Just decided to my own oil change on saturday and got to my sump plug and...... it just spins! I CANNOT undo or tighten it it just free spins, i'm going into the dealer tomorrow (but not the dealer who did the last service who probably stripped the nut internally) does anyone know what they will say???

Hopefully a cut and dry warranty job coz I'm pretty annoyed!!!!

If the thread is stripped how on earth is the plug staying put? And I assume that it is oil-tight? :confused:

If the thread is stripped how on earth is the plug staying put? And I assume that it is oil-tight? :confused:

It's common for plugs in alloy sumps to consist of two parts - the plug itself and a sort of "captive nut" bonded to the sump in some way. The plug and nut are made of a harder metal (steel?) than the sump itself, so are more resistant to thread stripping.

All well and good, until the bonding fails. That happened on a Citroen BX I once owned; the "nut" part was a simple interference fit in the sump, and was fixed in place with some special adhesive. When the (not that special, by the look of it) adhesive failed, the whole plug/nut assembly came out. It wasn't practical to repair it, so I ended up paying for a whole new sump.

I guess that the Fabia sump plug is a similar design, but relies on mechanical locking to keep it in place even if the adhesive fails.

the octavia sump has a steel sump plug and alloy sump, nowt between

The alloy sump as Bengie says is threaded for the bolt.

The thing is at every service the bung should be changed (on all Skoda engines with alloy sumps). More often they are not and overtightened (20nm torque for the bung) and it pulls the thread out.

It will need either helicoiling or a new sump.

I sure hope that is under warranty then :-| that's gonna cost a lot more than it should really.

It's common for plugs in alloy sumps to consist of two parts - the plug itself and a sort of "captive nut" bonded to the sump in some way. The plug and nut are made of a harder metal (steel?) than the sump itself' date=' so are more resistant to thread stripping.

All well and good, until the bonding fails. That happened on a Citroen BX I once owned; the "nut" part was a simple interference fit in the sump, and was fixed in place with some special adhesive. When the (not [i']that[/i] special, by the look of it) adhesive failed, the whole plug/nut assembly came out. It wasn't practical to repair it, so I ended up paying for a whole new sump.

I guess that the Fabia sump plug is a similar design, but relies on mechanical locking to keep it in place even if the adhesive fails.

I had this happen on the rad on my scimitar - the sump plug and thread section (drain hole) are steel but the rad end tanks are brass. A spot of heavy handedness on my part when re-tightening the plug broke the weld. Fortunately, at the time I had a plumber friend nearby with his blowtorch and flux & solder, who assisted in undoing my hamfistedness, so it didn't cost me a bean. Took a vice, an extra length hammer and a bloody great mallet to get the drain plug undone before welding the thread back in though - I'm just a lummox really, no hiding it

Thanks for the help guys! NO1 It wasn't done under warranty from the dealer, infact they didn't want to know, and were VERY rude to me on the phone saying it was my fault and they couldn't fit me in for weeks, I had to go to Gorner Skoda Warrington to get it sorted cost