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I'm prepping my 1993 Honda Civic for sale, but I had to correct a few problems first. The radiator fan had stopped working and the threads in the oil pan for the drain plug were stripped, so the car was constantly dripping oil. My mechanic quoted me $500 for a replacement drain pan and labor, which is almost half of what the car is worth. He would need another $50 just to check the fan problem. I decided to seek alternatives.
For the oil leak, I decided to use an expanding rubber drain plug instead of swapping out the pan, but only after I couldn't tap the drain plug hole with an oversized drain plug designed to cut new threads into the pan. This is a 17 year old car with 17 years worth of grease, oil, and gunk coating everything under the engine. I knew this was going to be a messy job, and I started off using a large sham-wow cloth to wipe off my hands, tools, and the replacement drain plug. But even after vigorous wiping with the sham wow cloth, my hands and tools were still slick from oil residue.
After a while, the sham wow cloth had absorbed too much grease and oil to be of any further use. I looked around for something else and spied a TurtleWax Rapid Dry PVA drying cloth I bought from Big Lots last year, used once, and decided I liked water magnets better. I wasn't using the PVA cloth for anything else, so I thought "Why not?"
The PVA cloth was AWESOME for dealing with oil and grease. It effectively removed all traces of residue from my hands (left them feeling clean and dry) and my tools. It was completely usable for the entire job, despite how loaded up with gunk it became. The PVA cloth was pretty thrashed by the time I was done. I finished up using it to clean the bottom of the oil pan so I could monitor if I had really stopped the leak (I did).
I just improvised, otherwise I would've never have thought of using it for this purpose. I'm gonna load up on a couple more for future jobs.
And the radiator fan problem? Blown fuse. Swapped it out with a 17 year old spare from the fuse box. My alternative fix to the my mechanic's quote came out to $6 for the rubber plug, $15 for the new oil and filter, and $5 for the PVA cloth for a total of $21, as opposed to $550
For the oil leak, I decided to use an expanding rubber drain plug instead of swapping out the pan, but only after I couldn't tap the drain plug hole with an oversized drain plug designed to cut new threads into the pan. This is a 17 year old car with 17 years worth of grease, oil, and gunk coating everything under the engine. I knew this was going to be a messy job, and I started off using a large sham-wow cloth to wipe off my hands, tools, and the replacement drain plug. But even after vigorous wiping with the sham wow cloth, my hands and tools were still slick from oil residue.
After a while, the sham wow cloth had absorbed too much grease and oil to be of any further use. I looked around for something else and spied a TurtleWax Rapid Dry PVA drying cloth I bought from Big Lots last year, used once, and decided I liked water magnets better. I wasn't using the PVA cloth for anything else, so I thought "Why not?"
The PVA cloth was AWESOME for dealing with oil and grease. It effectively removed all traces of residue from my hands (left them feeling clean and dry) and my tools. It was completely usable for the entire job, despite how loaded up with gunk it became. The PVA cloth was pretty thrashed by the time I was done. I finished up using it to clean the bottom of the oil pan so I could monitor if I had really stopped the leak (I did).
I just improvised, otherwise I would've never have thought of using it for this purpose. I'm gonna load up on a couple more for future jobs.
And the radiator fan problem? Blown fuse. Swapped it out with a 17 year old spare from the fuse box. My alternative fix to the my mechanic's quote came out to $6 for the rubber plug, $15 for the new oil and filter, and $5 for the PVA cloth for a total of $21, as opposed to $550
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