I took my car to a dealer for an oil change.going home it smoked which I thought just maybe oil was burning off that was spilled. However it smoked even more. I took it in and had it checked the guy said a piece of plastic melted in the engine and that I would now have to replace the motor. What is your opinion?
Took it where? The dealer who did the oil change?
What guy? The guy who changed the oil? Or another?
3 Likes
What plastic and where at in the engine and what was damaged so bad that the engine has to be replaced???
And why is the oil change place that allegedly dropped something down in the motor NOT paying for the repair???
And was it smoking from the tail/exhaust pipe, or from under the hood, or from under the vehicle???
I can’t for the life of me right now think of a way just having your oil changed cause a piece of plastic to ruin an engine as long as the drain plug and oil filter was installed correctly and the correct amount of oil put back in it… External plastic (oil can cap) dropped in the valve cover, I have pulled many valve covers and found caps on top of the head, might damage the cam or valve train but not ruin an entire engine unless it melted and somehow made it to the oil pick up tube and stopped the flow to the oil pump… Maybe I will think of a way later, but right now I can’t think of a way… Of course you didn’t tell us what engine you have either…
1 Like
Unfortunately there are many ways an oil & filter change can go bad. Best method imo is for car owner to check the oil level on the dipstick and if there are any leaks underneath the car before leaving the shop. Then again the next morning. There should be no unexplained smoke resulting from an oil change, beyond perhaps noticing just a little smoke for the first 5 minutes. If there’s a lot of smoke, or steam, immediately turn around and go back to shop. If oil warning light on dashboard turns on, pull over and tow car to shop.
The burned plastic could have been the drain plug gasket, or the oil filter gasket. If either fails, cold cause major oil leak. The drain plug gasket should be replaced with a new one on each oil change. Next time you visit a dealership buy a bunch of them, give one each time to the oil change shop.
Part of the reason for this sort of problem is that shops do this job very quickly, often less than 10 minutes. I changed the oil and filter on my Corolla a couple weeks ago, job took me close to 3 hours.
Note: It is entirely possible the oil change is not related to the problem that damaged the engine, just a coincidence.
It looks like @Sue57 has edited her post and maybe deleted a lot of information as @davesmopar refers to a lot of things I don’t see in the original post.
I don’t know of anything plastic that you get into an engine via an oil change that would get hot enough to melt, the only place that an errant piece of plastic would melt is on the exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe. Nothing would get into any part of the engine that would require taking the head off so any repairs needed can be fixed either by removing the valve cover or oil pan, neither of which would justify a new engine.
Without any evidence to back this up, but based on experience of things that go wrong at oil changes, one of the common occurrences is that the oil cap, which is plastic, is not put back on and is left on the engine or somewhere in the engine compartment and sometimes falls onto the exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe and melts. The dealership would simply need to give you a new oil cap and top off any oil lost.
If the engine went too ong without the oil cap, you could have lost enough oil to damage the engine but the red oil light would have come on. Also I believe that this model has an oil level low warning system so if you let that happen, then you are partly at fault.
As for the need of a new engine, you are talking with a “service manager”, not a mechanic. The service manager could just be telling you this in an attempt to get you into the showroom to buy a new vehicle and thus earn part of a commission or bonus for this.
My suggestion is that you go back and ask to speak to the general manager of the dealership and without losing your temper, gently explain what has been going on with your vehicle.
1 Like