Getting Beat By An Oil Plug

I have a list of things I need to do with the GT6 to make it ready and safe to drive on the road. It’s roadworthy and legal, but there are a couple of things I’d like to check off before taking it anywhere farther than the neighborhood. For example, I want to change the oil since I don’t know when my Dad last did this. And I’d like to have the brakes looked at — they seem mushy — because I feel like they should stop me faster if I put the brakes on hard.

Today, I set out to do the oil change. And I failed.

I picked up oil yesterday and borrowed a jack and jack stands from a neighbor — they’re too small for the truck he now owns, so I’m borrowing them indefinitely. I have extra oil filters that my Dad stocked up on over the years.

After driving to a local gas station to fill up on ethanol-free gas, I came home, looked through the Owners Workshop Manual just for good measure, then jumped on the Triumph Experience message boards to see if the general consensus was to use Teflon tape on the plug or not. Don’t ever do this. It’s right up there with researching what oil viscosity you should use. It will break the internet and when you recover days later, you won’t feel like your question was ever answered.

So, no tape it was, and I had finally convinced myself to just go for it.

I jacked the car up, put a stand under, looked under the car at the sump pan and thought to myself, “what in the hell am even I looking at here?!”

I expected the oil plug to be a square 1/4″ bolt with tapered threading.

This is clearly some sort of aftermarket oil plug, probably what some of the folks on the message board refer to as a “plug in a plug.” Jen found what is likely this product (or one very similar to it) and my concern is that the yellow sealant may indicate this was cranked in to make it more or less permanent, and removal may be impossible.

Either way, I’m scared of breaking the valve, so I’ll need to take it somewhere to have them put it on a lift where I can see it better. It will cost me at least something, but the risk of breaking the value isn’t one I’m willing to take.

I really needed a win today to instill some confidence. What a disappointment today turned out to be!