My worst oil change ever

Not as cool as some of the posts, but I MityVac'ed out 4 qts from grand niece's 2013 Civic, poured 4 qts fresh M1 into engine and proceeded to expell the 4 qts dirty oil into the remaining 1 qt of fresh M1.

I was having too much fun talking and not paying attention. Being a cheapskate, this one hurt.
 
Thanks for sharing.

My worst oil change was in my now 370z. Used an aluminum magnetic drain plug, when I torqued the **** thing it broke! Magnet was left in the drain pan and had to use a reverse drill bit to get the carcass of the plug out the hole.

Then I had to drop the oil pan to get the magnet out…. Oh well I learned something new and there’s no substitute for experience.
 
When my youngest sister was learning to drive one of my brothers decided to teach her how to change a flat tire and how to do an oil change. It happened that his vehicle needed an oil change so he had recently purchased an oil filter from a local auto parts supplier and talked her through doing the oil change. When they started up the engine after that all the oil gushed out around the top of the oil filter. The local auto parts store had given him the wrong filter.
 
Mine was relatively minor, was in a big hurry, drained oil, out new filter on. Snugged filter down .. didn't feel right, backed it off, not cross threaded so I snugged it up.

Put oil in, proceeded to start car and tsssssss sound as oil shot every where. Sounds like a pressure leak, sure enough the one time I didn't check old filter for gasket it stayed on the motor and I double gasketed the new filter ...

I was in such a hurry I didn't spend the 2 seconds to check the old filter, literally the one time I didn't and it happened. I had to climb under car, remove extra gasket, and put filter back on. I only lost about a quart of oil, ran inside, grabbed muriatic acid and hose to clean up spilled oil.

Had to spray with the hose, pour some, move it around with large broom, repeat but it got the oil out good enough. Fortunately I had just pressure washed it so it more or less matched after it etched the cement.

I than got to take a nice shower covered in oil, and I still to this day remember it every time I try and rush something.
 
I was changing the oil on an old International Harvester 3-ton truck with a diesel. I had a 5 gallon pail as the drain pan and as it got close to the top I realized it wasn't going to stop draining before the pail filled. I scrambled out to find something but was too late.....oil all over the shop floor. I was stunned that the sump capacity was over 5 gallons......

On a 70's Ford 3-ton I did a change but stripped the oil pan threads when installing the drain plug. It was an easy fix with one of those new drain plugs that fixes the thread on the way in.
 
Any oil change on my RAM1500 5.7L. Front mounted oil filter runs onto the electric rack and the connector, it wont corrode. Oil runs out of the pan, and hits the sway bar and splatters and then follows it and drips all over. Good job guys!
 
Just wondering my granddaughter had oil changed and I just checked the oil is about 2 inch over full not sure what to do . Oil changed in Tenn. now in florida car was towed to Fl.. Thank you jz
 
jackz said:
Just wondering my granddaughter had oil changed and I just checked the oil is about 2 inch over full not sure what to do . Oil changed in Tenn. now in florida car was towed to Fl.. Thank you jz
Click to expand...
The oil changer might have seriously overfilled it, but it might possibly have fuel or coolant in the oil at this point. Check the coolant in the radiator to see if it is low or looks contaminated. Smell the oil on the dipstick to see if it smells like gasoline. Even if neither seem to be the cases, you still need to drain some of the oil out to get the oil level back down. A little over full is not likely to hurt anything, but way overfull is not good and can cause the oil to be aerated during operation and also damage seals in the engine.
 
years back, i was at the house my buddy was renting, changing the oil in his Vibe (RIP)... either a sudden wind gust, or I had a Muscle spasm, i'm not sure which, but the drain pan got knocked over while the oil was still draining....4.5qts of 5w30 ALLLL over the Concrete pad that at one point in time had been a garage floor...
at least it was NextGen, and some of it had already been recycled once...

Luckily they have Cats.... I ended up owing him a Pail of Litter...

the only other bad one was... I think not long after.... not really INVOLVING an oil change, just leading up to one...
I drove to my brother's place in DFW on vacation... after I got there, went to top off the oil, some how fumbled the Neon's fill cap back behind the block..
"no problem, all i have to do is move the car, and I'll get it off the ground..." NOPE! something distracted me, and we went on about our vacation business.
week later, on the 1100 mi drive back home, about an hour or so into the trip I start getting wiffs of oil/ hot Hydrocarbons....
when i stopped for Fuel, popped the hood to take a look....no fill cap..."Dang it! I knew i was forgetting something!"
I just Kept on Driving, and forgetting until i'd get a whiff every few hours.. never made it to a parts store on anything on the drive...(wonder how many i drove past)
when I got home 16 hrs later, right off the road, I put the car up on ramps, removed the plug, let it start draining, and went to bed.
in the Morning/next afternoon, when i went to button everything up, I found the half melted fill cap, on part of the subframe, just touching the down pipe..( i forget how the neon exhaust was set up, but i think it was post manifold, Pre- Cat) NO CHANCE of it threading on.. it went in the trash, put on the new Filter, tightened the drain plug, filled with new oil, and drive the 3 or so miles to the nearest parts store, and buy a Dorman fill cap.

that would have been Oct 2013... I sold that '05 Neon to my buddy's family in Feb '14, his Little Brother finally sold it on base last summer in KY/TN(Ft.Campbell.)
Bought himself a new GR86 to replace it.
 
Simple routine oil change on my wifes C43......got some mobil 1 0w40 from Walmart. Don't use mobil 1 that often, so didn't check the seal, or knew it existed. Started to pour, and it was clear this was old used oil someone just returned. Dont buy oil from Walmart.
 
Not my story but I remember Eric on the South Main Auto channel on YouTube told a story of a smoked engine that had one of those foil oil jug seals lodged in an oil passage or a return hole or such that was blocking oil flow.
 
Trying to be sneaky and fast doing an oil change in my apartment parking lot at an early hour, I dropped the drain plug into the big funnel-shaped drain pan which then quickly started to fill up since the drain hole was now blocked. With visions of having to explain and clean up a very large puddle of dirty oil, I panicked and reached into the drain pan to fish out the plug before it overflowed. The oil was still hot and it turned my whole hand a nice shade of pink for a few days but the crisis was averted.
 
I did an OC once and started the engine after finishing and my dad yells stop there's oil pi$$ing out everywhere. I laughed and said yeah right nice try. I look down and half the oil is squirting out everywhere... so he wasn't trying to play a joke.

Double oil filter gasket. Never ever have I had a gasket stick before or after that and that was the first and only time I didn't double check the gasket... 🫣
 
Dehaka said:
Worst oil change story....bought a $17 mobil 1 ep filtet, opened it up and was a $3 fram
Click to expand...
At least it was a new Fram...my buddy got an "used" one in the box a looooong time ago. While he orders online for the most part, if he gets something in-store, he always opens and checks :)
 
My personal worst oil change was when I put my catch pan under my F-150, I pulled the drain plug on the engine oil pan and wondered "why is it not draining?", only to remember I didn't open the drain plug on the catch pan. Even worse, this was one time I thought "oh, I don't need a tarp. I won't spill anything. Done this so many times", so it's not like I can say "well it was my first oil change and I was an idiot". No, I was already 21 and had done plenty of oil changes by then, to know better. Oil went all over my driveway, while I'm panicking and I've got my hand in roughly 190 degree oil trying to unscrew the drain plug on the catch pan (I had just driven the truck for 20 miles, when I did this). This was also on a Sunday, so I'm sure my church-going neighbors heard the profanities. Fun day.
 
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