I thought I would give my nice new TD5 Disco a quick oil and filter change - 10 minutes I thought.

A quick drive around the block to warm up the oil - went underneath with a 17mm socket wrench. Removed the round plastic shroud insert....and of course the F*&^%$g sump plug had been rounded by a previous owner.


Ah I thought, I have a special socket for these problems - with a cluster of pins that surrounds a rounded off nut and helps grip it. It did grip, but then my socket wrench snapped !

Luckily I had a hardly used oil extraction pump in the garage, which looks like this:


I remember from memory that this needs the oil to be quite hot to allow the oil to run freely - so off I went for a 5-mile drive. It actually worked quite well and removed about 6.5L of oil via the dipstick tube. I then changed the centrifugal oil filter (that was easy) - but the sodding canister oil filter was too awkward to remove by hand and my filter wrench couldn't get clearance. I guess I will have to buy one of those special tools advertised for the purpose:



I will have to get an Irwin bolt remover that bites into the nut when you undo it to get the old sump plug off and put the new one I bought:



Maybe then, next time it will be a 10-minute job !!

Sorry to hear you had such issues on a "simple" job. I've stopped putting a time to jobs now as I'm always a good few hours out?!

In the past ive used a set of mole grips on sump plugs like that and been very careful

Littelwill said:

Sorry to hear you had such issues on a "simple" job. I've stopped putting a time to jobs now as I'm always a good few hours out?!

Click to expand...

That's the LR spirit!! so true!!

davcud said:

In the past ive used a set of mole grips on sump plugs like that and been very careful

Click to expand...

Since owning a Disco 1, I have learned that the only spanners to use on the soft as crap hex nuts and bolts fitted on them are "six point" sockets or ring spanners.
Your sump plug will be a result of an attack with a 12 point, or a bodge job, I wish you luck with it's eventual removal.
And another thing......why on earth would anyone use a 10mm AF hexagon head on an 8mm friction head bolt on many places on the engine, (they must have bought a truckload of 'em cheap from Japan), I'm actively replacing them with 13mm AF's as I "chisel" the old ones off.
But that being said, I'd rather push my Land Rover Disco than drive a "rice burner".

GingerPuss said:

I will have to get an Irwin bolt remover that bites into the nut when you undo it to get the old sump plug off and put the new one I bought:

Maybe then, next time it will be a 10-minute job !!

Click to expand...

Mind and buy the extra set as well, the blue case even has room for them, under the cardboard insert!

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/must-have-tools.287409/

Yers ago I had the same issue with a Fiesta. Think I used a rasp to 'straighten'/ smooth the edges of the plug, till it there were enough straight edges that were 'good' enough to get a spanner on. Took a while, but it worked

A pipe wrench is your friennd...

Some good ideas there guys. I have to say that I find the oil extraction pump quite handy. No ramps, tools or tray needed.

As previously said:- pipe wrench or you could try small stilsons.

We do get some ridiculous suggestions on here - what possible use could a small piece of blue cheese be when trying to remov.....Oh.

I'll get my coat.

Blue cheese has been reported somewhere as being a stimulant for the brain, so perhaps with this extra brain power it might be possible to work out an easy solution to the problem.

Can't afford a coat so I'll just creep away.