I was changing the oil on my 2001 ES300 and managed to strip the oil drain bolt. There is a slight leak, and the bolt can be rotated indefinitely in the hole. I'm not sure what to do. The local shops won't be able to give me an appointment for a week or two, and I am not comfortable driving the car under the circumstances. There must be a simple solution to this. Anyone have any ideas?

 

You can run a tap though the threads but you risk getting metal particles into the engine and it probably won't fix the thread anyway. There are repair kits but I'm not a fan, I replace the entire pan.

Don't drive the car until the leak is fixed. 12102-20010 is about $160 online or check here
https://www.amayama.com/en/part/toyota/1210220010

 

Thank you Lexus2000. I re-tapped the hole. We'll see how long it works!

 

Sounds like you acknowledge the risk of metal shavings ruining your engine.

 

You can get a replacement pan for a small cost. The job is very messy though.

 

I would just go to a local DIY junk yard. If you have one, there are probably atleast 10 maybe 20 cars with your engine and a perfectly good pan for maybe $20 just sitting there. I wouldn't wait to long on that. Or trust those threads for another oil change cycle.

 

Oh yes, yes it is. And tedious to do correctly.

All you have to do is dump some oil down the fill hole and wash the shavings into the drain pan. Easy-peasy. A fuel oil/oil mix, then oil, is even better. Did not delete the oil filter like a '60s air-cooled Bug? You are covered.

If a pan is really cheap, not bad. But they used FIPG to seal these IIRC and it's a many-hour job (part of it on your back unless you have a lift) to really strip that off both surfaces to make a new, clean install. Flushing is way faster and easier. I would rather replace a cork gasket every 100k than an FIPG gasket every 200k...

 

Exactly, I've done it twice, the first time was reusing the original pan, the second time I got a new aftermarket pan and it was a perfect fit. Way easier to clean off the block mounting surface than the crevices on the pan.