Rotella T and egg

[DonBaggett]

I have egg on my face! After a lifetime of changing oil, but never having let it drain overnight before changing filter, I decided to do it that way. Everything went well, except for my forgetting to put the plug back in. I had just put the 10th quart down the hole when it hit me. Sure enough, all that Rotella T was creeping across my carport floor. Bet I'll remember it next time!

 

[Gizmo 007]

Now you sound like me. Left the plug hand tight in mine. Filled it up, checked the level, no oil. What the? Then it dawned on me. My catch pan was overflowing. Sheesh

 

[hv2hunt]

MAN I feel better knowing I'm not the only one that has done that. .

 

[EMDDIESEL]

Dont worry, i did something worse, i drained all 11 quarts in to one of those pans that you can unscrew the funnel and put a cap on and it becomes a sealed used oil container, then forgot to move it out of the way and backed over it. Needles to say, it popped like a zit and COVERED my driveway and the side of my ram with very BLACK oil. driveway still looks like hell.

 

[tgbol]

I've left the plug out, left the filter loose, and rum over a full drain pan. At least it wasn't at the same.

 

[DonBaggett]

I appreciate knowing it has happened to others. I had just responded the day before to a thread about whether or not to leave the tailgate on when towing. I said, "You've got to have a system and follow it. " Those words came back like a boomerang!

 

[HC]

You may have identified yet another point that could be used in our favorite debate, "mineral vs. Synthetic". With synthetics, this mistake would be much less likely! (With oil that costs 2 to 5 times as much, you'll find yourself triple-checking that drain plug. )



(Grasping for straws to justify my synthetics? Nah, not really. Thanks for sharing your story - it will help me to be even more careful the next time. )

 

[illflem]

When I was 16 I went to change the oil on my first truck, drained the transmission instead. Never figured out how come it only took a quart to refill my motor oil until my transmission seized up about 2000 miles later.

 

[Scooby]

LMAO !!!



I have nightmares about this stuff..... we're all going to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder soon: checking and rechecking the oil drain plug 10-20 times before we leave the house each day!!

 

[Randy J]

And I thought I was the only one. Several years back I had a Thunderbird SC that I was doing a transmission fluid change on. With that car, there's a plug that allows you to drain the torque converter. So everything's going well, I have all the fluid out, new filter in, ready to start pouring the fluid back in. I carefully measure what I've taken out, about 11 quarts if I remember correctly, and proceeded to install 11 quarts. I looked under the car, and to my suprise there was transmission fluid all over my garage floor. I quickly mopped up as much as I could and then dropped the transmission pan to see what I'd done wrong. Couldn't find a thing. So I put it back together, and of course all the fluid is now wasted (expensive Amsoil no less). As I'm getting ready to refill the transmission again, it dawned on me. The new fluid has to be pumped into the torque converter, it wouldn't just flow. I'd over filled the transmission, and it had come out the vent tube. Doh!

 

[hv2hunt]

Illflem that was good... When I was younger I put my dads diesel in the lawn mower. Just about blew out my shoulder trying to get it started.

A red gas can has gas in right?

Let's all make sure we label everything we do so we don't hurt our CTD.

 

[Shovelhead]

Look at the bright side,

Now your carport floor will be protected against seizing up for 15,000 miles( as long as you analyze the samples regularly )

 

[Jeff H]

I learned a good lesson when I was a teen. Don't drain the oil outside on a windy day. Lest just say oil does have a sweat taste.

 

[DieselDoghouse]

Oilly Oops!

Been there, done that! But that premium oil NEEDS to breathe like a fine wine, send it through a couple of times!!! . And as to the windy days - it takes 6 showers minimum to wash out friction modifier!!!

 

[jackrea]

Well this post came just in time, yesterday I decided to change oil and filter, so I got my oil container down slid it under the drain plug and opened the plug and went back inside to get the blackstone test container and as I came back outside the oil was flowing across the drive way, I had forgotten to open the plug in the oil container.

Jack

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

DIY experts or Jiffy Lube?

Great oil changing distaster stories!

With many of us doing our own oil changes because we don't trust the well being of our trucks in the hands of local Jiffy Lube employees. . . well, some of you guys worry me!



If I didn't want to change my own oil, I am confronted with a tough decision: Do I

1) Allow an experienced fellow TDR owner, such as those posting on this tread, to do it for me? Or

2) Jiffy Lube?



* LOL *



Couldn't resist. . .

(OK OK, I confess I've left the drain plug out when refilling the oil before, but at least it was on my $900 Buick Skylark instead of the CTD)

 

[Gizmo 007]

Well Vaughn,



It happens to the best of us. At least we all caught it before it became a disaster. The Jiffy Lube guys don't even know what a dipstick is. Except for the employees .

 

[LandShark]

I'm sure glad that I am not so dumb as to leave the drain plug out of my CTD! I did leave the plug out of my wifes car once, though. Four quarts of Mobile 1 on the ground!

 

[BillGotthelf]

I have never forgot to put plugs back in my trucks but I'm building a 34 ford coupe with all ford parts. Aod trans without speedo installed will hold 7 qts- I put in 8 qts and now have 1 qt of trany fluid all over my shop floor.

 

[tmacc]

illflem, at least you had the excuse of youth. Last month, I went to change the oil in my wife's *BRAND NEW* VW Passat. I drain the oil from the only drain plug in view and it looked like oil. It was brown like oil. Changed the filter and put 4 qt. of oil in and it was way over full. Man, I was really scratching my head on this one. Went to drive up to the mail box and the trans. started slipping. When did they start putting drain plug on auto trans? Had to have it towed to the dealer so they could hook it up to a special machine that installs the right amount of $Very Special$ AT fluid. Cost me $153. Wife won't let me touch her car now. In 30 yrs of changing oil in vehicles, this was the worst boneheaded stunt yet.



Tom