Nissens Radiator Drain Plug

[Tommm]

I haven't seen this on the interwebz so I will share my stupidity.

The Behr radiator I put in about 16,000 miles and 3.5 years ago has a slow leak. I ordered a Nissens for the 128i. It is for the manual or automatic 128i. It comes with a short and long plug in a bag, and a short and long plug in the radiator.

Since I have a manual I need to remove the long plug on the driver side and replace it with the short plug. The hex nut that is part of the plug fits a 19MM-3/4" socket snugly. I stress the snugly part. I used the socket because I wanted even pressure when installing it.

I lined up the tabs with notches, pressed, turned until it clicked, and thought I was done. When pulling the socket off, I pulled the plug, snapping the two tabs.

Nissens customer service is top notch. They sent me another set of plugs.

Lesson learned, knowledge I am sharing the hard way is don't use a socket! Insert the plug that goes into the plug, and use a big screwdriver to press it in and turn.

As an experiment to see how much force is needed to get the socket off, I inserted one of the plugs in my 3/4" socket with the heavier 1/2" drive craftsman wrench and for additional weight I attached my vice grip to the socket as seen in the picture. I then held the plug with the two wrenches hanging and they didn't fall. Since I was in the kitchen, I didn't start hanging more stuff to see how much it needed to come loose. If I did, the stuff would have either landed on my toe, or on the tile. Not sure which is worse, a broken toe, or my wife after I crack a tile. So I stopped with those two things.

I can't say enough nice things about the customer support at Nissens. I explained the above, and sent the picture. She told me it was forwarded to Denmark. They may add a recommendation to the instructions to not use a socket when installing the plug.