Safe Speed Forums

Today, I had to change the oil on my Clio. I bought some oil from the hardware store (Wilkinsons has cheap oil) but when I went to take put the sump plug, I couldn't take it out - it had a square hole in it, and I had no tool. No worries. I took the handle off the kitchen door, and it had a square piece of steel inside, that fitted well. I could turn it with an adjustable spanner, Out came the plug, and ten minutes later, I was ready to run. So that's the 60,000 mile service taken care of! Actually, I've having a bloke down the road change the cam belt for £100.

I hope this help someone else. Anybody else make use of weird tools?

does a ratchet of the appropriate size fit as it is a square hole? Teng do a box of drain plug removers. DP12 is the part number.

It irritates me when manufacturers eschew standard toolings for proprietary ones. Do they really expect to force us to use a main dealer for an oil change, or at the very least pay money for tools that fulfil a single purpose on a single make and/or model of vehicle!?

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

A quarter inch square socket wrench is hardly proprietary. Old fashioned ( I believe that Noah used one for draining the bilges on his Ark) but not proprietary. Engineers often specify slightly unusual tooling to discourage casual tinkering.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

While that may or may not have fulfilled the purpose (I have never seen a sump plug requiring a socket driver to loosen it, one of us may have misunderstood the OP, read it again maybe before being condescending) it is not the only example of this sort of thing I have heard of and/or encountered. It is hardly tinfoil-hat stuff to suspect that many maintenance tasks are being made harder for the home mechanic in order to protect the interests of the main dealers.

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

The filler plug in the differential on one of my cars takes a 3/8" square key - a socket drive works nicely.

My Smart does not even have a drain plug, the oil has to be sucked out of the dipstick tube! The rest of the fasteners on the car are torx ones too. You you can buy after market sump pans with drain plugs though.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

As I said. Fasteners with Torx, raised centre Torx, tri-lobe and such heads are used in all sorts of consumer goods to prevent casual tampering without preventing serious DIYers doing the jobs. A good set of bits for these screws only costs a few tens of pounds.

Square sump plugs hark back to an earlier engineering era. I remember working with my father on textile machinery dating from the early 1900s and there wasn't a hexagon to be seen.

What does annoy me when car manufacturers eschew proper engineering fasteners in favour of various kinds of plastic clips which can only be released and refitted a couple of times before failing. Door shells are the worst for this

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Square socket drain plugs are not at all unusual. I've got a tool that looks like a dumbbell with different sized/shaped "keys" sprouting in all directions for undoing various drain plugs. I reckon I must have had it 25 years. What really annoys me is when manufacturers use different types/sizes of fixing in the same part so you need two or three tools instead of one.

Absolutely, fortunately an open ended spanner worked great, as the square was protruding. I take it from the OP that the square in his case was inset however.

'Preventing casual tampering' is all very well as an excuse, but why should a user not tamper with their own possessions? It'll void the warranty, absolving the manufacturer from any obligation to repair their mistakes, and warning labels aply protect them against any health and safety issues.

Its not like Torx is the only alternative, there are truly proprietary toolings in use out there, particularly on motor vehicles.

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

That's right. That's why I had to take the kitchen door handle apart - to get at that steel bar that fits into the sump plug.
The family were waiting to go out, so I had to do something. I'll remember next time.

PS: in Munich garages, they often have a long probe that goes down your dip stick (!) for sucking all the oil out. It only takes 2 minutes to do an oil change, with one of those.

On A class merc this is the ONLY way to do an oil change since there is no sump plug!

(You can only get about 3/4 of the oil out too. I recon it leaves a good litre in the bottom)

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

It doesn't matter too much, IMO. It all gets mixed up, and flushed out the next time you change it.
It means you have to change it more often, but you put less in, so it evens out.

They use that system on boat engines a lot as there's rarely enough room under the engine to get a tray under it to collect the oil. They're increasingly being used in the auto industry becaue they're quick and easy and you don't have to disturb the sump plug and risk an oil leak. I don't like them because (as has been said) you tend to get a fair bit of oil left behind and if there is any serious detritus in the oil, it will probably (sod's law!) be in the stuff that's left behind.

Way back when lots of brake calipers needed a 7mm Allen Key and Halfruads and the like didn't stock them, just sets of the even numbers. Thankfully there's a great engineers supplies place locally.

I also remember trying to do the brakes on a Saab 900, you needed a tool to wind the piston back into the caliper and since we had to go to the dealers anyway we asked to buy one, only to be told it was a 'trade only' item. So we just made one. What with the internet you can get anything now, and even Halfrauds sell all sorts of fancy kit.

I don't entirely subscribe to the notion that all these new fasteners are just done to make thing awkward for DIYers. The car manufacturers never much took to the Allen screw. Allen screws aren't very good at taking a lot of torque, the tolerances aren't very tight between the key and fastener. Bikes have a lot of them but that's mainly for cosmetic reasons. Torx and their rivals are much better in this respect and have become universal on modern cars probably because of ease of reliable assembly. As for the number of very similar but incompatible types, that's probably down to rival patented systems by different fastener manufacturers.

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

Reminds me of the hardware shop proprietor in Buxton who once assured me that Pozidrive screws would never catch on because they needed special tools. Surprisingly the shop (but not the prop) is still there.

Alan screws are popular on bikes also because the keys are much lighter and more compact than the corresponding spanners.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

No reason at all. But it is reassuring to know that some child or stranger can't take all the screws out with a pocket knife.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Looking at my tractor today and the front hubs need a 1/2inch drive ratchet, impact wrench, t bar or what every to drain them. It keeps the Plug flush with the outside of the hub. Loads our drain plugs are 1/2inch drive or need big hex key, very occasionally you can use a spanner. I think the Combine just has a tap for draining the engine oil and hydraulic oil with a pipe on the end of it so you can drain the oil standing on the floor.

There are all manner of special tools for different vehicles - bent plug spanners for old VW's, Clutch alignment tools for... VW's and clones, etc. so what is the most annoying tool you have ever encountered - aside from Gordon Brown!?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

He's the most annoying fool, not tool. The most annoying tools are those flimsy, reversible ratchet screwdrivers.