Oil pump drain plug

[Porsche_Joe]

There is a drain plug on the bottom of the oil pump. Mine was loose and some oil dripped out. I have since tightened the plug but I am concerned about it since the oil did not seem to be engine oil. Does anyone know if anything other than engine oil would be present in this area? If it is something other than engine oil, what kind of oil is it and where is the fill hole?

[deliriousga]

The only drain plugs I know of are the two for oil, one on the bottom of the differential for draining and one on the back of it for filling, one for the coolant and maybe one for the tranny if you have an auto (not sure of that since I have a manual one).

Do you have a pic of the plug? When I change the oil, I pull the regular drain plug that uses an allen wrench and the plug on the right side of the car in front of the tire (it's a 17mm hex bolt with a spring and plug on the inside). If that's the one you're talking about, it is engine oil. If you pull that one when changing the oil, about 1 1/2 quarts come out of it.

[Porsche_Joe]

Thanks for the information. I don’t remember the size of the hex bolt but 17mm may be right. I looked at the exploded view in the shop manual and the plug I am referring to has the spring and plug inside, however, it is located at the front center of the engine, near the coolant drain plug.

The oil was very thick, similar to transmission oil. If that is engine oil then the oil does not drain from this area during normal oil changes. It seems that the oil may be “trapped” in this area which would help explain the consistency I noticed. Perhaps this area should be drained periodically so it is replaced with fresh oil.

[deliriousga]

That's the one. I know it's engine oil because of my mistake the first time I changed the oil. I popped that one out and drained and only got the 1 1/2 quarts so I knew I got the wrong plug. I popped the real drain plug and got the rest of the oil out. To find out if the other plug was motor oil, I put both plugs back in and filled the oil system. Then I popped the one you're talking about off again to see if oil came pouring out and it did. It's all connected inside.

[Porsche_Joe]

Thanks, I feel a lot better since you got fresh oil the second time. The consistency of the oil was much thicker than Mobil 1 and it even smelled different leading me to believe I was getting something other than engine oil. This tells me that oil in this area tends to stay put when the engine oil is drained. As I stated earlier, perhaps this should be drained periodically especially considering the information in your post. Thanks for responding to my post.