Oil Change gone wrong

[danyellw]

I got my first oil change on my Rogue while on a road trip a couple of weeks ago. I was visiting family and took it into the Nissan dealership where they live.

Driving back from Texas to Arizona, I stopped for gas and noticed a LOT of smoke coming out from under my hood. The service technician had left the oil cap sitting on the engine, so oil had spilled out everywhere and was burning off. The dip stick was below empty (there was just a tiny bit of oil on the very bottom of the stick). I had to add 3 quarts of oil to get back to full and made the trip home.

I called the dealership that did the work and they are paying to have the engine cleaned and another oil change. I never saw a warning light for oil come on while I was driving and am wondering if there could be some long term negative effects from driving the 200+ miles while dumping oil. If there was some kind of damage to the engine, how should I proceed?

[TaiLuu]

s***, They owe you like probably a new Head and Block pretty much an engine. They starved it from oil. Does it make anysounds?
I bet you, you spun a bearing, dry oil pump, hope your crank didn't dry up.
If you hear thing or have damage to your engine in the next 10k miles it would be Nissans fault.

[philipa_240sx]

An oil analysis could probably tell you alot about the state of your engine after this episode. I strongly recommend it and it's inexpensive to do:

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/free-test-kits.php

[danyellw]

I didn't notice any sounds while driving, but I was playing the stereo. My gas mileage improved after adding the oil. I'm having it checked at my dealership tomorrow and just make sure everything is documented well in case there are issues down the road.

[Pescakl1]

If you want to be sure there is no damage to your engine, do an Used Oil Analysis on the oil left in the engine.

Since the warning light did not come on, your engine is OK.
Since you only put 3 quarts to fill it up again, your engine is OK (engine takes 5 quarts, so you had 2 quarts left).

Since the dealer agreed to pay for the cleaning and the new oil change, the only lesson to learn from it is:
- After an oil change, check yourself if everything seems alright.
- Better than going for an oil change, do it yourself, it is really easy on the Rogue.

I don't think you will have any damage to your engine. There are a lot of stories of people driving cars with no oil in it with strangely no problem for a while. In yours, you had at least 2 quarts left.

[kerrton]

s***, They owe you like probably a new Head and Block pretty much an engine. They starved it from oil. Does it make anysounds?
I bet you, you spun a bearing, dry oil pump, hope your crank didn't dry up.
If you hear thing or have damage to your engine in the next 10k miles it would be Nissans fault.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions, all of these things are possible if you starve your engine of oil but there is no evidence that this has happened. There is some good advice here already to determine if any damage occurred, but the one positive point I'd focus on is the fact that the check engine light did not come on. The Nissan engineers calibrate these things to ensure this type of engine damage does not happen, and knowing human nature I'm sure they engineer in a larege margin of error (i.e. conservative warning system to alert the driver well before a potentially damaging situation may occur). If the oil level was to the point where the engine was damaged you would have certainly had a check engine/low oil light come on to alert you of trouble and give you plenty of time to add oil.

[TaiLuu]

Don't Add To Much Oil btw. If you add more oil then the car needs you will screw up your motor. Adding to much is just as bad as having No oil.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions, all of these things are possible if you starve your engine of oil but there is no evidence that this has happened. There is some good advice here already to determine if any damage occurred, but the one positive point I'd focus on is the fact that the check engine light did not come on. The Nissan engineers calibrate these things to ensure this type of engine damage does not happen, and knowing human nature I'm sure they engineer in a larege margin of error (i.e. conservative warning system to alert the driver well before a potentially damaging situation may occur). If the oil level was to the point where the engine was damaged you would have certainly had a check engine/low oil light come on to alert you of trouble and give you plenty of time to add oil.

I don't think a spun bearing and ect... would trigger a CEL. so you could never be to careful.

[philipa_240sx]

Don't Add To Much Oil btw. If you add more oil then the car needs you will screw up your motor. Adding to much is just as bad as having No oil.

The condition is called hydro lock. It occurs when a liquid displaces a gas. Since liquids are not easily compressed, it can place significant strain on components.

Example: Fill 2 balloons, one with air and one with water.

- Step on the air filled balloon and it will take a fair bit of pressure to pop it. Reason: the gases within the balloon compress and take up less volume. You need to add more pressure to overcome this and burst the ballon.

- Step on the water filled balloon and it'll immediately pop. Reason: Liquids to not compress, instead it immediately transfers pressure to the balloon which pops.

Excessive overfilling of engine oil can be a serious issue. Follow the recommended capacity and oil level check procedures in the manual. Nissan is very specific on how to measure engine oil levels:

CHECKING ENGINE OIL LEVEL
1. Park the vehicle on a level surface and apply the parking brake.
2. Run the engine until it reaches operating temperature.
3. Turn off the engine. Wait more than 10 minutes for the oil to drain back into the oil pan.
4. Remove the dipstick and wipe it clean. Reinsert it all the way.
5. Remove the dipstick again and check the oil level. It should be within the range (L to H). If the
oil level is below L, remove the oil filler cap and pour recommended oil through the opening. Do not overfill!
6. Recheck oil level with the dipstick.

[TaiLuu]

Yea i could see how it would hydrolock too.
Even one qt could even by more than enough for the counterweights to turn the oil in to foamy oil. And dry your oil pump.



-mobile

[danyellw]

The oil change ended up taking a bit longer than expected but everything looks to be OK. While I had the car, I asked them to check a sound in my steering wheel that sounded like rubber rubbing against something while turning the steering wheel at slow speeds. While trying to find out what was causing it, the broke the tilt steering assemble and had to replace the entire steering column. Apparently, there is not a part number for just the handle that you pull on to tilt the wheel up and down, so nobody break that part if you are out of warranty!

The bright side of all of this was that I received an email asking me to rate my service at the dealership that originally left the oil cap off. That was fun!