Quote
Laz
That reminds me of when the dealer broke the plug on my 981 about 2 years ago: not that 37 is much too high, but maybe they torqued significantly more, thus cracking it.
Here's a very rough comparison: the cam cap bolts on Alfa 1750 engines are spec'd to 14, and considering all the stress, that torque was adequate, so for mere pan bolts, 7 seems plenty.
Drain plug is like any other coponent it can fail at any time, but they thankfully seldom fail at any time. However, what often results in the early/premature demise of the Boxster drain plug is somone loosens the drain plug without inserting the tool bit all the way into the hole. The hole and bit are a close enough fit that there can be some resistance when inserting the bit and one stops short of inserting the tool bit all the way. The plug is loosened but drain plug is very stressed because the bit was not inserted all the way. The plug gets deformed and now a tool bit very likely can't be inserted in all the way because a ridge had developed where the tool bit ended. When the plug is torqued down the bit again isn't (can't be) inserted all the way and the plug can then fail as it is not capable of withstanding the torque with only half its tool bit socket being used.
This kind of happened to me. I had my Boxster's oil/filter changed at a quicky lube place. The dealer was booked up solid and I was leaving on a road trip and didn't want to run the oil any longer than it had already been run. to change the oil/filter myself required lug ramps, drain pan, oil/fitler, tools, 30 miles to the office and do the oil change on the floor of the shipping bay. I thought with me superintending things would be ok. But I failed to detect the tech didn't insert the tool bit in far enough. He mananged to get the drain plug out ok and back in ok and I drove the car 5K miles on a road trip and in a few weeks was back at the local dealer to get the oil/filter changed at its 5K mile interval.
The tech found the hole deformed to the point he had to hammer the bit into the hole to get it deep enough he could unscrew the drain plug without it breaking. Luckily he had a spare old drain plug in good shape which he gave me. I ordered a couple of new ones and gave him one to replace the one he gave me and next oil change had the used one replaced with the new one. I keep a new drain plug in the console of both cars.