I recently moved the car from its winter position and noticed a very small amount of oil where the drain plug would be. About the size of a quarter. I'm pretty sure when I did the change in the fall the flatter side was against the pan. Again not completely sure, though. Its always hard for me to tell which side is which. Also, I did not use a torque wrench to torque it to the recommended 29 ft. lbs. I just stop tightening when the plug feels snug enough. How important is it that I use the torque wrench here? I've changed my own oil on several cars and never had an issue before with this, Honda's included. I know this seems pretty elementary, but I thought it would be worth bringing up. Thanks.

 

i'm not a mechanic... but did you have that little drain plug washer thing?

 

Villian,

What do you mean by "flatter side was against the pan". The flatter side of what? The crush washer? You did replace [not reuse] the crush washer when you did the oil change, right?

 

I don't always torque down the drain plug when doing an oil change (you can go by feel after doing it enough times) and have not experienced a leak before. Of course, if you don't know what 29 ft-lbs feels like, then torque it down.

Like Seattle2k said, make sure you're changing your crush washer everytime. If you did and it is leaking, you may want to replace your drain plug. If that doesn't fix it, then look at your oil pan and see if the threads on it are damaged (this happened on my old Civic and I had to replace the oil pan).

 

Yes, I do change the crush washer every time and I was referring to the flatter side of the crush washer in my origional post. Sorry I wasnt too clear on that. Man, I hope I dont need a new pan. The car doesnt even have 10,000 miles on it.....

 

I have never changed the crush washer and nothing ever happen... I know it's recommended, but lots of things are recommended by honda like changing synthetic every 3.5k miles. Did any of you not change the washer and got into trouble?

 

Sounds like you need a new washer, the only reason you would need a new pan is if the plug will not tighten up ( striped threads in the pan )

I it gets tight and still leaks replace the washer

 

Actually you were perfectly clear . Retighten as the spring is near and the warm weather will loosen things up if they were not torqued to full spec. If the sharp edge of the C-Washer was against the pan and retorque does not fix it then you probably have a tool mark on the face of the mass produced crush washer. If you don't see a distinct witness mark on the face then look at the surface finish of the sharp edged side of the waher. If it is shiny on the inner edge and rough looking on toward the outer edge then the washer was over-deburred after manufacture (it's an automated process). It should b shiny for all but a very small section of the washer face.

Utah

 

that's a lot of technical detail on the topic of a washer.....

 

what?

it's fundamentals..yes you should change it...it's not a guess n' check theory.

and NO, honda does not recommend synthetic every 3.5K.