2001 Prizm - Which Oil Drain Bolt Gasket Do I Get?

Anthony

New Member
#1
Oooh, today everything has been a project! I was changing the oil on my 2001 Prizm. Getting the old filter off took many attempts. When I removed the oil drain screw, surprise, the old gasket was falling to pieces.

There was no one to give me a ride. So I jogged to an O’Reilly Auto Parts. The clerk handed over a Felpro gasket for my oil drain screw. It was an off white, hard plastic washer. I said, “This doesn’t make sense. How is this supposed to keep oil from leaking out of my engine?”

He did not have an answer, except that is the gasket for my Prizm. Really, I was expecting something pliable, like rubber.

I looked at the Auto Zone website. For the Prizm, they have the same Felpro hard plastic gasket. And they have a pack of 5 gaskets by Needa Parts. This gasket is rubber in the middle and some type of metal around the outside. That looks better than the Felpro gasket.

So which gasket do I need? It seems that the hard plastic gasket would let oil seep out, or if I torque the oil screw too hard, it would just crack and that’s a bad thing.

Thank you for your help.
 
#2
The plastic will soften up to the shape of the flat mating surface of the pan as you apply the proper torque to the oil pan drain plug bolt. The problem with rubber is that the heat will deteriorate, whereas plastic is less susceptible to that.
 
Top