2001 Accord V6 Leaking drain plug

About eight months ago I brought my 2006 V6 Accord to my local
automotive shop for an oil change like I always do. When they removed
the drain plug it stripped the threads on the inside of the pan. The
shop said they've seen this happen in other Hondas lately and told me we
could either try an over-sized plug or I would need a new oil pan at a
cost of $500.

I of course opted for the new plug and all was well until last week when
I went in for another oil change. They didn't say anything to me, but I
noticed this morning there were several drops of oil under my car. So
it appears that once again the plug is leaking. I am going back
tomorrow to see what they can do for me, but I wanted to know if this is
a common occurrence. I suspect the shop may have over-torqued the plug
from the beginning and caused all these problems because years ago when
I had the time to change my own oil I never had this issue come up.

Thanks!

 

It is in fact quite possible and very likely that they
removed the plug incorrectly or, more likely as you suspect,
overtorqued it upon re-installation.

Problem is, you can't prove something else was not behind
this.

Give them your opinion and say, at some point, politely and
firmly, that you feel very much taken advantage of and plan
to speak to the BBB, for one. This might get some action,
assuming you have good reason to suspect them of bad shop
practices.

There have not been any significant number of reports of
this here compared to previous years.

I think they're trying to take advantage of your lack of
expertise on cars.

Ask these folks if they change the oil pan drain plug crush
washer each time they do an oil change. Take notes on what
they say and have a witness.

 

1. check out the parts price at hondaautomotiveparts.com. $500 is /way/
high.
2. threads are stripping because they're over-torquing.
3. they're over-torquing because someone's not trained properly or
they're not changing the plug washer [or both]. if the washer was
changed, the plug would hold at factory torque and be completely leak free.

you either need to find the time to go back to doing this yourself
[which has the added benefit of you knowing /for sure/ what oil was used
rather than just what you paid for] or find a different shop.

if you're anal, it's relatively easy to change the pan yourself. you'll
save yourself a whole bunch of money and you have the security of
knowing that the stripped threads aren't about to dump your lube all
over the freeway.

 

I had a very hard time removing the drain plug for the first oil change
on my '06 Acura, but I was very careful and didn't strip anything.

You would have been better off having the work done at the dealer, that
way it would have either been a warranty problem or a dealer workmanship
problem.

John