Oil Change at dealer, now smell burnt oil in cabin of 5BW. ** UPDATE **

[Neveready]

I had the same issue. Did my first oil change and forgot to grab the bottle for the Blackstone sample - Fuck. I had a few seconds to decide what to do. Didn't think I could retrieve the bottle in time. Decided to put the plug back in while the oil was gushing out - hadn't spilled a drop up to that point, but putting the plug back into that full gush got oil on the exhaust. Afterwards I cleaned everything with degreaser (thought I did a thorough job), but had the burnt oil smell with the HVAC on. Figured it would burn off, and eventually it went away, but took far longer than I expected. Still smelled 1000 miles later, but was gone by 1500. Thought I might have to replace the cabin filter, but the smell went away before I got around to it.

I’m curious, how did the oil look? Did you have any metal deposits or shimmer in the oil? What did the Blackstone analysis say?

 

[Wato]

Welp, after further investigation, it looks like the main seal is now to culprit.

 

[Wato]

Best guess is they over filled the oil. Pretty expensive labor cost to them, and a big pain in the a$$ to me.

 

[FLYARMY]

I have a Dodge Challenger and the oil fill port is on the top end/driverside. I have custom chrome on my engine bay and I've had the stupid tech changing my oil, dump oil all over the top end valve covers. Makes a mess. They didn't even try to clean it up nice. Now IF i go to them, I put blue paper towels all around the fill port to send them a message.

 

[rubberduck]

Best guess is they over filled the oil. Pretty expensive labor cost to them, and a big pain in the a$$ to me.

Bummer. DIY next time.

 

[Professor Speed]

That it is why it is imperative to check your oil before you leave the dealership.

I couldn't agree more! It's essential to give your car a quick once-over after any maintenance work. I've had my own surprise experience: a technician once left behind a wrench and a towel right in the engine bay. Needless to say, I didn't feel the need to return these unexpected gifts.

 

[Jim2000]

I couldn't agree more! It's essential to give your car a quick once-over after any maintenance work. I've had my own surprise experience: a technician once left behind a wrench and a towel right in the engine bay. Needless to say, I didn't feel the need to return these unexpected gifts.

I agree. I wouldn't return them either.

 

[FLYARMY]

When I was in Army helicopter flight school, we were scheduled to go do some night vision goggle training. Needless to say, its dangerous work flying at night, at 50 feet over the trees , looking thru toilet paper tubes with green lenses. When we got to the Huey, we had already spent an hour in the dark, getting our eyes night ready. It was a Friday night and my instructor wanted to get it over with and start his weekend off. I'm doing my pre-flight check and saw that our hydraulic fluid sight window was showing maybe it needed a quart or two. It was just slightly below a sight line. We get in and the instructor asked me if we were ready to go and I told him that we probably could use a top off of the fluid. He was a bit irritated because that meant that we would have to wait for the civilian tech to drive out from the hangar and fill it, thereby taking about 30-40 minutes extra. The instructor asked me if we could just go fly and I told him...well, YOU are the one telling us do everything by "THE BOOK". He calls for the tech to come with oil. The guy shows up 20 minutes later and opens the engine cowling and I hear....."holy shit !" I unstrap and go back there and I see an entire tool box with tools on the engine bay floor. I could not see them during my pre-flight check, because of how it was positioned. My instructor gets out and sees this and calls over the radio for the Senior Civilian Tech to come look. The mechanic who worked on my aircraft was called to come from home and when he arrived 30 minutes later, he was fired on the spot ! If we had taken off and made our planned right bank departure at only 250 feet, the toolbox and tools would have slid into moving engine parts and we would have been killed in a fiery crash in the woodline. For want of a quart of oil, most likely saved our lives that night.
Yeah, we never went up that night and got to start our weekend EARLIER than planned ! LOL !

 

[Professor Speed]

@FLYARMY thank you for your service and for sharing such an eye-opening story. It's a powerful reminder of how critical thorough checks are, whether it's in a helicopter or a car. Your experience puts my own encounter with forgotten tools in the engine bay into perspective. Double-checking never hurts!

 

[Aaron4BW]

Yikes! As a former service technician of almost a decade, I won't let the dealer touch my car unless I need warranty work. I went in for my 1st free oil changed & got the manager to sign off on giving me the oil & filter so I can do it myself. You would think they give these cars to a more experienced tech like nissan does with GTRs, but cadillac sends them straight to the lube techs