Hello, I don't know the name of that thing below the engine where the oil-screw is situated. I have to change it since the screw thread is damaged, and the service-station cant get the screw out!!! I'm not good in the english vocubulary, but I'm pretty handy when it comes engines I think. Is this any problems changing this yourself. I'm a student, and I can't afford the fee the work shop wants.

They said there's no gasket, you put on some paste. Any problems doing this? How many newtons on the bolts?

Cheers Marc

It's the Sump.

Is the bolt just a ordinary 17mm type bolt or an inset hex type bolt?

Do you have a replacement plug? I have removed stubborn sump plugs with a small cold chisel before now but you need to be good with the chisel to avoid too much damage, and obviously you will need to replace the plug. Ensure the new plug is fitted with somwthing like a Dowty washer in future to prevent leaking.

If you are going to remove the sump then there is very often a gasket (Not sure about the Fabia engine) but if you are careful then you can reuse and/or suppliment with some Blue Hylomar. Not sure on the torque for the bolts. Someone might know shortly but if they don't just be sensible

if the sump bung is just spinning in the hole and not winding out , the garage are correct in stating that it will require a new sump assembly,

if the sump is alloy and the plug had come out but the thread was damaged you could of had the hole helicoiled , which is done by drilling the hole out bigger and fitting a new steel thread insert with the correct original thread , then using a new bung and washer

from memory the sump doesn't have a gasket , but is sealed on with a silicon based sealant specific to the job (not any old bath sealant)

the bolts are not tightened up to tight , just a good nip with a standard length 3/8 ratchet

So its either the sump thread has gone or the thread on the sump plug.......obviously a sump plug is cheap....but if the sump thread has gone could maybe tap a bigger thread into it and used a bigger sump bolt......cheaper than new sump.

if the sump bung is just spinning in the hole and not winding out , the garage are correct in stating that it will require a new sump assembly,

if the sump is alloy and the plug had come out but the thread was damaged you could of had the hole helicoiled , which is done by drilling the hole out bigger and fitting a new steel thread insert with the correct original thread , then using a new bung and washer

from memory the sump doesn't have a gasket , but is sealed on with a silicon based sealant specific to the job (not any old bath sealant)

the bolts are not tightened up to tight , just a good nip with a standard length 3/8 ratchet

Thank you all for replying. Well I think I will try to take out the sump plug before doing anything else. Maybe if I'm lucky (wont happen) the sump plug is damaged only (yea right LOL). Then this trauma will be no trauma. But most likely the sump is damaged because I think it's alloy, and as we know, alloy threads are pretty soft and always gets damaged before the steel ones.

I'm not going to be naive here. I buy the sump and paste (no gasket) and assume this will be nessesary. Tapping a new thread sounds like a good solution, but experience tells me this will be harder than it sounds. And doing this helicoil thing you better disassemble the sump? Getting alloy material in the sump from the drilling cant be good?

So I assume it's rather easy to disassemble the sump? 8 bolts or something? No complicated stuff?

Having sump in my lap maybe will clear this thing out totally.

Hmm.

A helicoil kit (If you don't have one) will cost you a bit. Maybe not as much as a new sump and it could be used in situ but with the labour involved can be extensive if you haven't used one before (Although a good Helicoil implimentation can feel very rewarding knowing you have repaired something that was almost unrepairable )

The likely reason of the stubborness of the plug is the fact it's an alloy sump and a ferrous metal bolt which means that the oxide layer on the alloy makes a chemical bond with the bolt material and almost becomes fused with it.

If you get a bad case of this then you might as well get a new sump

Just fit a tapered plug for now.

we have in the past used a small engineering firm who specialise in engine reconditioning etc , they have come out and done the helicoil job at minimum cost ,and the job was done in situ , this was easily cheaper than a new sump

the only real problem i still see is that you still have a sump plug stuck in the hole which is just spinning in its threads

Yes, that little bugger (sump plug) must be taken care of before anything else can happen. This helicoil thing seems rather cool! I will take care of this business after the 9th of January. I have damn exam. Again, tnx you all for your great input especially from Decron and ric04vrs who won the being helpful contest. No price, just my humble appreciation.

We've Helicoiled a few at work using a kit which we got from Wurth with a 100% success rate.