Slight Smoke Following an Oil Change

[turf3]

Is this Subaru engine one of the ones where the filter's right up there in front, with a little saucer around it to collect oil? If so, just sop up what's in there and declare victory. I really like that design, having had too many cars where the horizontal oil filter invariably dribbles oil down the side of the block (and in the Volvo 240, it also drips oil right onto the alternator and the rubber element of the right front motor mount).

[pikabike]

Clean up the spilled oil (wipe well with paper towel), check tightness of both the filter and the oil pan plug, and see if the smoke returns.

Did the shop charge you for synthetic oil? My DH brought his Subaru to a shop that, without asking him, put in synthetic oil. That old car with many miles on it had not burned a drop of oil—REGULAR OIL—before. Afterward, it began leaking and burning oil. The unethical shop said “All our customers want synthetic oil.” They never asked him before doing it. Typical control-your-choices attitude from that f’ing hippiecritical town. Maybe next time they would have exchanged his car for a bicycle. But of course there WAS no next time...he never went back there.

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by easy62

Yep I’m not a person who is obsessed about a vehicle, some people treat their vehicles better than their house and sometimes their wife’s or girlfriends. I just let the dealer do my maintenance because the way a vehicle is made today a oil change and tire rotation is al, that’s really required at regular intervals. Everything else is when you get up there in miles. No more changing anti freeze every winter, no tuneup like changing points and condenser and checking timing. Hell even the automatic transmission is sealed. I let dealer do everything because it’s their vehicle their company made it.

And that’s perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with either approach. I can physically handle oil changes and have the ability to look at other possible issues that are currently or may be a future issue. I maintain my vehicles and keep them in great condition but they are tools. I don’t put them ahead of my family.

[M3 Mitch]

Originally Posted by Electrician4you

And that’s perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with either approach. I can physically handle oil changes and have the ability to look at other possible issues that are currently or may be a future issue. I maintain my vehicles and keep them in great condition but they are tools. I don’t put them ahead of my family.

And, any decent craftsman always keeps his tools in good shape! Use them hard when you need to, but don't abuse them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking care of your vehicle or any other tool, and to me, that includes not only refusing to loan them out, but giving a withering stare to whoever might be so gauche as to ask, then berating them thoroughly for their faux pas.



"Among real woodsmen, it's considered the height of rudeness to ask to borrow an axe, saw, or knife!"



Or the old Snap On poster: "Don't even look at me, like you are even thinking about asking to borrow a tool!"