Oil Change from hell

A couple months ago I was in O'Reilly Auto Parts and they offered me this oil drain pan free of charge. I said sure.

Now, I've changed oil over a hundred times in my lifetime. I did today what I always do. I positioned the drain pan in the proper location and removed the plug. As the oil began draining, I heard a very strange splashing noise, followed by what I knew was the sound of a liquid hitting the pavement.

Here I'm watching oil entering the pan, and without much time to think, so I figured oh shit, I must have knocked a radiator hose loose when I removed the plug. I bolted out from under the truck, fearing I was about to get burned by coolant.

Then I realized it wasn't coolant at all. This POS oil drain pan is tapered in such a way that the oil flow from a 2007 Prerunner bounced off the pan all over the front left control arm and onto the driveway. When I say bounced, I'm not kidding. There was a solid flow of oil moving upwards from the drain pan.

Until I figured out what was going on, 1-2 quarts deposited itself all over the driveway.

 

There's no such thing as a free....oil-pan.

 

Sorry to Laugh at your expense but... BAHAHAHA! I hope that doesn't cost too much to clean outa the drive.. and ya, I never trust something the auto parts store give for "free".. always ask "why?". If it weren't so cheap and hard to sell being a poor design it wouldn't have been free..... lol

 

You should take it back and leave it. Don't say anything and then leave.

 

Best way to clean that off the drive way is liquid laundry soap, scrub it a bit, then let it sit for about 10 min or so, spray it down.

 

I'm usually pretty skeptical about free stuff, but I figured what could go wrong? After all, it's just a plastic tank, and it seemed to be built well.

Oh well, it will be good for storage of old oil in the future.

 

The top would be good for a cat litter box...

 

Should have seen that coming...

 

Yea that looks like a pretty shitty design...exxon Valdez waiting to happen

 

Those pans work well for a side draining oil pan. But for the tacoma, which has the drain plug on the bottom, the oil just splashes all over the place and eventually lands on the driveway. I feel your pain, the same thing happened to me.

 

lol. that sucks OP!

but it could be worse! you could have drained the trans, then dumped it in the radiator over flow.

 

Good info OP. Now everyone will watch out for that FREE pan. I feel your drain pain man.

 

I have one of these and it does the same damn thing. The oil comes out of the engine too fast lol

Ever since I got my fumoto valve I don't even use the pan anymore, just drain straight into the discard bottles

 

That's why I change my oil while my car is parked in the road in front of my house.

 

To get the oil stain out of the concrete, get kitty litter or speedy dry and grind it into the concrete with your shoe. It should take the surface stain out at least.

 

I usually put down a good size piece of cardboard under my oil container. I keep few cardboard boxes that are large for that reason to keep the garage floor clean when doing oil changes and to tack up targets to. Just break them down and store behind something against the wall.

Some dawn soap and kitty litter should work and given time the weather.

 

One solution I found for those drain pans is to use an old swamp cooler element to prevent backsplash. Just cut it to size and stick it on there.

 

^^ Yo dawg I heard you like pans

 

Don’t let Chris have that! who knows what he will mix on it, maybe more bondo.