Yesterday my buddy and I got geared up to do the final part of my install, dropping and tapping the oil pan. But, as soon as we get under the car we see that the nuts/bolts on the pan are rusted to ****. This is a 10yr old New York car(salt) and I have never seen so much rust on these things. So our problem is that every socket(10mm) we put on these bolts just ends up breaking off some corrosion and then not grabbing the bolts. We have tried wd-40, etc, but we can't even get a hold of these things to spin them. I'm hoping anybody out there who has dealt with this situation before could offer up some advice? I don't suppose there's any way to drill the pan while it's still on the car because of shavings falling into the pan? Any help appreciated.

 

few ideas:
1. try a 9mm socket, hammer it on.
2. heat the bolts up before trying to loosen them.
3. take it to a shop

like you said, you do not want to tap the oil pan while it's on. metal shavings in motor = bad.

 

I would defiently NOT tap it while on the car because of the shaving issuse, but yeah the hammer driver on it. (Im sure that not what its called, but it works by grabing the bolt with a socket and then you hit it with the hammer, so the hammer is forcing the socket down onto the bolt and at the same time losening it. I ussed it to remove some rusted/bent bolts that hold on the front lip of my car after i kept stripping the heads and it works like a champ a few taps with the hammer and it came right off! but im sure not many ppl have these lying around (Ahh the perks of having an uncle with a body shop so im sure grabbing it with a vice grip would help to, but bolt out by craftsman wont do **** fyi, i werk at sears and they get returned all the time cause there junk