do dealers mark the drain plug?

[WhyMe]

took advantage of the great deals at autozone and changed moms oil today. vehicle in 2017 CRV has 24k miles on . she has taken it to the same dealer 3 times for oil change. one thing i noticed is that there was a white paint mark on the oil drain plug. trying to figure out why its there

So is it common to mark the drain plug after a oil change? most of the time i see this paint mark is from the factory and the first time the plug is removed. or could the honda dealer use a vacuum oil change?

 

[parshisa]

That's from the factory. Same marks are on all plugs on my ‘17 civic. Quality control i'd say, verification of torque being applied

 

[WhyMe]

Originally Posted by parshisa
That's from the factory. Same marks are on all plugs on my ‘17 civic. Quality control i'd say, verification of torque being applied


i understand that, but i am wondering why its still there after 3 oil changes. unless they remarked it or vacuum the oil out they should be gone

 

[RooflessVW]

My VW store uses Torque-Seal.

 

[Lubener]

I have seen various marks put on when a dealer does the service on a newer car. I thought it meant they checked that item.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Call the dealership and ask them. I don't see any reason why they'd lie about marking a drain plug (maybe they do it to know if someone besides them has been changing oil) and/or using an extractor.

 

[jeepman3071]

Every dealer is different, I've seen some that mark the plug to verify it has been torqued by them.

 

[Kira]

I remember hearing of secretive markings local mechanics stamped onto car frames. Could be true, could be nonsense.

 

[KrisZ]

Maybe then have never changed it.

 

[Silver]

I've got two Fords that both have blue silicone like stuff smeared cross the oil pan fill bolts.

 

[bdcardinal]

When I worked at Sears we put a blue tamper seal on drain plugs. It was basically a thick paint. It was to stop people from draining their oil and getting us to buy them an engine, yes that happened frequently.

 

[PimTac]

Originally Posted by WhyMe
Originally Posted by parshisa
That's from the factory. Same marks are on all plugs on my ‘17 civic. Quality control i'd say, verification of torque being applied


i understand that, but i am wondering why its still there after 3 oil changes. unless they remarked it or vacuum the oil out they should be gone




Why would paint marks disappear?

My theory is that it's a sign for the next time she pulls in. They will push a bunch of upsell options on her. ...

 

[UG_Passat]

Originally Posted by WhyMe
took advantage of the great deals at autozone and changed moms oil today. vehicle in 2017 CRV has 24k miles on . she has taken it to the same dealer 3 times for oil change. one thing i noticed is that there was a white paint mark on the oil drain plug. trying to figure out why its there

So is it common to mark the drain plug after a oil change? most of the time i see this paint mark is from the factory and the first time the plug is removed. or could the honda dealer use a vacuum oil change?


Since it's covered by a belly pan, there really isn't much abrasion rubbing the paint mark off.

 

[ragtoplvr]

it is not uncommon for the factory to use seals, uv traceable fluids, or special part number filters to see if required maintenance was done. .It might be that.

They also record rpm and loads in the ecm, so they can see if you decided to do a motoman breakin. They can void warranty for that too.

if they say no more than half throttle and 4000 rpm and see many many redline, full throttle hits, and you have engine failure, expect to be declined.

Rod

 

[ragtoplvr]

I can believe that. We just sell auto parts, and we had a customer that was always short parts. So we photographed the loads, the weights, verified the weight was correct for the amount of parts and waited. Sure enough. They claimed. We told them to go after the carrier, we have proof.

We did prevail in the end. There was a materials manager that lost his position. But his numbers looked really good. They were about to promote him.

I suspect you would not want to change his oil either.

Rod

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Not on the new vehicles I have owned.