Kwincy

A few months ago I replaced the oil pan on my '01 S2000 due to a stripped drain hole a dealer borked a few years back. Found some great instructions and videos here on the forums and replaced the pan. I used a torque wrench purchased from Amazon to put all the bolts back, but I must've tightened them too much, as i noticed a leak about a month after doing the job. I left a cardboard box under the car after putting the pan back on and didn't see anything until after a few drives spaced a few weeks apart. Anyways, I finally had time to check the car (car isn't a daily driver, only drive a few times a month due to new baby), and I see oil around a few of bolts. Thinking that I didn't tighten them enough, I tried to hand tighten one and it just came out:






The bolt it located here on the oil pan:



Is this fixable? Should I take it to the dealer? At the very least, the oil pan needs to be removed and installed correctly, but since I didn't do it right the first time I'm not sure if I should attempt this again. What should I ask the dealer to do besides re-installing the oil pan? Anyone know of a good shop or dealership in the Chicago area?

Slowcrash_101

You're going to have to drop the pan again.

Kwincy

Most definitely. But how do I go about getting the tip of that bolt out?

s2000ellier

if the other have of the bolt in the block is poking out at all you can remove it with a pick and pliers, there will be no torque holding it in place and will come out easily.

if there is nothing of the broken bolt sticking out you will have to use a broken bolt extractor to remove it, even if there is nothing of the bolt sticking out spend some time with a good pick and try to spin it out.

Billman250

Once the bolt breaks, there is no torque there.

Its possible that a left hand drill bit could spin the broken piece right out, without dropping the pan. The pan will actually serve as a drill guide.

Its what I would try first.

Kwincy

thanks for the tips! Gotta order some of that Honda liquid gasket, oil and some more bolts. There goes next weekend!

bgoetz

Yes this! No way I would drop the pan again if I didn't need to.

As as far as the others go try to remove the bolts one at a time and put Honda bond on then rethread.

Car Analogy

If you can't find a left hand drillbit, if you glue something to the tip of the bolt, you can then unscrew it. A drop of crazyglue on the end of something. Whatever you have laying around. The head of a finish nail for example.

Chuck S

Something learned every day! I thought a "left hand drill bit" was something you sent new machinists to the tool crib to find to go with a left handed wrench!


Lots of links.

-- Chuck

Kwincy

Thanks so much for the tips! I'm going to try the simplest things first and then work my way up to dropping the pan as a last resort. Gonna look around the marketplace for some bolts and take it from there.