polish_pat

Please help me! I have no options left.

I am changing my oil pan due to a stripped bolt. I managed to get the flange bolts out (4 hours of hassle because 5 stripped to round), i took out the 4 bolts connecting oil pan to transmission, then the 16 bolts that hold the oil pan in place and I cannot get it out. It doesn't budge, at all. I tried prying with tabs (who even thought of those tab placement is an idiot), i tried knocking on it with rubber mallet, metal hammer, metal mallet, i tried jacking up tranny a 'lil bit and hammering it out, loosening the motor mounts and hammering it out. Nothing. It hasn't moved a single millimeter. At some point i was hammering it so hard, my pry bar went clean through the oil pan side.

I am out of ideas what to do. I though after spending hours dealing with stripped flange bolts my it was smooth sailing from that point on. Boy was I wrong!

05 TL

polobunny

Got the SM?

I count 2 more oil pan bolts than you.

polish_pat

Yes, i made a mistake in my calculations, i left the 2 first bolt at another place than the rest and only counted my little pot filled with WD40. I have 18 bolts. But i managed to get the oil pan out. I used the whole i made with the pry bar to stick the pry bar fully and tap on that with a heavy duty hammer. Finally, i can see the finish line.

PS. What the SM?

thanks

polish_pat

OMG what a pain in the .........

this oil pan is the worst job i've attempted on a car. It's simply problem after problem after problem...god this is exhausting.

Started around 12pm with a soak of the flange bolts in penetrating solution, first issue was those flange bolts. Out of 6, 5 were rusted to a point where the impact gun would grind off the sides to a smooth round shape. I managed to get them off with a repetition of soaking, then using a bit 1 size smaller that the bolt, hammering the hell out of it, soaking, and repeating process until they came off. Lost about 4 hours on that.

Then the damn oil pan was impossible to get off. Had to pry, hammer, pry, hammer, nothing. I even made a home with a crobar straight through the pan. I ended up using that hole as leverage to insert my crobar even deeper and hammering the other end until it finally came off. Lost another 3 hours there.

Then the damn oil pan. knowing i had about 4 minutes between sealant application and pan installation, i never managed to get the damn thing in and always got plenty of sealant on the oil pump thingy that sticks out from oil pan. Its weird because then i dont have sealant on the pan, i can get it in smoothly.

I gave up for tonight. I can already feel my arms getting sore. If i'd known it was going to be that much pain and torture, i would have gladly paid the 250$ of labor. This was, and will still be tomorrow, the most difficult repair job i've attempted, and i've changed my motor and transmission mounts, rebuilt my calipers, replaced alternator, rebuilt power steering pump, changed all speakers, installed a grom audio module, and i'm forgetting some.

polobunny

Service manual. So you know how to do what you want to do.

polish_pat

Yes yes, i have AllData and Mitchel OnDemand

polobunny

Totally forgot about that.