Made a rookie mistake, need advice.

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While I am not a noobie to changing oil, I changed the oil on my 2014 F150 a while ago and made a rookie mistake. I didn't tighten the oil filler cap properly and it fell off while driving to work. The oil had about 150 miles on the change at the time and now has a little under 2200 miles on it. Now my big problem is I drive on a gravel road to get to work, and I had probably about 12-15 miles of the drive where the cap was off. Now, the good news is that our road was still pretty frozen at the time this happend, so there wasn't that much dust.

I normally run about 5k miles on my changes, and I most definitely plan to have this sample sent off for testing. Does anyone think I should change the oil sooner than my regular schedule or should I keep this oil for my planned 5k change? Or change just the filter?

Thanks
 
I'd go the regularly scheduled oci. No harm, no foul most likely. I'm sure the color and everything else is like it should be I'm guessing.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
I'd go the regularly scheduled oci. No harm, no foul most likely. I'm sure the color and everything else is like it should be I'm guessing.


Yeah I checked it the other day and it's not even dark yet.

Thanks guys.
 
You should be fine. Probably not that much dust being frozen, and the engine being in the front, not a lot of dust there. If you were following someone on a dusty road, then I'd be worried.
 
Not a biggie. Being where you're from, imagine how that might be if it were a combine at harvest time. Then, you might have something to worry about.
wink.gif
 
You might have a slight increase in Si from unfiltered air bypassing pcv into ccv, but doubt it will make a dent. The oil filter will pick up any reasonably concerning debris, if any was introduced. Forget about it.
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
As i have posted before, it is not clear why oil caps are not tethered to the engine, like gas caps are tethered to the car.


I agree, but still wouldn't stop me from not putting it on properly lol.

Originally Posted By: Brybo86
Are your running a wix xp for an oil filter? They are ROCK catchers


I'm running the OEM Ford FL500S filter.


Thanks everyone for your input!
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Randy_270
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Just make sure oil filler cap is tighten properly from now on.
Haha... yeah, I deserve that...

I did the same twice for S2000 and once for E430.

First time on the S2000 I smelled something burning but I didn't stop the car to check, I drove at least 30-40 miles with oil filler cap off before I stopped for lunch and check under the hood.

Second time about 2-3 years later I stopped right away when I smelled the oil, after I drove the car less than 1/2 miles from the house.

I lost the oil filler cap of the E430 for few days before I recognize it, I went to local part store to buy a replacement.

All 3 times I didn't do anything else, such as change oil and/or filter.

I learn my lessons, since then no more missing oil filler cap.
 
Is there any vacuum through the oil filler? Small engines like my old 4 cyl BMW sure did... But it wouldn't run without a tight seal.

So I'd suspect that your engine didn't ingest much dirt.
 
I once ran my car through a whole tank of gas without the oil cap on. It leaked a bit of oil and I checked the level every tank of gas. Fortunately it was on a hwy trip so it was only a half day later. It leaked a bit out the cap and I topped it up and off I went. Nothing ever came of it.
 
It's very likely fine. If I were in that position I'd just continue with the oil change interval as normal.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: Randy_270
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Just make sure oil filler cap is tighten properly from now on.
Haha... yeah, I deserve that...

I did the same twice for S2000 and once for E430.

First time on the S2000 I smelled something burning but I didn't stop the car to check, I drove at least 30-40 miles with oil filler cap off before I stopped for lunch and check under the hood.

Second time about 2-3 years later I stopped right away when I smelled the oil, after I drove the car less than 1/2 miles from the house.

I lost the oil filler cap of the E430 for few days before I recognize it, I went to local part store to buy a replacement.

All 3 times I didn't do anything else, such as change oil and/or filter.

I learn my lessons, since then no more missing oil filler cap.


Sounds like you're a professional haha. The best way to learn is through mistakes.

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
What is the status of the oil fill cap ? Was it recovered or is it still missing ?


Oil cap fell and melted from the exhaust manifold (luckily, not to it though) so I just got a new one from Ford. But it did manage to take out an ABS line and a 4wd vacuum line... this oops was a $530 oops.

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Is there any vacuum through the oil filler? Small engines like my old 4 cyl BMW sure did... But it wouldn't run without a tight seal.

So I'd suspect that your engine didn't ingest much dirt.


Truck ran fine, didn't notice a difference, but it was down about 1-2 quarts of oil.
 
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