Stu
did you also measure the dipstick and put a line on the tube to correspond with the plastic seal on the dipstick and use that as your "it is in far enough" marker, or is that just Me being paranoid about getting every last drop out ?

I use an oil extractor too. There’s markings on the oil extractor itself, so you’ll be able to see how much oil has been sucked out.

Push the tube of the extractor as far as you can into the dipstick hole & lift it just a tiny bit after it reaches the bottom. That’s what I do.

Thanks. I intend to persevere, I don't give up easily! My frustration is mainly aimed at whoever did this to the car.

The torque wrench is bi-directional (Halfords Advanced). There's a nice big arrow indicating which way to push so I'm sure it's been going in the correct direction.

I found a Seigen-branded oil extractor on eBay which seems to be a slightly cheaper version of the Sealey TP69. It said "order within 9 minutes for free next day delivery" (it was nearly 7pm last night) which sounded too good to be true; credit to them (FFX), it did get dispatched very quickly afterwards but Royal Mail didn't fulfil. I'm not too surprised in the current circumstances - maybe it will turn up tomorrow.

When I get back I am hoping to do the things that I've ended up running out of time for this week. The biggest challenge I have, not mentioned in this thread but possibly in others, is parking/garage space - I'm in a three car household with a narrow driveway for two cars, parked virtually bumper-to-bumper one behind the other. Sadly it's generally mine that lives on the road and in any case getting her onto the driveway to do anything with a jack involves a game of musical chairs to move both the other cars down the road and still leaves limited space. There's no opportunity to leave the car in an unroadworthy state for any amount of time without being an inconvenience to everyone. If it's not going to be drivable again by the end of the weekend, I can't really do it.

There's an industrial estate within walking distance so I'm thinking about making enquiries soon and see about getting a permanent space which would give much more confidence and opportunity to tackle jobs. Then if it went awry, it wouldn't be an issue to anyone, whereas at the moment it would be and not just to me.

Last night I mentioned I was going to look at sump replacement options which would be my last resort (it will bug me forever if this plug never comes off); VIDA makes it look quite straightforward but definitely not something I'd try with the current parking situation! And I imagine a genuine sump would be a fortune, based on what I paid for a Volvo exhaust last year. Big Swedish metal bits = £££s it seems. I remember months ago I was on YouTube and watched a video that ended up removing the sump on a five cylinder but a P80 chassis and that involved lifting the engine and all sorts of antics to get it off; VIDA doesn't show anything like that for a P2 - remove oil cooler, take most the screws out the sump, give it a tap and lift off. In theory. But I don't know if I'd trust myself to apply liquid gasket and reseal everything if it came to that! (NOT something I plan to do, just curious. Always interesting to read these procedures.)

I'm getting ahead of myself though, for the near term I'll use vacuum extraction for oil changes and reassess whether I can be bothered with a functioning drain plug when I've got more time available and have seen how well extraction works.

Do you drive two-footed? That's a useful way of doing it. If not, select D, roll forward on the natural creep until you're just on the ramps then very gently squeeze the accelerator (no sudden "stabby" movements - be very smooth and gentle) until it just starts to creep up the ramp. Hold the accelerator there until you feel it literally go off the ramp part onto the flat part at the top - STOP!!! Apply P and/or handbrake, get out and check your alignment on the ramps. If all is well, the tyre will be on the flat part, no about to go over it with the back of the ramps lifting and not still on the ramp part of them.


Job done! :thumbs_up:



I would have been amazed if it had landed today! After 5pm is after the end of the working day for most people so the first working day for despatch is today - that means you should get it tomorrow.

I've been caught by similar and had that explained to me many times - ebay is no help as they only look at calendar days and not working days.

Wouldn't mind betting you end up buying an electric oil extraction pump, much easier than pumping away by hand and to be honest, most Sealey stuff is made in China and has identical unbranded equivalents. Search for a manual tyre changer on ebay, you'll find they start about £40-50. Now search for a Sealey TC960 - identical machine with Sealey stickers starting ~£180! :err:

A welding helmet i bought on Amazon for £24.99 was delivered one thursday to me, on the Friday i was in a car spares/accessories store in Bury St Edmunds and saw the same welding helmet in the same box with a Sealey sticker on - £72.99! Go figure as our stateside cousins say! :err:

I’d agree, it would bug me forever if I didn’t fix the sump plug. Have you tried just using a breaker bar (and maybe a length of fence post) to apply a load of torque to your sump plug? You have not got much to lose, if it snaps off you will have to take the sump off to drill it out anyway. Just remember: righty tightly - left loosy (draw an arrow on the sump before you start gorillaing,

I have an extractor pump (for ATF changes), but it would irritate me not to be able to use the sump plug :-)

Going off topic-
Working for a major parcel carrier, I can't speak for Royal Mail but suspect they are similar, we do collections from clients well into the evening, key question would be how close to the sorting hub and how far to the delivery, Aberdeen to Cornwall isn't going to work but Northampton or London to Oxford would be OK from 7pm order to before 9am delivery. Trouble I've found with ebay is the item location may be given as Northampton or London but it is really still in China and the English location is the import handling service they use to post it in UK by Royal Mail (or whoever), I ordered a window switch supposedly UK stock but it was about a week from when it was 'dispatched' until the tracking number showed it had arrived at the carrier, rechecking at the bottom of the ebay listing the business seller address was China :confused_smile:

Did you try the Stiltson/pipe wrench and scaffold pole? As these tighten and bite the more you swing on the handle, they don’t risk rounding off and letting go. They do chew up the head though, so definitely replacement time once it’s off.

I don't know about the type of sump plug on Ilmoint's P2 S60 but on my V40 and the C70 the head of the plug is only a half depth and there is no way there is enough depth to get a pair of Stilsons to grip - it would just screw off the side and chew the hexagon even further. The only way to undo mine if they were overtightened would be with a six hexagon socket squarely fitted and a breaker bar.

I've not tried the pipe wrench - it only turned up today. But ITSv40 is right - I'm not sure it will easily fit on, I've struggled with clearance on small vice grips. There's very little depth and if not careful you can scrape the surface of the sump above, as the plug is just recessed lightly into it. I've got a 10-inch pipe wrench now but looking at it, I don't see it fitting without scraping against the sump protruding above the plug. Apologies I've not taken any photos of any of this yet.

I might get back under the car again tomorrow if it stops raining as my new undertray has arrived from Sweden (my car's not had one the whole time I've owned it, I suppose some previous mechanic threw it away). I'd like to get that on ASAP as being under the car has made me appreciate how exposed the sump is. I had to run over a large piece of hard plastic in the middle of a B-road on Exmoor a few weeks back; there was nowhere to go and running over it about 45mph but slowing it whipped up and made a right thump against the underside. That incident prompted me to add the undertray to my FRF order.

Thanks for all the suggestions but I'm not going to touch the plug again before the trip, too risky in case I pull the pan threads out. I've already been using six-point sockets but the plug was too rounded to begin with for them to work. Now it's chewed up and useless with regular sockets so those options are out. I don't even have buying an impact as an option as it's not going to fit tightly on. If I try again I'll jack the car up as high as possible, try and get a twist socket on with some more aggressive tapping, and use a breaker bar again.

James

I was a bit reluctant to suggest this method as it's borderline butchery but so far your sump plug hasn't responded to the usual methods.

The one i had in mind starts at ~4:15 in this video, using a hammer and cold chisel to "drift" the nut round. It's shown quite well in the video, as well as some other methods that you might want to try.

https://youtu.be/R5d0Bgvjmlk

See what you think, it's worked for me many times, even on wheel nuts that have been fitted with a windy gun aka air impact wrench.

Granted it'll chew your sump plug but the chances are it's fairly well banjaxed already so no great loss.