Oil change mishap stories?

[NyteByte]

Was under the car and just got the oil plug out. I moved my leg to crawl back out when suddenly the car horn started blowing. Scared the living shit out of me. Slammed my head against the engine and got oil splashed all over my face while trying to scurry out from under the car.

Turns out I had the key fob in my pocket and somehow the "Panic" button got pushed when I moved my leg.

Lesson: Don't keep key fob in your pocket when working under car.

 

[CobraBob]

True story. I heard about a guy years ago who was changing his transmission fluid. He wasn't mechanically inclined. He removed the oil fill cap and proceeded to add transmission fluid. :uh oh:

 

[Bad500Chris]

Old Filter seal got stuck, didn't notice when i added the new filter. Started the truck (bronco), under pressure the filter started spewing oil.
Kitty litter used to clean up.
Won't make that mistake again... :nonono:

 

[streetassasin]

Any one have any stories of oil changes gone wrong? I have a recent one...

A few days ago I was changing the oil and filter in a 2004 4.6 F150. The hardest part about this oil change was getting the right filter. For some reason Ford allowed a plant in Canada to use metric threads on the filter male threads and a plant in the US to use standard. Since the previous owner had a shop do the previous filter change they used a filter without any markings. I was so caught up about making sure they were the right threads that I forgot to make sure the old gasket came off with the old filter. Once I cleaned up and started up the car I went to check the engine and was being sprayed in the face with oil that leaked from the filter onto the belt. I quickly killed the ignition only to witness oil pouring all over the driveway...
About 10 minutes of confusion and frustration did I realize I was an idiot.

I have the same motor in my truck and realized I got the wrong filter after I already drained the old oil and took off the old filter, had to call my dad and had him bring me the right one :lol1:

 

[blueovalfan]

Old Filter seal got stuck, didn't notice when i added the new filter. Started the truck (bronco), under pressure the filter started spewing oil.
Kitty litter used to clean up.
Won't make that mistake again... :nonono:

I always worry about that, just to make myself feel better I pull the seal off the old filter and toss it.

 

[oilwell1415]

One of the stories above reminded me of this one from 8 or 9 years ago when I first started wrenching professionallly:

A girl called the shop and said she had just moved to town to attend Rhema Bible College. She was really low on cash and was in the process of trying to change her own oil for the first time to save money and impress her dad. She had asked him what to buy and he told her to buy two filters and a case of oil. My best guess is that he wanted her to get enough for two oil changes, but he either didn't tell her that or she didn't understand what he was telling her. She had two questions for us. The first was "where does the second filter go?" She had found the filter and changed it, but couldn't find another. The second question, drum roll please: How much oil does my car take? I put the whole case in and still can't see any in the hole.

 

[oilwell1415]

And that reminds me of another.....

A guy brought in a Dodge Ram with a complaint of running poorly and makig bad noises. He gave us the normal "It's been a great truck, I've never had to do anything to it", but added that it had never even needed an oil change. Big red flag. The truck had about 80k miles on it and there was less than a quart of oil in the engine. We changed the oil and he drove it away, but we never saw him again. I guess his other car had an oil change light and he was waiting on a similar cue from the Dodge, but it wasn't eqiupped with an oil change light.

 

[cj3113]

I do oil changes at my shop basically every day (luckily we have a hoist to avoid many of the hassles spoken of in this thread), but god damnit do I hate when they make the 'alternate' filter with metric threads.

 

[SciFiHiFi]

While helping a non mechanically inclined friend on a '00 S10, I couldn't get the filter loose no matter what I tried. Finally I hammered an old screwdriver through the side of the filter "texas wrench" style and told said friend to go ahead and loosen it. As he pushed the 'wrench' the soft metal of the filter just ripped apart. By the time I got under the car there was just a messy stub of an impossibly tight filter. I ended up pounding 3 more 'wrenches' into the stub until I was able to get it off.

 

[finaliize]

Just changed the oil on my Stang and I was thinking of this thread.. especially the one poster who said they forgot to take the gasket off from the old filter.. LOL

 

[Darko]

Just recently installed an oil adapter under the oil filter filter for my oil pressure gauge and forgot to put the oil plug back in. Only lost about 1/2 quart of oil. Good Times

 

[crew_dawg16]

I was changing the oil for a friend - an 06 or so Escape.

He also needed his plugs changed so I said no biggie.

Well, on this engine you need to remove the upper intake to get to the back 3 plugs. I started removing the intake and like an idiot dropped a nut into the oil fill hole which I had, like an idiot, left open.

A trip to NAPA for some retrieval tools and I managed to fish it out of the front of the head. The thing was perched ON TOP of the timing sprocket, just waiting to fall all the way down.

I felt like such an ass because I know better. Worst part about it was that he had to be somewhere and I had all this extra pressure while trying to get the job done.