MIssing Crush Washer?
 

I'm going through a list of items on a new to me 2001 Boxster S and am in the middle of an oil change.

Order my parts from Pelican, including filter, o-ring, and crush washer.

However when I removed the drainplug, there is no crush washer. There have been no leaks and there's no evidence there was any leakage previously. The drain plug was torqued on pretty tight. I thought maybe the crush washer became mated with the oil pan, so I took a small pick and tried to see if maybe it just didn't separate, but it's either not there, or it's become totally fused to the oil pan.

Has anyone else come across a situation where the crush washer was missing, or where it became so fused to the oil pan that you couldn't tell where the oil pan stops and the crush washer starts?

I thought it was possible the washer fell into my oil catch basin, but I've emptied it and I can't find the old crush washer anywhere.

Thoughts?

Chris

This happens sometimes, even with double washers. No real problem. It harpens the senses for future changes ;-)

And sometimes the washer is still there but has been crushed into the plug so that it appears to be part of it.

The crush washer is made of soft metal so you don't do damage to the threads in the pan requiring really expensive removal and rework. My bet is the over torquing is an indication that the last oil change didn't use it and so had to over tighten the plug. I always used a new one and ordered them by the bunch.

"A 18 x 24 x 1.5 mm" is the correct designation according to DIN 7603; the material is aluminium (as is the oil pan). The drain plug (M18x1,5) is made of steel and the tightening torque in this combination is 50 Nm. You can/should choose a magnetic version of the drain plug, but make sure that the plug itself is still made of steel (and not aluminium), otherwise the tightening torque may be too high. Copper washer require less contact pressure, but it's not difficult to stay within the standard and do what Porsche specifies....