In a rush to get the screw out to drain your oil pan, you twist a little too hard with the wrong wrench and the next thing you know, you have a plug that is still firmly in place and an oil pan full of oil you can't get out. Unfortunately, this kind of thing can and does happen to unwitting car owners all the time, especially since a lot of them change their own oil. This can leave you in a bind for sure, especially since good oil is the lifeblood of your engine. Here are a few things you need to know about a stripped oil drain plug if you ever find yourself in this kind of situation. 

Drilling out the oil plug can be a bad idea.

If you are a little handy and have some good tools in your garage, your first inclination will be to drill the plug out and go buy a replacement. While this can be done, and sometimes it serves as a solution, drilling out the oil drain plug can cause a problem. The debris that you drill out will go right into your oil pan, which is not a good place for any kind of debris to be because the oil in this pan does eventually get cycled up through the engine. 

Finding a replacement plug can be a hassle. 

Most oil pans and drain plugs are made from a heavy cast aluminum. You can go out and buy a replacement oil plug for the oil pan, but if this plug does not seat just right in the bored hole, you can run into another issue because the new plug will probably not seat perfectly in the hole. Plus, if the plug does not fit just right, you can easily cause damage to the threads inside the hole. 

You may have to replace the entire oil pan. 

When an oil drain plug gets stripped, it is best if you take your vehicle to an auto repair shop for help. Even though this looks like a simple problem, it is not uncommon for a professional to choose to replace the entire oil pan, which will come with a newly integrated drain plug. You could spend a lot of time and money trying to get a replacement plug, and that's if you are even able to get the stripped plug out safely, so oil pan replacement is often a more logical solution. 

For more information, contact a company like Frankie & Dylan's Collision.