can you REUSE crush washers? (mechanics secret) 

Dude I just did this on my Mercedes power steering hose fitting. Holy cow. Worked like a charm!! Saved me a lot of grief!

Lol, my 50k usage on a nissan armada would argue that if the bolt is tightened enough... it wont leak. Good video and explanation of your process. Cheers.

Glad I am not the only one that does this hack when I don't have one near by. Thank you, stay safe, God Bless.

I also heat them up glowing a bit with a torch or on the stove, it will help restore the thickness. Works for Cooper head gaskets as well.

Thanks, you just saved me days looking for new crush washers for my fuel rail! Cheers

I'm glad this video randomly popped up on my feed !

Heat it with torch to a glow. Anneal it. Or do both…sand first and then anneal. You can also quench it in cold water after you get it glowing hot. Copper doesn’t harden when quenched like regular steel. The quench of cold water is just a second option…to rapidly make it draw up to a puffy shape ready to be squeezed.

Brake caliper bolt will fit without the washers. It takes 2 but will fit with one. Stripped the tip of my banjo bolt so I’m slimming out my copper washers to save that 7$ for a new bolt. Worked great! Took some time though

This video saved my project car. I couldn't find new washer for the gasoline filter! Thanks for the knowledge

Great video! Can I use a crush washer that's slightly smaller in thickness (1 mm in stead of 1,5) or will the fitting on banjo bolts not allow that?

"Crush" is an important property of crush washers. The Copper in a new washer is soft and crushable, which produces a good seal. But Copper undergoes work-hardening. Once you've crushed it, it becomes hard and doesn't crush well the 2nd time. You could anneal the metal but it's still going to be thinner than the original.

I should have tried reusing old fuel filter crush washer recently. I put the old ones back on only to have it leaked terribly and I couldn't find any shops with the appropriate size washers. Next time I'll try sending them down.

I must correct this. Copper is a soft elemental metal and will rapidly work harden when subjected to say, compression forces and will fail if exercised (try bending Cu cable back and forth and see what happens). Cu gaskets CAN be reused, simply by annealing, whereas rubbing it with abrasive will simply drive carbide particulate into the softer metal. To anneal: Heat to cherry red and drop in cold water.

You can only crush a crush gasket so many times... the process is called plastic deformation. You are crushing it to the point that from the inside out the metal is deformed and pushed outwards. Which is also the reason sometimes it is difficult to remove a crush gasket from a bolt. Flattening it out with sandpaper does not make it safe to reuse... The gasket is too thin to be crushed and will take more force then prior to create a seal. Which means an improper seal and more torque required to seal, hence damaged threads.

That finger nail...

I've got a stainless steel 12X22X1.0mm crush washer sitting here. Dealer order item, 6 weeks lead time and $25 from Germany. Will try this method instead, thanks!

Great! I bought a caliper that didn't come with banjo washers, and non of the auto parts stores carry them. I will try re-using the old ones. And I did not know that Harbor Freight carried those. I go to Harbor Freight all the time.

I have changed oil on every car I owned for over 30 years. Never replaced a drain plug washer on any of them, and none ever leaked.

What a tip! Love it - thank you so much!

Great tips. I'm sure I will use this in the future.

Just what I need. God bless you. Thank you SIR!

Thanks for the video, I did it once without issue. No leaking. But can you tell what many time can I do that? I have a hard time in finding a correct size of crush washer....

great tips, but sounds like a perfect episode of intergalactic television

Making the washers flat is only half of the process. Copper washers are annealed to be more ductile and tightening them, along of many random heatcycles, may remove that process' advantage. To do a proper job you'd have to first flatten them and then go through the whole annealing process again... Definitely a waste of time and money when copper washers are so cheap!

This video is incredible, thanks for being so thorough and straight forward, I appreciate hearing the thought process.

You deserve more subscribers. Thanks.

great tip! thank you

180°flip, worked on rear differential drain plug

If you tighten the Banjo bolt (on the rear brake wheel cylinder e. g.) with crash washers on both sides of the fitting (in my case it was a brake hose end, where the banjo bolt goes) and then release it a bit to adjust the position of the end of the hose (in my case it was on the way of the Bleeder Valve), then you tighten it back, is it O'K or not, and you need to replace the washers? How such operations like slight release and followed tightening effect the washers? Would be good to know. Thank you for the film.

Can you use 600 grit sand paper and is annealing it a help too

You need to heat them orange/cherry red and cool in water. Then the metal reliefs. Do not use sandpaper!

I just bought 10 copper washers for two bucks on Aliexpress, what makes 0.2 apiece... is it worth sanding and reusing it for 0.2$? I only would consider reusing it if I was performing some sort of emergency repair and I found myself without a spare washer on hand, other than that, not worth it.

This is such great news! I waste so many hours of my life looking for the right size washers. With this, i can always use the original size :) I do wonder if putting the washer in a flat-jawed vice first might help flatten it out some? It should reduce sanding time, but i've never tried it :) Next time I do an oil change i'll let you guys know.

Can you just use the other side of the washer?

When using curved crush washers on auto brake caliper line, does it matter which way the washers are pointed? I had a leak once where I had a mechanic say I put the washers on wrong. Odd thing is, I tried it both ways.

How much both of crush washer and banjo bolt

i never replaced the oil drain crush washer of my camry for more than 10 yrs already....i always torque the bolt to 33ft-lb and never more

Nice

Great video. Not always do I find useful videos like this. I tried the washer reheating trick and guess what, it made no sense. This seems to be the correct solution :)

For all the sanding effort and time I think I'll just put on a new washer and be sure it seals.

would 120 grit paper work?

Genius!

Old copper pennies work probably. Project idea anyway.

Can i do the same with my 1mm thick washer? engine oil leaking from there

Is it worth risking your engine for such a tiny tiny savings?

I think you just showed many guys how to create a wedding band from a crush washer and sand paper. Simple!

Good tip. I assume you meant "drops into the engine bay" lol big difference.

Wow....You've got patience for days!!!. Not alotta people are gonna go for this. Bless You.

Next time clean it from oil then sand it so sand paper will last you thanks

Much arguing about minutiae. He makes the point that specific sizes can be hard to find or the needed size is lost. Also states you can thin too much. What about that one-off tractor hose repair in the field? Spend days waiting for the correct one? Surely the perfectionists wouldn’t settle for HF washers! Often this is on a job not planned and not in the shop. Guys, try to not get wrapped up in one way. Think outside the box. On topic, I have heated them and also reused them cold and have seldom noted a difference. Then again people won’t rebuild wheel cylinders or anything else anymore so... making due is now hack?

This is a normal brass washer, nothing to do with crush washers, u cannot reuse crush washers as they get crushed when using them ??

So much labor and time for such a inexpensive part. Just replace it. Most auto oil filters include a new crush washer for the drain plug.

Almost allways reuse those.

They’re like 2 cents..

Thanks for the video but that seems like a lot of work for a 10 cent part...

Not only have you reduced the thickness, the molecular structure of the copper has changed from being crushed once before. It will no longer deform as intended. I once came across a motorcyclist on the side of the road that had an oil drain plug rattle loose at highway speeds because he reused a crush washer. His rear tire was instantly coated in oil. He had his girlfriend on the back and somehow managed to safely come to a stop. Don't ever reuse crush washers. Telling people to do this could be very dangerous.

it's like not even $10 to buy a box of every size of copper washer there is on ebay

Flip em over

I make that sandpaper 😂🤙🏻

My coolant pressure house won't stop leaking i hope to god this works i have been ripping my hair out all week

why would you go thru all this trouble for 39 cents. Really?

The Smoking Rooster in a 120 years doing more than 5 times the recommended oil changes I have never replaced a washer on any of my cars, lawn mowers, motorcycles, boats, jet engines, tanks, rocket ships, or ufos, cause they are just way too damn expensive...

as detailed as you seem to be in applications for sealing, the bronze bushing is no where near a crushable substance or it wouldn't last as a bushing. it's a mixture of composites according to the wear factors of it's application. they're not soft like copper. they're like brake shoes. the only thing i can think of as why to reuse and reshape crush washers even if new ones are so cheap is the quality of an old crush washer far outshines the quality of today's products, which are pure junk and not meant to have a service life that's expected to last. almost all new products are entirely junk, we sold ourselves out by thinking a savings of 10 cents was worth it, while china put businesses out of operation by having their wares a few pennies cheaper. and now that the quality companies are gone, who's the top dog now in sales? china. now they have monopoly and can regulate the prices for junk. to compete with that american retailers think they can only buy cheap junk too from china. assemble it here or not whatever and what happens? customer dissatisfaction 100% unless you're too young to know what quality once was. getting old sucks because of that.

Oh I dislike youtube nails!!

Or you could spend a buck or two and buy a new one 🤷‍♂️

They are so cheap just buy new ones FFS

Bs crap. I have never replaced these in my life, well maybe once but they continue to work time after time. It is just a money making scam.

🤦🏼‍♂️ it’s 8 cents people. Is it really worth all this?