No good deed goes unpunished...

[MacManus99]

A little while back, I took my Mom's 2015 Kia Sorento home to do some maintenance on it. Simple stuff like changing oil in engine, trans, transfer case and both differentials. When I got home, I put it up on jack stands and pulled the engine drain plug to let it drain while I went in and got a bite to eat. Came back out and dumped a jug of M1 EP 5w30 in.

Yup. You guessed it. I never put the drain plug back in. I had music playing in the garage so I didn't hear it collecting in my drain pan. Wasted the whole jug. Just goes to show the silly crap you can do if you're not paying attention. I have plenty of oil on hand, so I was able to finish the job, regardless.

Not the worst thing that could have happened, but I'll be ****ed if I'm not still kicking myself for being such a doofus.

Moral of the story is don't ever let me work on your ride.

 

[ctechbob]

Yup, it happens. Did it with trans fluid a few years back. Luckily I was using qt bottles at the time and only lost a qt instead of a good portion of a 5qt bottle.

 

[bdcardinal]

When I am going to be away for a bit, I will leave myself notes like "add oil" or "drain plug not installed".

 

[GON]

Story ended up much, much better than I thought after reading the beginning of the post.

 

[atikovi]

At least you didn't start it....this time. Put the drain plug on the seat over some newspaper if leaving the car.

 

[Cujet]

Ahhh, the old "oil pan flush" procedure.

 

[RooflessVW]

In my youth I did this with a fresh quart on purpose because I thought it would "get more old oil out."

 

[Krieg]

A little while back, I took my Mom's 2015 Kia Sorento home to do some maintenance on it. Simple stuff like changing oil in engine, trans, transfer case and both differentials. When I got home, I put it up on jack stands and pulled the engine drain plug to let it drain while I went in and got a bite to eat. Came back out and dumped a jug of M1 EP 5w30 in.

Yup. You guessed it. I never put the drain plug back in. I had music playing in the garage so I didn't hear it collecting in my drain pan. Wasted the whole jug. Just goes to show the silly crap you can do if you're not paying attention. I have plenty of oil on hand, so I was able to finish the job, regardless.

Not the worst thing that could have happened, but I'll be ****ed if I'm not still kicking myself for being such a doofus.

Moral of the story is don't ever let me work on your ride.

Part of being human. All of us make mistakes.....You will be laughing about it years from now..And you won't forget.

 

[Leo99]

Until you've screwed up so bad that you need to have it towed to a professional repair facility, you haven't really screwed up that bad.

 

[danez_yoda]

Ive done it too!! my wifes sienna after fighting like hell to get that canister filter off. out the new filter in, cussed at it the proceeded to pour in 5qt of oil. that engine makes a drinking sound when you fill it anyway so i didnt pay that any mind. then check the dip stick and it was dry. then i figured it out, the oil pan was extra heavy.. lol

At least you had the oil pan under the car. lol

 

[CR94]

At least you didn't start it....this time. Put the drain plug on the seat over some newspaper if leaving the car.

My similar trick: When I take the oil fill cap off, I put it in position to block the hood latch, so I don't drive away (again!) with the cap off----assuming the hood gets closed.

 

[dishdude]

In my youth I did this with a fresh quart on purpose because I thought it would "get more old oil out."

There are more than a few threads on here discussing that.

 

[bilibako2]

Was showing my brother in law the good of Fumoto valve installed on his Caravan but I forgot to turn off knob to off postion -pour oil wasted one quart on garage floor.

 

[oldhp]

"Anything" made OR done by a human can be screwed up. All you can do is put in your own safeguards that "YOU" will understand. Good Luck Humans.

 

[WylieCoyote]

Consider yourself lucky the pan was still underneath.

 

[ctechbob]

Consider yourself lucky the pan was still underneath.

Yep, this. When it happened to me I'd moved the pan from under the trans to under the engine for the oil.

Cleaning up a quart of oil on the ground and not having any litter handy is a pain. And it got under the ramp, and all over my wife's old yoga mat that I use for garage duty....what a mess.

 

[ZeeOSix]

.Not the worst thing that could have happened, but I'll be ****ed if I'm not still kicking myself for being such a doofus.

Thing is, you won't ever do it again if it takes that long to stop kicking yourself. It will be burned into your head for a very long time.

 

[Dave Hess]

When I am going to be away for a bit, I will leave myself notes like "add oil" or "drain plug not installed".

Yep. I set my cellphone alarm for 10 min to remind me.

I do this for almost everything like washer, dryer, etc…

 

[BlueOvalFitter]

While in high school I did an OCI on my 69 F100, 390. I removed the FL-1A and installed another. After adding the oil I started the engine. Man, that oil goes everywhere very fast with the old oil filter gasket still on the engine.
It only takes one time to learn.

 

[Dave Hess]

While in high school I did an OCI on my 69 F100, 390. I removed the FL-1A and installed another. After adding the oil I started the engine. Man, that oil goes everywhere very fast with the old oil filter gasket still on the engine.
It only takes one time to learn.

I did the same on my 1990 Mustang. Big mess but luckily I realized it and immediately shut off engine.