Well, yesterday, I went out with the intention of changing my punto's transmission fluid. However, I was unable to get either the drain plug, or the filler plug, to un-screw.

I tried a bit of brute force, tried spraying WD40 whilst letting the engine warm it up. Nothing seemed to work..

Any ideas / recommendations ? If I can't do it easily, will just pay for it to be done.

Get some new bung plugs then get them out with hammer and sharp drift by tapping it round.

get a good quality allen key thats fits and a bar for more leavrage

Careful , these plugs have cracked gearbox casings when overtightened. The official torque for these is 25Nm. Check what you are applying with a torque wrench if you have one. If it's a lot more someone may have loctited them or applied a serious amount of torque. It may be time to consider another way to change the oil rather than risk damaging the gearbox casting. Plumbers use a freeze spray to work on live water pipes - this might help cool the plug enough to free it. People have a tendancy to overtighten these and strip threads and then epoxy their way out of the situation.

Brilliant! Going to head to halfords / B&Q tonight in search of an 8mm hex bit, and a long bar socket wrench to see if that'll help.

At a minimum I want to get the filler plug out, as 6 months ago it was diagnosed with a transmission leak and I don't want it getting low. So I can atleast top it up. :/

I'm not trying to be smarty pants but do turn the plug the right way. !!!

Its a normal thread but upside-down so very easy to find yourself tightening when you meant to loosen. From the front of the car the spanner handle needs to move from right to left to screw the plug down.

Lefty loosey righty tighty

Absolutely, when looking from above the bolt. But this is upside down so we are effectively looking from below so got to be careful which way is loosey.

8mm is the drain plug. 12mm is the fill/level plug.

Probably Over-tightened
Along with Road Grime making it corrode
But the constant heating up and cooling will make it tighten up more

You will need to crack it yes (as in break the Grip of the thread)
Just not the Gearbox casing

Ziggy

did you ever get the fill plug off
i've got the same probelm with my one
putting lots of wd40 on it, hopeing it helps

ballboy said:

did you ever get the fill plug off
i've got the same probelm with my one
putting lots of wd40 on it, hopeing it helps

Click to expand...

it wont
needs a proper fitting allen key i think it is, a nice long piece of pipe and give it a good crack

ballboy said:

did you ever get the fill plug off
i've got the same probelm with my one
putting lots of wd40 on it, hopeing it helps

Click to expand...

s and b said:

it wont
needs a proper fitting allen key i think it is, a nice long piece of pipe and give it a good crack

Click to expand...

I use a Multiple hex set
Its got a 21mm Hex body - but the tips are the required mixed sizes - square and hex for plugs
I find it alot easier get a good fit and use leverage to undo it

But i agree - WD, no good, wont soak in it......

I'd be tempted to try heating the surrounding case area up and cooling the plug (With wd is doing it cheap) to see if that helps break the tightness

Just becareful, you dont wanna go stripping the plug or damaging the threads...

Ziggy

Ziggy122 said:

I use a Multiple hex set
Its got a 21mm Hex body - but the tips are the required mixed sizes - square and hex for plugs
I find it alot easier get a good fit and use leverage to undo it

But i agree - WD, no good, wont soak in it......

I'd be tempted to try heating the surrounding case area up and cooling the plug (With wd is doing it cheap) to see if that helps break the tightness

Just becareful, you dont wanna go stripping the plug or damaging the threads...

Ziggy

Click to expand...

i wouldnt advise this on an open forum
why?
two weeks ago a bloke died when fumes in an oil drum he was grinding open exploded
10 years ago i saw an explosion at work when we were trying to weld a rusty sump up
6 years ago in my local breaker the chief nut case lost part of his bottom lip when the rocker cover top came off like a projectile and hit him

why did all these things happen?
because the heat had caused the gasses in the closed containers to expand and in one case at least light and so in all cases they were looking for an escape route like unexploded bombs

heat for bolts
bigger hammer for contained liquids

Try give the plug a gentle head on tap, emphasis on gentle. Thats always worked perfectly for me on bolts and screws in aluminium castings. If you cant get to it put your socket/allen key in. As i understand it think the two materials react and kind of bond together a little so a gentle shock brakes that normaly you see that white aluminium fluff in the threads.

Ive had bolts that feel like they will snap ,the tools will snap, the casing will snap, giving them a gentle tap and they came off with little to no effort.

Adrian Bravo said:

Try give the plug a gentle head on tap, emphasis on gentle. Thats always worked perfectly for me on bolts and screws in aluminium castings. If you cant get to it put your socket/allen key in. As i understand it think the two materials react and kind of bond together a little so a gentle shock brakes that normaly you see that white aluminium fluff in the threads.

Ive had bolts that feel like they will snap ,the tools will snap, the casing will snap, giving them a gentle tap and they came off with little to no effort.

Click to expand...

This is probably (along with s and b) the best advice, aluminium casing and steel plug in the presence of salty water off the road results in a galvanic reaction and essentially welds the two metals together, the aluminium corrodes into the steel and they stick, tap with a hammer should be sufficient to break the bond.

as S and B pointed out heating oils in confined spaces is unlike to end well.

Welding isn't just heat tho - its the sparks i hate
they get everywhere

Just an Odd thought? However it'll mean the cat and rad will be hot
Is trying it with the engine warm (not scolding hot)

heat can help, but has to be done properly

Protect your arms properly


Ziggy

i bought a socket with 12mm allen key in it, and the plug came out easily

i never did manage to get the sump plug out of my old panda gearbox. (the box was dead anyway)

i can suggest something though. on my sump plug there was a lip, not much of one but just enough to get a pair of stilsons on. that was the only way i got mine off the new gearbox. hell i even had an impact hammer on it but that just rounded off the hex hole

Dragon Man said:

i never did manage to get the sump plug out of my old panda gearbox. (the box was dead anyway)

i can suggest something though. on my sump plug there was a lip, not much of one but just enough to get a pair of stilsons on. that was the only way i got mine off the new gearbox. hell i even had an impact hammer on it but that just rounded off the hex hole

Click to expand...

Yea soft material and seized in, coulda seen that coming lol

Ziggy