A while back the Walmart Lube Center stripped my oil pan and put a temporary plug in without telling me a thing about it. The next time I got my oil changed was at Super Lube- the mechanic there told me about it, took out the temp, and put in a pan saver. I have had that for like a year and just went to Tire Kingdom to get my oil changed again. They refused to do it because it’s "against their policy" to touch a car with that kind of plug. When I went back to Super Lube, I was told that the pan saver was not a "temporary fix", as the guy at Tire Kingdom said, but actually a permanent plug. He said it was just different from the threaded plug that was there before because the pan was stripped out.
Is this pan saver a real fix to save me the money of a new pan? If the pan saver does need to be replaced, can I safely take it out during an oil change and replace it with another one? I don’t want to have to pay 0 to replace the oil pan but I am scared my car is going to eventually start leaking oil.
*Update*: A mechanic that I know personally (that I trust) has told me that he can tap out my plug with a special instrument that creates new threads, thereby making the drain hole the next size up and putting in a new threaded bolt. Apparently, it is not a self-threading bolt:
they tap it out with new threads first, then install the new bolt. He says unless I do this, no one but Super Lube will ever touch my car because of liability issues. Should I do this or just leave the pansaver plug in?
