Let's Share Our Oil Change Disaster Stories

[The Critic]

Let's use this thread to share our own oil change disaster stories. I'm sure a number of us have stories of all changes that just simply went wrong, damaged our pride and made us look like dummies to our friends or family.

Here's mine:

Decided to do the first oil change on my mom's Altima V6. I drove the car for five miles to warm it up-- three miles in town, two on the highway. I went to drain the oil using an oil drain pan with a "hole" in the middle. After removing the oil drain plug, the plug falls right into the middle hole of the pan and fitted perfectly, creating a near "cork" that stopped the oil from draining into "reservoir." The oil starts to quickly fill the "deck" area of the pan. I frantically tried to remove the somewhat stuck drain plug from the "hole" of the drain pan, but the oil was just so darn hot that it took me three tries to finally do it. In the process of retrieving the drain plug, I thoroughly burned my fingertips.

Also, when I tried to remove the copper crush washer from the plug, I had a very difficult time. The washer was "fused" to the plug. Had to look around the entire house for a very, very thin pick to pry it off. Then came the best part-- the oil filter would not come off. I had the proper nylon oil filter socket, but the socket would not move the filter. The socket kept moving but the filter would not move as it was too tight. I had to leave the garage open, drive across town and purchase a pliers type filter wrench in order to finish the job.

Needless to say, it was not a good day.

 

[Dave Hess]

Old gasket on top of new gasket in my 5.0 Mustang and I found out after I heard the oil spraying but had already backed off the ramps.

Thats was the first/last time I will every make that mistake.

 

[Colt45ws]

Oh yes, the OE filters are insanely tight.

 

[dparm]

To the OP -- I had almost an identical experience this weekend.

My new drain pan also has a plug of sorts. Problem is the little overfill area is barely even sloped and holds almost nothing. My car has an enormous drain hole that quickly overwhelmed the tiny opening in the drain pan. It was like pouring a bucket through a drinking straw. Within about a half-second, oil was getting everywhere. I frantically tried to get the drain plug back in but the oil was hot and I burned my hands.

After about 2 seconds I said "the heck with it" and just let the oil run all over the garage floor. It's epoxied so all it took was about 5 bags of kitty litter and some sweeping.

To make matters worse, I somehow forgot to put the washer back on so I had to get a milk jug and cut the top off to catch a bit of new oil that drained out when I quickly put the washer in.

In the end I spent $15 on kitty litter, $20 to replace the drain plan and get a better container to dispose of it in, $20 for new Mechanix gloves, $10 for a new broom, and 2 hours of my time. Should've been a quick 30 minute change.

 

[StevieC]

Mine was an oil change on my van when I was younger and the gasket stayed on the engine block when I took the filter off.

I put on the new filter and filled with oil, started and checked the level.

I left the car where it was and drove it to work the next morning (late because my alarm didn't go off) I got half way there at 5am and my low oil light came on and I could hear the engine clanging.

I shut it down and saw the mess under my hood...

I had it towed home and called in sick... What a bad day!

 

[roadrunner1]

i just did the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my oc however was a 6.0 powerstroke, 15 qts capacity, and i could not get the drainplug out of the hole until the oilpan was empty.
around 2 gallons on the garage floor, kitty litter and simple green cleaned up the mess.

how ironic you posted this today, i had never done this before and i don't want to ever do it again

 

[mopar_monkey]

once at work i was doing an oil change on a newer imprezza, the oil filter is behind the exhaust so what did they do? they split the exhaust pipes making a hole between the two just big enough for the filter! of course it was summer and like 102 that day so it was blazing hot and i did not have the proper size fiter socket for it so i had to do it by hand. so at that time i was already pretty angry, then i pulled the drain plug, if you have changed the oil on a subi you know that the drain is about a 1" opening and the oil comes out very quikly (even more so when it's 102 outside and the car had been drive on the freeway before coming to me) so i pull the plug, oil shots out, hits the filter in my drain pan and hits me in the face and chest, by the time i could react almost all 5 qrts had already drained, much to the amusement of everyone in our very crowded waiting room. (waiting room has a large window into the shop that my bay happens to be directly in front of!) so not only was i angry, burnt, covered in oil and humiliated but i also had to clean nearly 5 qrts of oil off of my floor.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

CHECK YOUR FILTER GASKET UPON REMOVAL.
I've only had it stick one time but at least I saw it and fixed the potential disaster.

I have had the copper gasket issue on a friend's Infiniti. I told him to go buy a new drain plug where the gasket comes with the plug because I didn't want to deal with it.

Recently, I changed his 2010 Pilot's oil. Needed a longer funnel to re-fill but tried to do it by "pouring" the 5-quart jug into a smaller funnel and then taking the cap off said jug. Needless to say, the jug's cap lodged in the funnel and clogged it, ensuing a 1.5 quart pour over the funnel and into my driveway.

No fun. Bought a $3 funnel the next day and now own a Pilot so I will never make that mistake again.

 

[RacerE7773]

This just happened to me this past week. We have an aftermarket starter, and I forgot to shut it off until I had the drain plug out.

Lucky I had the controller in my pocket.

 

[exranger06]

About 4 or 5 years ago, I double-gasketed the filter on the Explorer (really, who HASN'T done that before?) and about 2 years ago, I was standing up when I dropped a Motorcraft FL-1A into a catch pan full of 5 quarts of oil, spashing oil everywhere. The bottom of the filter box had split open, letting the filter fall out.

Other than that, I've never had any disasters. I work very slowly and methodically, double-checking everything as I go. It may take me 40 minutes to do an oil change, but at least it's done right.

 

[ThirdeYe]

I've mentioned this story on here before, but here goes:

Vehicle in question: 1999 GMC Sierra Classic w/5.7, 4x4

First off, I took out the drain plug and let the oil drain into the pan. I was wondering why the level wasn't going down in the pan, realizing I forgot to unplug the little cap on the top of my pan, and it started going all down the driveway before I could get the little plug unscrewed. Then, the oil filter was on too tight and I had to destroy it to get it off. Third, got oil all over one of my favorite t-shirts because of the oil pan fiasco. Fourth, accidentally overfilled the engine because it had the wrong owners manual in the glovebox. It stated that it needed 6 quarts, when it actually took 5. Had him bring the truck back over and drained one of the quarts out of it. Didn't seem like it hurt anything, ran perfectly fine being overfilled.

 

[cb450sc]

About three weeks ago I was changing the oil on my daughters Civic. It takes about 3.5 litres, so my plan was to drain a litre into an empty litre oil container that I had from the 4.4 litre jug. I quickly made myself a little table by putting a piece of plywood on top of the plastic pop container that I normally sit on. The problem, I later found out, was that I did not centre the wood on the plastic stand. I filled up the litre container and put it down. I then set down the jug of oil. The weight of the jug shot the litre container into the air and the jug fell to the floor. I picked up both as quickly as I could but still had at least a litre of oil all over the floor. I had just commented to my wife how I did not get a drop of oil on the driveway when I took out the old oil. We both had a good laugh over it, after I cleaned it all up!

 

[David S.]

After changing the oil in my garage on our old 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan, I drove it reverse to get the front wheels off the Rhino ramps. No problem there. But the problem was I forgot to slide out the basin underneath holding the 5 quarts of used motor oil. So as the minivan backed off the ramps the front end lowered, caught the edge of the basin on the floor underneath, and flipped the basin over. Then I had the joy of cleaning up 5 quarts of used motor oil from the garage floor, the ramps, the underside of the minivan, and the front end of the minivan.

 

[MoparDak05]

I tried to change mine in the gulf... Didn't work out so well.

(j/k i couldn't resist)
I left the plug in my drain pan once and burned my hand trying to get it out.
I also double gasketed my buddy's brother's car. That was bad. Oil everywhere!

 

[Jim_Beverlin]

Removing any OE filter. They must be spot welded on at the factory. From driving screw drivers through them (often futile) to gluing 100 grit sandpaper together to remove the filter on a Jeep Liberty to an insanely tight filter on a B&S Intek Twin these experiences will only enhance your 4 letter word vocabulary. The most memorable was when my wife bought the car of her dreams......... a 06 Nissan 350Z. Since the Z sits only marginally higher off the ground than a go-cart and could not be driven up any set of ramps I had I finally coaxed it up on a double layer of 2 x 8's and that gave me about 10 inches of clearance. The underside of a 350Z has a belly pan held in place by 18 sheet metal screws. Once off, the filter, which was probably smaller than the filter on the Intek Twin, was in plain site. However no band wrench or end cap would fit it (too small). In desperation I wrapped the filter in 100 grit sandpaper and wrestled it off. Then, I had the issue of putting the miserable belly pan back on.

 

[Gilstein]

almost same as original poster.

Yesterday was the worst oil change I've ever done. I've got one of those blitz drain pans that has the plug (attached) on top and all. First I couldn't get the drain plug off (first oil change, new car). I finally get if off and as soon as the oil starts draining it closes the plug on the drain pan. Luckily I have another drain pan, so I'm able to contain most of the oil, but I did have a little spillage as I tried to move the pans into position.

Then I couldn't get the old filter off. Wrench started to crush the wall a little, but finally got it to budge a little. As I'm bringing the filter down to the drain pan, a gust of wind blows a drop of oil in my eye.

I put some fresh oil in the new filter, let it soak in, start to screw in on no problems; no leak from the filter (horizontal mount) and I smell oil - fresh oil, not old oil. The 1 quart bottle I had used to prime the new filter has tipped over; no cap on it since I was about to put it in engine. It was far enough away from me that I didn't hit it, and I don't know how the wind could knock over a 1/2 full quart.

After all this I forgot to remove the chalks from the back wheels and was cussing like a mother [censored] when I couldn't get the car off the ramps.

I'm ashamed to admit the above story, but it's true. I was working only off of one hour sleep though.

 

[MDS]

I'll continue the old gasket story....good lesson.

After all the different vehicles I've owned and all the oil changes I've done over the years I missed the old gasket left on the vehicle, 2002 E150 5.4 ltr. Hand spun and snug the new filter on (something didn't quite feel right). Six qts new oil, started the engine, looked under the front door (filter is hanging down there on a bracket) and oil running all down the driveway. Quick shut down, had to pull the filter off to figure out what had happened, more oil back in...it was amazing how much oil can be pumped out in a very short period of time. Didn't have any oil dry in the garage.

Good news was it was only Mobil 1 oil....ok, jk...

 

[jdh]

not mine but a friend of mine changed the oil in hus moms car when he was a teenager, filled it full of oil but forgot to put the new filter on so as he drove to my parents house he lost the entire 4 quarts of oil out of where the filter should have been. luckily no damage was done, and to this day the car is still running.

 

[desertrandy]

I had a 1992 Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0 engine that had developed a rear main seal leak (very common in the 4.0 engine) and I decided to fix it. I decided to back my jeep into the garage and let it sit during the work week and let most of the oil drain from the engine so there wouldn't be so much oil dripping in my face when I pulled the pan. Anyhow, during the week, I bought a new seal, a new oil pan gasket and a case of 10-30 oil. Saturday morning rolls around, I crawl under the jeep, remove all the bolts on the side of the oil pan, the front two bolts, and then finally with my hand on the sump for support I removed the last two rear bolts and BAM, the oil pan comes crashing down full of oil. Yep, I forgot to drain the oil. 6 quarts of oil on me, the garage floor and all over the front tires and suspension where it had spalshed. At least the engine didn't drip all over my face when I finally got around to working on the rear seal.

 

[Frank D]

About 35-36 years ago while changing the oil on my sister's 73 Maverick, I totally collasped the Purolator PER-1 filter while trying to remove it. After about an hour of fighting with it, I gave up and poured about 3 quarts of oil into the motor and drove to a garage and had them finish the oil change.