I have been fortunate that my ride has been overall, very trouble-free. Today I had a meeting in Helena so no big deal, a 14 hour day but no biggie, jump in the trusty V70, drive 245 miles from Billings to Helena, a full day of meetings, drive 245 miles home, routine right…
…Nope!
On the way to Helena, I noticed my rear windows was dirty, used the rear washer and wiper to clean it, ok, no problem. Arrive at my destination, car smells a little hot but doesn’t seem to be anything to be concerned about and I’m a few minutes late so in to my meeting I go…
Later in the day, hop in and go, that’s funny, the rear window is dirty but it just sat in nice weather all day. Whatever was there before must have been gooey. Wash again, looks clean. Later, hmmm, looks dirty again but weather has been clear and dry. Stop after about 175 miles for gas, now the car smells worse.
I better investigate. Pop the hood, OIL IS EVERYWHERE!!! OMFG, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? The turbo air intake tube is coated in oil, my heart sank!!! No, it’s not coming from near the turbo, thank goodness! Wait, it’s really wet around the radiator. Is this tranny fluid? No, it’s motor oil. Check the oil level, the F*ing dipstick is loose. Are you kidding, a loose dipstick?! My engine compartment is soaked, the underside of the hood, the valve cover, the top of the intake manifold, soaked. I washeed the rear window, gee look, OIL! I added a couple of quarts of oil, checked the level, properly seated the dipstic, wiped off the fuel rail and drove a few miles. Checked back and everything I wiped off is still clean and no more oil splatter on the rear window. Drove twice as many miles, checked again, ok. Finished the drive home, still ok so I believe I have identified the problem.
Now on to my current predicament. I have electronics such as relays or whatever boxes above the electric fan soaked in oil, who knows what else soaked in oil. What could go wrong and how should I clean this. Also, could a PCV issue cause enough pressure to pop the dipstick out? It seems to seat nicely, not too loose.
To make it more interesting, I think the dealer did this but we’ll see if I can convince them. I have separate wheels with winter tires, went in last week for a flat repair and re-balance on one, then to the dealer to have them swap the summer for winter wheels, they do it for $16 and I was busy so that is reasonable to me. Anyway, they said they did a safety check and everything of course was 100% ok. Well right now I would bet $100 that the tire monkey was the dipstick who didn’t replace the dipstick. I have NEVER had that happen and I had only driven short drives in town since then before today, explaining why I haven’t noticed sooner.
I’m going to go there first thing in the AM, ask for the service manager, and ask for them to clean the bay, in such a way as to not cause more trouble and give me a fresh oil change with full synthetic, which just by chance I don’t normally have them do but they did do the last one and it is due and now it has two quarts of non-synthetic mixed in as the gas station had no Mobil 1 or any synthetic. So I will argue my case as a regular customer, see I was just here for tire rotation and earlier for a $70+ oil change (another lame story, gee, they mark up oil, A LOT!). Hopefully they will comply. I’ll report back.