Dealer Oil Change Gone Bad
 

O.K. here's the deal, my son took the Z in for it's second oil change two days ago and yesterday evening, just home from my last 12 hr. day shift, I get this call from him saying the Z is smoking out the sides and something is leaking underneath it! So I tell him to park it and kill the motor, I go out into the garage and discover oil on the floor! There was a pretty good amount of oil on the ground where he had parked it, so she was still leaking out when he killed the motor.

I just called the dealer and they were pushing her in, what do you folks think I should do or push for? I'm a Head Operator at a power plant, worked in numerous power plants, steam plants, refrigeration plants......hell even a few years in a refinery as an operator! So I know all about proper lubrication and how the parts in a car engine work!

First thing that came to mind for me regarding the loss of lubrication in the Z was piston rings, the cylinders, valves and the crank.

Most likely they didnt tighten the drain plug or oil filter all the way...

I'm sorry to hear this. But I'm sure you'll be taken care of properly. There are others on the forum who can chime in who had engines replaced based on oil problems? It will take time for NIssan to diagnose the issue properly before anything is done... Is your car completely stock(oil cooler comes to mind)? If so you should have 0 issues getting this resolved.

Just got a call back from the dealer. A double gasket on the oil filter was the source of the leak! I told the young man to do a complete engine check, for worn or damaged rings, cylinder damage, valves, compression ratios for all cylinders (I want the report w/ numbers also) and that I wanted this event too be notated for this car in their data base! He did not balk at anything I asked for! So, we'll see what's next!

Anyone know where I can get compression ratios for this motor? Is it in the Owners Manual?

It might not hurt to call and inform Nissan North America of this incident incase the dealership "forgets" what happened.

All stock except Invidia CBE.

Oh and the tech at the dealer said that the ECU did issue a "kill command" but I told him that my son turned the motor off!

To be honest, if it were me, after I got the car back I would have it checked by my mechanic(if you have one you have a personal relationship with)

I have seen this many times. I would go to Nissan or the Dealer and demand a 10 year, 100,000 Miles warranty that covers the car. That way any future damages that occur, doesn't come out of your pocket for the dealers negligence or the failure of a Nissan Oil Filter. That will be your best move. Nissan will not do all the checks on the motor, or replace it. FYI.

wow, terrible. double gasket on oil filters... ive never seen that. id like them to take a pict. :icon14:

Actually it is pretty common. The original gasket gets stuck on and the new filter is put on over it without checking . Happened to me once but noticed it right away.

oh i see... i guess a rushed job can result in that. i was trying to imagine 2 o-rings in the filter side. im like how the heck did that happen? :D

PM me if you need their email address. ;)

PM'd you Papo, thanks! It's 4:30pm central time & haven't heard back from them so I'll be calling them shortly, leaving on a Texas Hill Country vacation tomorrow!

yah, hope they come through.

can almost sense they will only clean up their mess, run a quick test drive, and give your car back saying everything's back to normal, sorry here's a coupon for another oil change on us. :icon14:

and it will still smell like burnt oil for a few weeks. :icon14: :icon14:

Very good idea!

Chances are very high that the vehicle lost less than a quart MAYBE two of oil and has suffered no damage at all.

The tech will top it off, clean off the spilled oil spend 5 minutes looking the car over and give it a hard test drive before writing up that the car is fine.

Learn to do your own Oil changes to insure that it's done right.
Sorry to hear what happened, but FuszNissan is spot on with his advice.

Very sorry to hear this. This is one of the reason I have stopped letting dealers touch my car. I'm at 20,000 miles now and ONLY time I let the dealer touch my car was when I broke a lug nut by over tightening (by me). Good luck with the whole thing.

Very good advice. +1 repped. :tup:

Also, there's a oil change DIY in the DIY section. Very easy and satisfying experience.

I think the op knows how to do oil changes (he states he's fluent with engines).

I don't think he has time to do it, that's why he relied on the 'trusty' dealer. Id teach the son how to do it and let him work on it next time. :)

Next call "dad, the tranny won't get into gear and dip stick shows its like got twice the amount of oil... help??" :D ;)

I think it would be great father and son time spent working on the car.

"I never knew my father".....just kidding.

Good Luck OP, let us know the outcome.

I have a 1992 Ford Explorer that has a check oil light that comes on when the car is a quart low. I don't understand why more car makers don't do this? I believe it checks the oil level at start up and if it's low it comes on. Obviously checking the level while the engine is running is a little more complicated, but even that's probably doable nowadays.

Oil pressure is nice but doesn't tell you that you are losing oil until the engine is blown, lol. Seems like this would be a nice feature to have in the 21st century!!

"Fluent with engines"? What's he do....talk to them? ;)

Probably a result of two or three mistakes by the dealer...

1. not lubing the first oil filter gasket
2. over-tightening the first oil filter
3. not cleaning the oil filter area while replacing it (and noticing a gasket there)

The most routine maintenance task.. with a lift.. and they fail. I'd also get a used oil analysis with your next oil change to see if there are large amounts of metal in it.. blackstonelabs can analyze the oil.

good luck.

I would call Nissan North America and let them know what happened. It was after all a Nissan oil filter that failed, or a Nissan trained tech that didnt do his job right. I would hold the Dealerships feet to the fire..

It was the result of the gasket material from the old filter stuck on the block. How is this a result of a failed filter?

Your right WEEEE my bad, had to reread the prior posts. Guess i was right with the second part of my quote. "Nissan trained tech that didnt do his job right". Tech should watch for **** like that.

:facepalm: The dealership strikes again :facepalm:

I agree with AK. My car has never had a dealer touch it...and she's doing beautifully. Why pay them to F up oil changes and then 'inspect' the rest of the car when this can easily be done at home? I find it rather rewarding to do myself too.

There is always time to do your own oil change. I'm on call at the hospital 5 nights a week and still do my own oil changes. We're talking about 1-2 hours every 6 months or so.

Agree with the double pronged approach: Call Nissan North America to file an official complaint and make them aware and then get the dealer to extend your warranty for free. One guy who blew an oil cooler line and thought he shut the car off in time only found out that his bearings were shot about 2 weeks later.

I woud also get an oil analysis right away to see if there are any shavings in it.

Is the gasket something apparent and hard to miss? I'm looking to do my own oil changes (I've never done them myself) and I don't want something like this to happen since it'll be my fault!

The guys was too much in a hurry probably to look at the removed filter to make sure the gasket was still on the filter, and failed also to look on the block that the gasket was still there, a plain simple fukup.

Update on my situation, but first I'd like to thank PapoZalsa for getting me the Nissan N.A. Customer Service email, thanks man! I'll be talking to an Executive Customer Service person tomorrow regarding the offer from Nissan on extra coverage for the Z! Hopefully it'll be sweet enough to ease our minds on this deal!

Good Luck

NO problem, anytime. Hope your isuue gets resolves! :tiphat:

Did they indicate how much oil was actually left in the engine when they drained it? If not, have the service manager find out from the tech asap (before he forgets). Oil analysis and compression check sound like good things to get done as well. The smoking could be a bad sign or just oil being thrown on the exhaust, hard to tell.

Anybody who has ever worked in a dealership knows this happens all the time, usually it's an off the street lube tech who does it, drives it off the lift with oil gushing out the bottom. FYI, nothing is usually done, just drive it back put it on the lift and fill her back up. But, much thrasing on the lube tech. You would be surprised at some of the monkeys dealerships have working for them.

Finally got connected with the Executive Customer Service lady this afternoon, she was really polite and helpful! They offered me a 7yr./100,000mi coverage on the engine, which I accepted! I'll be recieving the letter in the mail next week! I guess that's pretty good, what do you all think?

:iagree:

Well done!!!

Seems reasonable for both side to me. If a problem were to manifest itself, it surely would show up before 7 years. I'd still like to see a simple compression test if I were you.