I'm tired of spending money on things I can do myself. With the help of a friend, I changed out all of my brakes a few weeks ago.

Tonights project was suppose to be simple. An oil change.

I have a 95 Accord.

Mike's back was put out so he could only point and teach. He instructed me to loosen the drain bolt. I COULDN'T DO IT! I've taken the car on numerous times to Jiffy Lube. Obviously the torque was so tight that I could not untighten it by hand.

While I'm down there with this unmovable bolt, I notice a great deal of oil. I can't tell if it is a leak or not. It could either be a messy mess left by Jiffy Lube or something else.

Reasons I fear it may be a leak:
1.) The bottom of the drain has oil all over it.
2.) The screws holding the drain in place (the multiple one around the drain) all have a drop of oil on it.
3.) Slight burn smell coming from the engine after I get out of the car. Odd odor.
4.) The dip stick is showing hardly any oil.



Reasons that it may NOT be a leak.
1.) No smoke from the exhaust.
2.) The temp gage is normal.
3.) There is no oil in the driveway or where I park during the day.

Any opinions, thoughts, etc... If it is a leak, would this be expensive to fix or could I do it myself?

 

I know the oil pan gaskets have been known to go out and start a "small" leak...that would also cause oil to spray over your oil pan. Very easy fix and somewhat inexpensive.

 

your oil drain plug is rounded off man! At least thats what it looks like.

 

word, that drain bolt looks pretty stripped.

 

Thats just a bad camera angle. I am able to get a good grip on the oil drain plug. I just can't turn it.

 

It is hard to see from that picture. If it is coming from the oil pan gasket, then i would try to tighten up a bit the oil pan bolts on that side. If oil is present above the oil pan, then it is something else.

Clean the area up real good and wait a bit to see if it reappears. Sometimes that could be caused by clumsy refilling of oil on top of the motor.

As for your oil pan bolt, if you can't get it to turn:

1. Make sure your are turning in the right direction. clockwise - tight, couterclockwise - loose

2. are you doing this with a wrench or socket? Get a socket and put more leverage on your pull. Use a piece of pipe to extend your ratchet handle and pull.

3. Still can't break it, heat up around the bolt witha propane torch and give it a twist.

fs

 

Six point sockets/wrenches rule. Don't ever use a 12 pt socket if you can avoid it,

 

Soak the thread with a good penetrant like PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench for a day or so. Then use a 6pt socket with a long breaker bar handle.

Better idea, take it back to the last place that changed your oil and make them get it loose. I've heard enough horror stories about Jiffy Lube I wil never go there.

 

What I do if my drain bolt is stuck on is put a 6 point socket on a ratchet and beat the bottom end of the ratchet until it frees up. Works really well, especially when theres not a lot of room for a breaker bar.

 

In high school, one of my teachers brought in a later model T-bird for an oil change. He couldn't remember when he'd last had it changed, but we assumed it to be too long.

Anyways, we could not get the damn oil drain bolt off. We even tried an impact wrench to no avail.

We ended up drilling a whole through the middle of the bolt, sticking a long screwdriver in the hole, and after my teacher (~250 lbs) put his body weight into it a few times, it finally came off. Turned out the thing was crossthreaded, but whoever had changed the oil had wrenched it on hard enough that it somehow sealed *shrug* .

That doesn't really solve your problem, but it most likely is not your case, so be grateful

 

i've never seen any of those oil change locations use a torque wrench..

as for the oil all around, i'm leaning more toward a messy oil change job since they need to constantly push out the car for another one. if it's leaking from the drain plug, it could be that they never changed the washer and it's not sealing as well.

i would recommend that buy a new drain plug. if the old one has been way overly tightened, the bolt is stretched somewhat and can break on you when you try removing it during one of your future oil changes.

as for your oil leak problem. do the oil change and make sure you change the bolt washer (if you can get the bolt off), after you're done, wipe everything down around the filter area, pan area, etc. for the first week, check every other day to see if there's any further sign of oil. also check your dip stick as for any oil loss. oil shouldn't burn off at this stage, so if there's oil loss then you know there's a leak. afterwards, you can check once a week. if there's still no sign, then it was most likely just a bad oil change job.

good luck

 

yeah they use the airtools they dont care as long as u pay for it, i stopped letting other people do my oil a few years ago...actually 1 month after i got my car, they charged me 45 for oil change with pos oil...well it was mobil 1 but it wasn't synthetic and i'm not paying 100 bucks for something i can do myself