[pro4alberta]

Well as the title says my truck apperently suffered a drain plug washer failure, and dumped almost all of its oil. My guess is human error, Heres the story just FYI.
Truck is 6 months old, just had its 3rd oil change at the dealer 6 days ago, I'm away at work so the fiance had been driving the truck, comes out from whatever store she was in spending my money and noticed a pool of oil under the truck, luckily for me she is a first year automotive mechanic , she immediatly crawled under to see wtf was going on. Checked the dipstick and it was just under the low lvl line so I got lucky!

She said there was oil EVErywhere underneath the truck and no way to tell where its coming from. Knowing it just had an oil change done first thing she suspects is the filter/drain plug, wipes them both off and what do ya know, dripping from the god dam drain plug, she wrenches it a bit and its tight so she puts some oil in it and drives straight to the dealer.

They appologize up the *** and pay for her cab home and back, they told her that the seal around the drain plug wasn't sealing properly?! they cleaned all the oil and gave her another change and fill, adding in a hand full of free car wash coupons. Lucky for them my fiance isnt a dumb ***** and kept driving it or they would have been replacing a little bit more than the oil and a crush washer lol

Has anybody else had this issue, from what I have been reading these are recommended to be changed everytime the plug is removed? which I think is kind of silly but look what just happened to a brand new truck.. ... Maybe they just over torqued it and split the washer?

 

[Quartz]

I use one of these. http://www.qwikvalve.com/F103S.html It makes oil changes easier and I have not had any issues so far.

 

[BobNYC]

Dealers are notorious for not changing the crush washer when changing the oil. But they'll charge you 85 cents for it. I watch like a hawk to make sure they actually change it.

 

[bestatchess]

"Lost all my oil! Dealer fail!"

 

[Panman06]

This is why I change the oil myself. I do 95% of the maintenance myself because I don't trust dealerships/shops.

 

[Nightstalker 6]

I use one of these. http://www.qwikvalve.com/F103S.html It makes oil changes easier and I have not had any issues so far.

+1 on the fumoto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gweasel77]

Do yourself a favor & change you own oil! I went to Harbor Nissan & got a hand full of crush washers.

 

[Quartz]

I say get the quick change valve, do the work yourself, and don't let some snot nosed kid work on your truck.

 

[Quartz]

This is why I change the oil myself. I do 95% of the maintenance myself because I don't trust dealerships/shops.

Over the last ten years (since we bought my wife's 2001 Accord) the only time any of our vehicles has been in the shop is when we had the rack and pinion replaced in her Honda. Timing belts, tune ups, brake jobs, oil changes, tie rod ends, etc. are all done in my garage. It saves me money, but more importantly I have the piece of mind knowing that my wife gets in a car that is properly maintained and repaired when she heads out on the road.

 

[jasonmotox]

Thats odd, I never noticed a crush washer in all the times I've changed my oil! I've never had any leaks either.

 

[Quartz]

Thats odd, I never noticed a crush washer in all the times I've changed my oil! I've never had any leaks either.

It probably never fell off the plug.

 

[pro4alberta]

On all my past vehicles I have done my own maintenance, My fiance and I rebuild old imports in our garage and resell them. The only reason I have been taking it to nissan for oil changes is to not void the warranty being the first ''New'' vehicle I've owned, clearly states in my extended warranty contract that I need them to change it while under warranty which I think is BS but whatever, if I would have blown my engine because of this then they would have had to replace it.

those qwikvalves look like a good idea but I dont know how much I would trust it hanging out like that when going offroading

 

[baseballfanz]

Thats odd, I never noticed a crush washer in all the times I've changed my oil! I've never had any leaks either.

Never had a crush washer on my Titan either from day one and never had any problems either.

 

[Shane06fl]

138K on one and 88k on the other and never changed the crush washer and no leaks (there at least) The screwed up and didn't get the drain plug tight.

 

[TitanBlue]

I had 10 years and 130K Miles on my 77 Nova with maybe one crush washer change. Love my Fumoto Valve! We have them on Generators at work too.

 

[DoyleOil]

Not sure on the new ones but most of the nissan drain plugs have a thin copper crush set into the drain plug. they can get chewed up over time but I havent changed mine. for a crush washer that thin to fail and leave a PUDDLE of oil means... to me... it wasnt a crush washer. They had to have not tightened it. I had one crush washer problem in all my oil changes (i do this for a business) and it slowly dropped oil onto the skid plate of a volvo over the span of a few days.

being at the low mark on the dipstick means you didnt lose all your oil, but its a good thing it was caught because it would have been a much bigger problem.

Side note, now is a great time to switch to synthetic!

 

[bestatchess]

Not sure on the new ones but most of the nissan drain plugs have a thin copper crush set into the drain plug. they can get chewed up over time but I havent changed mine. for a crush washer that thin to fail and leave a PUDDLE of oil means... to me... it wasnt a crush washer. They had to have not tightened it.

Exactly what I was thinking. They finger tightened it and never put a wrench on it, so the washer wasn't crushed until miss super mechanic / fiancee (bless her heart, probably 95% of women wipe the motor) crawled under the truck and tightened it, crushing the washer and also giving her the perception that it was fairly tight to start with. Tight drain plug with no crush washer or previously used crush washer doesn't drain the crankcase into a puddle under the truck. Dealer fail.

 

[StormTroopin]

Never had a crush washer on my Titan either from day one and never had any problems either.

Ditto. Never noticed any crush washer...

 

[HudsonValleyTitan]

I've been driving for over 30 years and have never changed a crush washer. I do all my own oil changes and have never had as much as a drip. Check what they did. They either stripped the plug or never tightened it properly.

 

[pro4alberta]

Exactly what I was thinking. They finger tightened it and never put a wrench on it, so the washer wasn't crushed until miss super mechanic / fiancee (bless her heart, probably 95% of women wipe the motor) crawled under the truck and tightened it, crushing the washer and also giving her the perception that it was fairly tight to start with. Tight drain plug with no crush washer or previously used crush washer doesn't drain the crankcase into a puddle under the truck. Dealer fail.

^ that seems to be the most logical explaination, I'm with you guys it sounds like kind of a bogus excuse they gave for dumping that much oil. I won't be back to get the whole story in person for a while so until then i'm just going by information passed on through emails.
Either way it just goes to show that if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself!!