Drain bolt oil leak. Drop some knowledge

Minimal oil leak from drain bolt after first oil change. I changed oil myself. I was careful to initially hand tighten with crush plug gasket in place and was weary of stripping. Didn't overtighten. Cleaned off bolt afterwards. Checked a week later and was oily. Cleaned again. A week later oily again.

What did my dumb@ss screw up? Somehow stripped it?

Background: I've changed oil on all my vehicles for several years now without issue.

Drop some knowledge on me...or wise cracks

 

I’ve got no magic for you, but good attitude about it!

 

Did you put a new oil plug gasket on it or reuse the old one?

 

I'm guessing you just need to snug it up a little tighter. It's pretty hard to strip that with just hand-tools (it can be done, but takes effort). Did you use a new crush washer, or ensure that one was clean and undamaged?

 

I used a new one.

 

Removed the old one first?

 

Yes Sir

 

I have a confession… I have 55k on my 18’ never replaced the washer…. No leaks… yet.

 

Torque it to 30 ft-lb and see if that helps. It would be a shame to dump your fresh oil if the washer is bad. Not much here to go wrong.

 

it's totaled.

 

eBay washer or from dealer . This is the only thing I can think of

 

Once the blue rubber starts to get cut up I replace it.

Two words, torque wrench.

 

Most of the questions I would’ve asked are answered. You didn’t double up or forget the gasket. Did you use a torque spec or just gudntite?

 

Those drain plug gaskets stiff.
They can make you think it’s tight when it isn’t.
You have to keep going until it stop. (You’ll feel it bottom out and crush)
Then one good “half grunt” and it should be fine.

 

Did you wipe around the drain hole and the plug with a rag? The only additional possibility I can think of is debris around the hole causing it to not seal when torqued.

 

The last two oil changes from my dealership leaked and all I had to do was tighten a little more and it was all good. I mentioned this to dealership and they seemed not to care. I'm thinking to start doing this myself in the future.

 

As ridiculous as it sounds, I usually use a torque wrench. It takes the guess work out of it.

 

fuck it, RTV the hell out of the bolt edges and deal with it on the next oil change.

 

I changed the oil in my tundra from day one, and never used a new oil drain bolt gasket. Had it for 19 years, and 292k miles, never had an issue leaking.
I'm wondering if the op has a piece of the old crush washer still stuck on the pan thats causing the new one not to seat properly.

 

Goodntite so far...but I bought a torque wrench and will tighten to 30 lb/ft when I take a work break in 5 min.