Oil Drain Plug Torque?

[marauder12]

Hello Everyone,

So here's the thing... I did an oil change on my car that uses a "crush" washer. It looks like a aluminum washer on the oil drain plug. I used a new crush washer from dealership. I did the oil change put the drain plug and new crush washer back in with a fair amount of force, like the germans says, "goodentight". And then after running the car I noticed drips on the garage floor... It was coming from between the plug and washer. I then looked up the technical reference of torque and it was saying the drain plug should be 24-32 ftlbs... I tightened alittle more not 20 lbs somewhere below (I attempted to move the bolt with the torque wrench but then got concerned about striping it out, so I didn't get the click that the wrench was setup to go to 20 ftlbs)... It seems to have slowed the leak-- very little comes out now just enough to see it coming off the crush washer not enough to put on garage floor. My question, do people really need or have to torque the oil drain plug? I have owned two cars in the past and never did such a thing to them (although they didn't use crush washers). The other concern that I have is stripping out the hole in the oil pan -- not something I want to go through. Am I safe using a torque wrench (not to strip the oil pan out)? Could I have a defective crush washer(I really don't think so but anything possible I guess) I guess really my options are try to torque some more or drain oil again and put new washer on? Or another option is to replace the drain plug? Anybody else have this issue before?

[CivicSpoon]

What kid of vehicle do you have, as well as engine and year of car? This might be helpful for someone with a little more info than me. You might want to post in the specific Make & Model sub-forum for this specific question (or post that specific information in this thread). Personally I've never dealt with a specific torque amount for a oil drain plug before. I know they exist for ever car, but I've never acknowledged them, and never had a problem.

24-32 ft-lbs seems a little excessive to me. Though I've never measured the torque that I've applied to them. I've always just tightened them snug, aka "goodentight" because I'm German lol (among other things), but just a little extra if it has a new washer (same with brand new spark plugs).

Hard to say whether to go a little tighter, or whether to leave it as it is. A little tighter could mean the difference between no more leaks, and stripped threads, without actually being there to tighten it,

[marauder12]

Well... To give an update to anyone else that runs into this... I took the road of thinking that the manufacturer gave specs of 24-32 ftlbs so it probably was tightened that much from the factory. That in mind I was thinking I would be ok to torque it alittle more to be within those specs. I torqued it to 25 ftlbs and the leak totally sealed it. I started engine up and was underneath looking at the plug while running and looks good... Very odd, possibly the crush washer was little bad (meaning it needed more force to form a seal than usual like the "goodntight")? The other discovery I found as looking at my torque wrench instructions -- it said in fine print +- 4 ftlbs... So I would be very hesitant about going to it max torque spec of 32 ftlbs. Thanks for the reply to the post.

[Oldbearcat]

I have a Honda CRV that uses the crush washers. I've changed the oil 8 or 9 times, put in a new washer, and torqued the drain bolt to the spec in my owner's manual. Haven't had any problems with leaks.

Regards:
Oldbearcat

[jamesslcx]

Most cars usually only list 10 to 15 ft/lbs of torque for drain plugs. I usually call Wal-Mart for the specs when in doubt, the TLE has a chart.