I’m An Idiot - Left Oil Cap Off

Mostly because anytime you accuse a dealer of doing something like getting your seat dirty during a service visit, losing the wheel center caps, or leaving off the oil cap, or not adding enough fluids they immediately start denying it, and pointing fingers at everyone but themselves. “We fucked up we’re sorry” would go a long way.

I took my truck for a tire rotation and oil change recently, and of course, one of the wheel center caps was missing and when I confronted the service advisor, he says that they make sure to put them on when they rotate the tires so I must’ve not noticed that it had fallen off before or someone had stolen it from my driveway. Then he decided to give me a one time courtesy free replacement, but never again.

And before you say that’s a one off, I’ve heard that same bullshit story when another dealer forgot to reinstall a skid plate.

 

I go through this a lot and not just with dealers, with some specific mechanics.

I live in Massachusetts so we have yearly inspections mandatory on vehicles. In my 2013 VW CC, they took a crow bar to the back wheel and was trying to bend it to make sure all the components are fine but I know they bent the rim a bit. I called them out on it and they said my wheels were already bent. I then started losing air on my wheel and just isn't the same anymore.. even to this day i am losing air. I contacted the state and never got a response.

Coincidently, happened to my wife's car too, a 2016 Rav4. We were all busy so my father took it for the inspection... I forgot to tell him to avoid the place. I go to another place now which is way better in service.


Besides setting up cameras everywhere, how can mechanics be held accountable when sh*t like this happens? I have an honest mechanic that i go to often for most of our vehicles where if he F'd up, he does not try to hide it, tells us straight and tells us how he will fix it.. and he fixes it too at his own cost.

 

I've never done it on any other vehicle, but for some reason its happened to me on my tacoma too. Makes me wonder a bit if I overtightened it. I drove for 5k miles like that. I've noticed that if you tighten the cap too much, it skips threads (not quite strips) and gets real loose again. I've resorted to "snug" rather than tight, and havent had issues since.

 

I like the German ones that you just turn until it clicks and it won’t let you do that.

 

People slam the dealer cause that’s literally the lube tech’s job and it consists of a limited number of steps to complete successfully. When you bill over $100 a hour customers expect competency. Just like clients expect a certain level of skill when they hire a contractor to get a patio poured and finished instead of having their father do it.

 

Dealer left mine off on mine after a useless toyotacare visit (it was the interval that didn’t even require an oil change!) and I didn’t notice for 2k miles until i was on a trail offroading somewhere giving someone a jump. I just tied a glove around the filler neck and cleaned the neck when i got home. However i did drain and flush with some inexpensive costco oil and theres been no issues since

 

Wanted to chime in and say don't worry, at least from an it happens standpoint. I did the exact same thing, either left the cap off at my last oil change, or it got loosened when some buddies were literally crawling in the engine bay to get the UCA through bolt out. Didn't notice until i went to the dealer to get the truck state inspected (sadly the most reliable place in my area) and they tech came out and said "do you know where your oil filler cap is?" I was dumbstruck. I didn't have anything come out it looks like, and immediately checked the oil and it was still 90% to the top of the line. Buddies and I now joke about it. Thankfully threads on this forum made me feel better things SHOULDNT be bad if it was left off.

 

Same thing happened to me last fall. I'm positive I put it back on but 1k miles later I went to look under the hood and it was missing! Immediately bought the autozone replacement (threaded with rubber gasket) and have had no problems since.

 

OP, you can see my original fuckup in this thread

 

Man, you’re the third person so far that’s hinted towards these caps falling off. This makes me feel a bit better. lol

I’ve been sitting here asking myself how I’d leave the cap off. Filling is always the last thing I do. I’m right there in the bay looking at the fill neck as the last bottle empties in. Maybe I did put it on?

Anyway, thanks y’all. I’ll be looking for a better cap to replace my aluminum foil and rubber band I have on there now.

 

LOL! Kinda' like when you take off to go somewhere and the wife/GF all of a sudden is worried that they 'left the oven on' or didn't 'lock the front door'?

 

OP, Happened to me a decade ago on my '00. Changed oil took off down highway. Then had a couple drips of oil hit the windshield.... Total freak out! I left the cap on the valve cover and amazingly was still there. Drove to get a quart of oil and carry on...

 

If you have LED headlights and a power driver’s seat I’ll take them

!

 

Hey, at least you didn't forget to put the pan drain plug back in and proceed to dump 5 quarts of oil all over the garage floor.... Like I did once when I was 20... LOL!

 

This seems to happen often enough on this site that I wonder if the cap can work its way loose. My cap fits poorly into the tube compared to all the other vehicles I have owned. Almost like the internal and external threads do not mesh right. Mine if you tighten too much its like it skips a thread.

 

Put the cap on the bench by the tools you're using. It won't be long for you to remember, if you use the garage and bench regularly for other things. I've made the same mistake before on another vehicle, putting it where it will be noticed corrected the problem.

 

Not to jack the thread, but how the hell did you find an access cab offroad stick? I thought the highest AC trim with stick was the sport

 

I’ve adopted this method. Wife’s 200k CR-V likes to sip oil a little. Better than it rattling around in the engine bay.

 

After refilling with fresh oil, wipe filler neck seating surface and fill cap 'o'-ring with a clean dry rag. Removing most of the oil residue will allow the bit of friction that you've just created between the filler neck surface and the cap sealing surface to keep it in place after only moderate hand tightening the cap!

 

I'm in Canada, lucky for me.