I want to do one oil change at the drain plug, instead of the dipstick, to get a good, thorough oil drain. For the life of me I cannot find out the torque for the oil drain plug on my 2013 W204 C250 1.8 turbo 4. Does anybody have this number?

Grazie!

 

I finally found this number on the Amsoil and Auto Zone websites....it's 30 Newton Meters, or 22 ft lbs. Just a tip, it's a good idea to do an oil change at the pan every once in a while to get anything left at the bottom of the pan. You wont get this removed through the dipstick entrance.

 

I just take a ratchet and hand tighten, then give it a good pull to snug it up tight. Torque specs are not that super important for oil pan plugs, transmission pan plugs. They are important when installing items such as cylinder heads. Bolts stretch when tightened. New bolts are highly suggested for all cylinder head installs. Tighten in small increments beginning low then tighter, and in the pattern suggested by the manufacturer - typically from the inside out.

Another are of torque wrench use is tire lug nuts. In the past 40 years of bolting tires to cars I've never used a torque wrench, just lug wrenches and an occasional breaker bar with a socket. Tighten too tight, and chances of messing up the threads are good. I did that only ONCE...on a Honda. Wound up buying new bolts and taking the entire hub off to install.

MB has these strange little "shortie" lug bolts for my SLK spare rim. It has the small inflatable tire in the trunk, which I thought strange. I just inflated my spare to max PSI and left it in the trunk where next to no luggage can fit anyway. Regular alloy wheel use these longer bolts, the spare uses the shorter ones.

leave it up to MB to complicate life with special short spare tire bolts, and inflatable spare tires that have an electric pump stored on top.