and all is well.