Always Check Your Oil Level After Dealer Change

[Triple_Se7en]

I do a peek once a month. Nothing dripping on my driveway and I usually require 15lbs of air in the left-front tire, more often than even a half-quart of oil, in any of my three vehicles. Under the hood, I'm usually pouring windshield washer fluid during the winter, but not during the summer.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

I see things like electrolysis On my battery, meaning despite testing good, all things are not good and this battery may not last as long. I park the truck for two weeks at a time, I need to buy a solar tender. I can see things like valve cover gaskets develop a weep. I will clean it up and keep an eye on it. It stopped.

One time years ago my wife followed me on a move from the east coast to Texas. When she arrived she told me she had the oil changed before the trip. I popped the hood and the oil cap was sitting on top of the engine...

I have spotted a PCV problem on another vehicle when the dipstick began to pop out of the tube. Replaced the pcv, and it stopped.

If I never popped the hood I won't see things for a long long time.

 

[Whimsey]

The Ford Ecoboost engines seem to require at least 20-30 minutes to properly drain old oil out when the engine is hot. At least my 2.3 Ecoboost does and I'm sure at least the larger Ecoboost engines require similar drain periods so as not to overfill refill. I sincerely doubt that Ford dealerships or any oil change facility allows the tech the really proper time to drain the oil so as not to overfill it with the manufacture's "correct" refill amount. While I'm still able to I'll change my own oil I'll do it and if not my indie will start draining the oil while he rotates the tires. At least this allows the oil to drain longer

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Whimsey

 

[ecotourist]

Originally Posted by Bryanccfshr
It is very rare to see people at service station ever pop the hood to check their fluids, connections, hoses and belts. ......You don't need a special service tool to pop a hood.

My friend's father ran a garage/service station in a small town in Saskatchewan. The company that sold fan belts would send someone around with a car having a fanbelt with a slash in it. Apparently he always (or usually at least) caught it, because he opened the hood, checked the oil and had a look around. He regularly won a prize for his diligence.

I recently couldn't open the hood on the BMW. I wouldn't drive the car until I got it fixed. How could I check the oil level, investigate a funny smell, a funny noise, an unexpected drip, etc. I understand some people don't even know how to open the hood!

 

[dubber09]

I had Kia dealer do rear main seal under warranty .. twice ... within 3 weeks, when wife brought car home after second service I popped hood and ... coolant was gone from its tank and upper rad hose was loose with clamp moved up and never secured back...
Their answer to me was - "oh well, you already reconnected and topped up, it's gonna be ok..."
Also noticed coils had numbers written on them corresponding cylinders, last time I changed plugs there were no numbers, so dealer 'added' the numbers, or replaced my coils with someone else's, why?

 

[oil_film_movies]

Its a chronic stupidity issue at dealerships & other oil-change places. My "free" changes at the dealership (Chevy) always ends up overfilled by about a quart. I check and remove some.
I concur with others above that say it is likely because of the slow drain time in many engines. Ecoboosts, GM's small turbo engine, and others, slow to drain, and the dealer tech doesn't have the patience to wait, and then they just put in the "spec" amount, overilling.

Its better to deliberately subtract 1 quart from the spec amount, put that much in, and then gradually top off over the next month or two, adding a small amount each week you check the level. Its like haircuts, only opposite, its easy to add some in, but a little more annoying to take some out.

For this Mini engine, the subject of this thread, it does have BMW's oil level sensor. The Owner's Manual oddly doesn't explicitly mention an over-fill sensor dashboard warning, only a low-oil warning. BMWs in the past were always capable of sensing over-fill so I'm not sure if this Mini is somehow diffferent. (??)

 

[sgtrockjoe]

Been many years since a dealer changed the oil in any of the cars in my family, but always had this same issue with over filling by a half to a full quart. Jeep dealer was the worst. Honda, Subaru would do it as well.

 

[thelazyhero]

Don't know if it's as relevant but I try to avoid dealer anything. They completely overfilled my oil and coolant during last service. I opened up the engine bay and saw the coolant that covered the whole engine bay. Checked the oil and it too was overfilled. I called up the dealer and they told me to bring it in to take care of it but wouldn't take blame. Said I could have easily overfilled on my own after pick up.... I just stared with my jaw dropped. Why the [censored] would I add [censored] to my car when I brought it in? Never went back to that dealer.

 

[ediamiam]

Took the Kia Sorento in to dealer for an oil change. Used a sem-syn 5w-20 bulk oil. Initial check it was fine. Checked it 2 weeks later and it was down a bit. Topped it off. Repeated that process several times over a couple of months. I never had to top it off that frequently before. So, I drained out that bulk crappola and used a branded semi-syn. Problem with burning oil gone. Made me wonder what kind of stuff they were using for their bulk. Talk about a waste.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en


Don't know! That being said, I would never purchase a vehicle without a dipstick.
I also would never purchase a vehicle that's difficult to change the oil and the filter.


I love the "electronic dipstick" in my wife's BMW. I have always found actual dipsticks very hard to get a proper level reading on, but with the electronic reading it couldn't be any more simple. When I change her oil I put in exactly 6.4L of oil and that puts it at the full point on the dashboard readout. Every once in a while when I'm driving I'll check the level and when it moves off the full mark I add about 400ml of oil and it brings it to the full line again. Easy peasy. I wish all of my cars had this feature, especially the Corvette which has a ridiculous dipstick that goes into the pan on an angle so the reading on one side of the stick is completely different than the other, I don't know which side to trust!

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by Patman
I wish all of my cars had this feature, especially the Corvette which has a ridiculous dipstick that goes into the pan on an angle so the reading on one side of the stick is completely different than the other, I don't know which side to trust!


Split the difference.

 

[RooflessVW]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Originally Posted by Patman
I wish all of my cars had this feature, especially the Corvette which has a ridiculous dipstick that goes into the pan on an angle so the reading on one side of the stick is completely different than the other, I don't know which side to trust!

Split the difference.

If there's oil on the dipstick you're probably fine. As long as it's not overfilled.

 

[DGXR]

I always do a very close inspection when anyone else works on my vehicle, for any reason. Fortunately, that is not very often.

 

[oil_film_movies]

Originally Posted by Patman
I love the "electronic dipstick" in my wife's BMW.
They are great. Easy reading any time you want, right on the dashboard. Consider it entertainment!

Thing I can't understand is how you can go a whole month with no "overfill warning" on the Mini's dashboard. (BMW's of the past have the over-fill warning. Not Mini?) The OP said it was 1 to 2 quarts over, yet how would you know that with no dipstick & no level warning????