Old owner over torqued the drainplug, guaranteed. I've been there replacing the oil pan isn't a hard job, just a BUNCH of little bolts.

 

 

tight enough...don't put the strength of thor into it though...very first oil change I ever did on mine I cracked the oil pan....that happened 7 years ago and that thought still crosses my mind every time I change my oil

 

damn it, i kinda knew but i was hoping i was wrong. te silicon is taking care of this now. i just have to clean it up and reapply at each change. not a drop since i put it on. prob wont be the case when it gets some pressure

 

Just an oil drain bolt. Needs to be snug, approximately 30 ft lbs. No torque wrench needed it's very simple.

 

Well, the OP car seems a PO overtorqued, as did one member here that was brave enough to admit he did it too. So I think maybe it is a good idea to use a torque wrench so as not to risk the same.

Yeah, you probably won't overtorque and cause a leak, but since its so easy to pull out the torque wrench to snug it down, why not. For me its worth the risk not to.

 

I have stripped a few bolts with torque wrench too. Maybe it was just a bad torque wrench, who knows. Just make it "snug". I have changed the engine, Trans, diff, fluids without using a torque wrench. No issues whatsoever.

 

i read from somewhere - just go by what the germans use. GUDENTIGHT

33lbs is ok. chances are as stated above your torque wrench is probably not super accurate.

 

Right. I bet lots and lots of other people have too. I bet even some that ended up overtorquing had too. I did not mean to imply that it was unlikely to have a successful outcome without using a torque wrench, just that its safer to do so. Since its so easy to do it with the torque wrench, (and the results of a mistake are costly) I see no reason not to take that precaution.

 

In general, I've stripped more threads with a torque wrench than I have without. I have never used a torque wrench on an oil drain plug; just snug it up.