Catastrophe...I brought it on myself.

[attomica]

I forgot to put the oil cap back on after adding some oil and then drove a mile to the gas station to fill up, and a mile back. I get home and open the hood because I smelled gas. Fucking oil everywhere! FUCK! I thought I lost the heavy, red oil cap, but no...it's still resting on the under pan. I have to take off the wheel to retrieve it. What do I see? A CV boot that's totally torn to shreds because (I guess) the damned oil cap fell on it while I was in motion. So, I need to have my Speed flat-bedded to the dealer, the CV boot replaced, the pad that's on the underside of the hood replaced because that got oil soaked, and the oil that I couldn't clean to be cleaned.

I wonder how much this is going to cost me. I can't believe I did this. I'm usually so attentive and focused when I work on the cars because I know shit like this can happen. Again, FUCK!

[mxlplx71]

pretty shitty situation right there.

[Code Monkey]

Shit happens, live and learn.

At the track, some folks forget hood pins, I have no idea how, but I have a feeling one day I will find out.

oops 1

oops 1

oops 2

[brandonnicholson]

Its at your house now? Why tow it to the dealer? Replace the cv boot yourself and order the piece under the hood. Unless its under warranty, if theyll even cover it.

[jseams]

We all have our stories of fail. I have a thread a long while back where I shot a pair of Rhino's under my car and wedged them into the subframe pretty good; bought a pair of Race Ramps the next week. lol

...and I guarantee that you won't ever make this mistake again.

[Agent_Orange]

I've done this a couple times to my Caddy. After topping off the coolant I neglected to replace the cap and proceeded to overheat.

Now I try to make sure I set the cap down in such a way that the hood won't close should I forget to replace it.

Live and learn indeed.

[crell]

Don't feel bad did the same thng a few months back drove 30 min to work before I realized still haven't changed the hood pad , need to find the part number , let's just say it's a fun job cleaning up , was worked I ruined the engine but I dumped to oil at work and it still had about 4 qt. left , lesson learned , installed the jbr trilogy mm's awhile back and still was finding oil under the stock pmm and coolant res,

[attomica]

Originally Posted by brandonnicholson Its at your house now? Why tow it to the dealer? Replace the cv boot yourself and order the piece under the hood. Unless its under warranty, if theyll even cover it.

I'd love to fix it myself, but it's a time thing. My wife's car won't be available for my use, so I need to get it fixed ASAP.


Another thing, I say I brought it on myself, but I had it at the dealer last Saturday for its 15k check-up, oil change, and air filter change and when I checked the oil today it was just at the Low mark. I had to add a half quart to get it to Full. I feel like this may not have happened if I didn't have to add oil to get it to the level it was supposed to be from their service.

[razor3232]

Originally Posted by jseams We all have our stories of fail. I have a thread a long while back where I shot a pair of Rhino's under my car and wedged them into the subframe pretty good; bought a pair of Race Ramps the next week. lol ...and I guarantee that you won't ever make this mistake again.

What did you end up paying for those race ramps??

[jeymz]

That's sucks man. I almost made this same mistake but noticed the red oil cap just before I closed the hood.

[obijack]

Look at the bright side, you didn't zzb.

[manila]

[jseams]

Originally Posted by razor3232 What did you end up paying for those race ramps??

About $540 total. I got the Race Ramps RR-XT-2 67-Inch XT 2-Piece Race Ramp plus the Race Ramps RR-EX-14 67" Xtenders.

Expensive, but well worth it. They are fantastic.

[crell]

hey send that pads part# if it shows on your invoice , attomicca

[LumberJack]

Damnnn I've done this before, but was able to catch it less than 1/2 mile down the road. Sucks, took forever to get the engine bay clean

[Stingray69]

Look at the bright side, shouldn't get any rust in the engine bay.

[attomica]

Originally Posted by manila

Shit, the second I realized what happened, on went nitrile gloves and I was double-fisting microfiber towels with Simple Green, cleaning as much as I could. Takin' pictures? Ain't got time fo dat!

Originally Posted by crell hey send that pads part# if it shows on your invoice , attomicca

You got it.

Welp, I have a flatbed scheduled for 7:00am to take it and me to the dealership service dept. I'm hoping they'll have a loaner car for me to use.

[forcedinduktion]

I think that's gods way of saying you should stay away from cars...lmfao how do you forget to put on the oil cap...

[attomica]

Originally Posted by forcedinduktion I think that's gods way of saying you should stay away from cars...lmfao how do you forget to put on the oil cap...

If "god" existed in realiity, I guess i'd have to agree with you. I've asked myself a hundred times how this could have happened (see first post), but can't think of a reason why. Maybe, in my old age, my mind is starting to slip? I've been wrenching on cars for decades so this is a particularly grevious error.

[Tokay444]

A catastrophe would be spinning all your bearings.
And that cv boost has likely been ripped for a while. Dropping your oil cap was fate's way of saying, "here, deal with this before is kills you."

[BigRedSpecial]

What Tokay said. That cap likely didn't hurt anything. It just said "I made a fucking mess, the least I can do is alert this guy that his CV shaft is about to fail". Consider it a blessing in disguise.

I left the cap off my old car and drove 350kms once. Luckily that engine wasn't an oil squirter like the DISI so it was actually fine. Added half a liter to top it up. On the other hand, I left the cap off the speed once while the hood was open. Caught it after 15 seconds... that was enough time to completely coat three cars in oil, which I then had to wash.

[attomica]

Originally Posted by Tokay444 And that cv boost has likely been ripped for a while...

I can't imagine that being the case. I picked car up brand new on January 9th with only nine miles on the odo and since then, there've been no incidences that would've caused that.

[CaptObvious75]

I guess you can cancel your appointment for krown lol

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

[Tokay444]

"No instances"? Wtf are you going on about.
What instances do you figure cause cv boot failures?
Surely not dropping your oil fill cap on it.

[usgiorgi]

Actually like others said, there's no way that cap did anything to that boot... Those rubber boots are very tough and flexible, especially when the car is pretty new. It was probably torn a while ago and you're lucky you noticed it now, because imagine if it failed while you were taking a high speed corner...

[Dat8687]

That happened on my speed 6.. An oil change place took the oil cap off and didn't put it back on.. I literally drove not even a block to the store popped the hood.. OIL was everywhere I had to replace the hood engine fire proof thing or whatever its called sound deadener. It was basically completely soaked.

The oil change place paid for it. But still to clean up the oil took forever.

Sucks man sorry about your axle as well

[usgiorgi]

as a tip, use dish detergent for cleaning up oil/grease. It actually eats through it and you can just hose it off. Make sure to cover up the alternator and the filter, but other than that, just steam the shit out of it.

[Spectrix]

This is just one of those things that happens when you take home a squirter.

[Guyverspeed3]

How many miles are on your 13, and how many oil changes have you done. If you are adding oil, and the CV boot was shredded, you might want to check and make sure the old lady isn't takin her out for joy rides....LOL!

[almcbs]

same thing happened here smh. I had a oil leak that i fixed, cleaned and change the oil while i was at it. forgot to put the oil cap back on, get to work and see oil dripping out the bottom of the car smfh FAIL!

[attomica]

UPDATE
The flatbed showed up right on time, we got it hooked up and on the road. Got to the dealer right at opening...the first one there. I got a regular 3 sedan for a loaner. I'm stoked about that because I thought I'd have to deal with a rental car. The service dude called me two hours after I dropped it off to tell me all parts are ordered for tomorrow delivery. The under-hood insulating pad will run me like $50, but the CV boot will be covered under warranty.

I hear you guys about how unlikely it is for the oil cap to be the cause of the CV boot's destruction. What you say makes sense. I guess I just couldn't understand it since the car is so new and the oil cap is directly above the CV joint. I need to hone my detective skills.

So, @Tokay444 and @BigRedSpecial, you were right. I was being told a bigger problem was looming. I just wish the message could've been less messy.

[bladerunner10121]

Shit I just changed my Oil yesterday. This makes me want to go out and double check everything again. although I just drove 60 miles to work so I would have probably noticed by now.

[Tokay444]

It's not called a message because it's clean.

[Tokay444]

I have a ripped cv boot and I've never dropped my oil cap on it.
Not even once. It's the driver's side inner boot.

[forcedinduktion]

Originally Posted by attomica If "god" existed in realiity, I guess i'd have to agree with you. I've asked myself a hundred times how this could have happened (see first post), but can't think of a reason why. Maybe, in my old age, my mind is starting to slip? I've been wrenching on cars for decades so this is a particularly grevious error.

If you can prove to me either way, we can carry this conversion on further.

[attomica]

Originally Posted by crell hey send that pads part# if it shows on your invoice , attomicca

PM sent.

[crell]

thanks for the part number attomica , good lookin out

[FullTilt429]

Oops... next time place caps over the hood latch... that way it won't close

[smr87]

I did this in my old regular 3, drove it about 60 miles before it dawned on me what the fluid was that was blowing over my windshield while going down the highway. Never replaced the hood mat or cleaned it, topped her off and replaced the cap...the oil worked as a great rust preventer. I now check the cap no less than 3 times when I do an oil change before I shut the hood!

[rgz]

A tip is to put the cap on the hood latch so it'll prevent you from closing the hood in case you forget to put the cap back on.