What would you do with this oil mess?

I took my truck to the dealer on Saturday for the 5k service. I decided to pay $70 bucks to have them do an oil and filter change despite the manual only calling for the first change at 10k. I parked the truck in my driveway (slight angle with front end up) until I left for work this morning. When I got home I noticed an oil spill about 9" in diameter on my driveway. I crawled underneath and saw oil all over the skid plate. With limited daylight I pulled the access panel with the 4 allen bolts. I saw oil all over the top side of the skid plate. There was no oil on the top side of the access panel under the drain plug. There was a bit of oil on the drain bolt. Would you go back to the dealer and tell them to pull the skid and clean it all up? Would you simply clean it yourself? Should I check the torque of the drain plug or is it safe to assume it isn't leaking if there isn't oil on the top of the access panel? Would you ask for a voucher for a future free oil change for the back and forth hassle or is this par for the course?

 

Damn! That's messed up. I would check that everything is tight and clean up the mess. Also check the oil level. I would not go back to that place again.

 

I would not drive it, call them, let them know there is oil leaking after they serviced your truck. They should come check it, most do.

Yep, stuff happens.

 

I need to drive to work early in the morning before they open. I'm assuming they just spilled when they drained the old oil, but seems somewhat hard to do with it on the lift. I'm hoping that's the case with the oil not on the top side of the access panel. I guess I'll just go in mid-morning, make them clean it up and ask for a future oil change voucher.

 

Take pics or video to show dealer, Check see if oil level good, take off skid plate, see where it came from check all items associated with oil change, clean up, do your own oil changes from now on and NEVER GO BACK TO EM, F EM!!!

 

Once bitten twice shy.

 

I was a bit nervous doing my own when I first got my Tundra, I had dealership do 2x, then saw YouTube posts on it, I'll never go back to dealership for oil change

 

I would not even start it. Something is more than likely leaking, it is a very expensive engine.

 

Speaking of oil change and Youtube. That's what I'm planning to do this weekend, oil change and make a how-to video.

 

I've seen others (Vids) you've done, great job I'm sure others on here will be glad to see so that they can do on thier own

 

Thanks... but I think you are probably the only one watching them.

 

Repost em all! I'm sure you'll get a great audience

 

This is very common. I've changed my own oil 4 times now. And the only time I didn't get it on the skid plate was when I installed a fumoto valve. It happens when the oil is nearing the end of the drain and it drips back towards the center of the truck. Very annoying.
I just sprayed a bunch of break cleaner on the skid plate to get it off.

 

I watched a few YouTube videos and after realizing where the drain plug is and the distribution of oil all over the skid plate I came to the same conclusion. I think I'll still head back to the dealer to make them clean it, but I'll be a little less annoyed knowing the likely cause. Thanks!

 

Changing oil sometimes get messy thats understandable but there is no excuse for not cleaning up the mess they made.

 

Just make sure you're not leaking. I had my oil changed recently, and it leaked pretty badly. Turns out some of the gaskets on the market tend to leak. Thankfully, I think I caught mine before it became a major issue.

 

I noticed a leak after my oil change a few months back. Called the service rep and he asked me to bring it back. Who ever did the oil change spilled oil in the skid plate as well. They removed the skid plate and steam cleaned everything for free. It was a pain in the ass having to go back but they made it right in the end

 

When I first got my Tundra, I decided to go ahead and use the "free 2 year oil change" option - just to save some money. Except in extremely rare cases, I usually do all of my own work on my vehicles, so this was unusual ground for me. Well, it turns out that was a mistake. I have Budbuilt skids on my rig - and while there is an access hole for the drain, it needs to be funneled once you take the plug out. Otherwise, it just drains all over the skid plate. I didn't think much of it, and took it in twice for the free oil change service. I noticed that each time I picked the truck up, they had washed it. I thought "hey, great customer service". I was wrong. They washed it to get rid of the evidence of their laziness. They took no time to make sure the oil didn't drain all of the skids. They just pulled the plug and let the oil fly wherever it wanted to. I was doing some other maintenance when I finally noticed a nice thick layer of grime on my back skid plate. So, the free washes were them just blowing off the oil that you could see.

So, I stopped taking it in - I never should have in the first place. I work on my own vehicles partially because I like to, but also because I don't trust mechanics in general. Plus, it gets even worse when it comes to basic maintenance. Do you think that the dealerships put their top-notch mechanics on oil changes? Hell no. Bottom line is that they don't care about your rig like you do. It is just another vehicle to pass the time until the end of the day.

Save yourself some coin and do your own oil changes. Then you know that they are done correctly - and you won't have issues like this.

 

2 things from my personal experience with both the TRD skid plate and dealer services:

1- That TRD skid plate makes oil changes a bear to do without at least a small mess and some residual oil SOMEWHERE on the plate. Both of my oil changes at a local trusted mechanic (despite care and clean up on his part) had some residual oil that had to be wiped up days later from the sides and bottom of the skid plate. It was minimal, but I know from doing oil changes on these things that the space and orientation of the filter makes it tough.

2- My local dealer, on a previous Tundra, did an oil change for me that resulted in a small but steady drip out of the bottom of the oil pan. There is actually a small plastic "gasket" that had cracked on the oil plug bolt and caused an ever so slight leak. I found the drip on my garage floor and had it fixed, but no longer use that dealer for any service (long story- but they suck at everything).

My advice is go back and make a point of expressing your frustration, but just know that some oil is probably a reality. Either find a shop you trust, or just do the oil change on your own as others have said.

Good luck with your resolution, hopefully it isn't something more serious!

 

They probably just spilled some oil when they changed it. Check you level and stop by a carwash and clean it; yes it will cost you a few bucks but way more time effective then going back to the dealer and sit around until they get to your truck.

 

Trd skid plate makes changing oil a pain. There should be better skid plate design

 

I went back to the dealer this morning and they pulled the skid plate and cleaned everything. The tech was just lazy and spilled oil everywhere and didn't clean it up. They signed the back of a business card for a future free oil change. It wasted another 90 min. this morning, but at least it's done and it wasn't more serious. I'm now trying to clean the oil stains off my driveway.

 

I had the same thing happen to me but 50x worse. I was in Ohio hunting. I pulled my large camper about 200 miles to the camp ground. I noticed I was getting close to my scheduled service so one day when I was in town eating lunch I spotted a quick lube next door. I took my truck over and said to change the oil and save the filter since I wanting to look at it for signs of any metal deposits and secretly to make sure they actually changed the filter (that’s another story). The filter was fine so I went to leave and pulled down a steep bank to leave. I looked in the rear view mirror and about shat my pants. It looked like a river of oil running down the hill behind me. I immediately shut the truck off and coasted down to a flat area and checked the dipstick. It was full so I looked at the trail of oil and it was like slightly dirty honey. I restarted the truck and pulled back up to the quick change lot. He used a hose and washed a river of oil off my skid plate. I’m glad the EPA wasn’t there because I’m sure some kind of fine would have ensued based upon the quantity of oil that went down a nearby drain.