icehousewvu Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Well after the dealer I purchased my car from used Advanced Auto Brand fluid in my power steering pump, as I posted about before, I decided to try out another dealer for my 7.5K Service. Everything appeared to go smoothly, UNTIL that is I got home and i smelled burning motor oil. I thought oh well, just a little spilled oil it will burn off. I drive to work the next day still smells pretty bad when I get out of the car after my commute (about 30mins). Anyway I dismiss this as being attributed to the spilled oil. I checked oil level everyhting appears fine. Later that night I drive to Pittsburgh (about 70 miles) when I arrive at my friend's house I sat in the car for a moment with the car running and the defroster on. Within about 1.5 minutes my car was filled with the smoke that smelled of burning oil. I was like hmmm this isnt so good. I check oil level again everything is fine. I stayed in pgh the rest of weekend but didnt drive until I returned home on Sunday night. Same thing more smoke. Oil level fine. Monday morning I drive striaght to the dealer. They tell me they cant help me until 2 days later and I'm like come here and look at my car. They are like oh is that smoke in the cabin? Me umm "yes!" ok well lets get that in right now. They come out to tell me that apparently the seal on the oil filter has failed and oil was leaking onto the catalytic converter. Needless to say I'm not all that happy. And now my car smells pretty funky especially when you use the defroster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-2.5-GT Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 That sucks man sorry to hear it. Although if the seal failed, its not really their fault, however... was the seal put on correctly, and did they actually look at it before they were done is another story... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kanoswrx Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Man that sucks. Thats why I try to do as much service myself, don't trust anyone else really working on my car unless its something I really can't do. Oil changes are so easy its not even worth the risk and it saves money to do it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icehousewvu Posted October 19, 2004 Author Share Posted October 19, 2004 I know they are pretty easy and all as well as safer :=) as evidenced here. However, I dont have any ramps to pull my car up on to. I know, I know not a very good execuse. But considering that I got one of the 36K Free maintenance coupons and the fact that my tires needed to be rotated I said oh well lets just use the free coupon! Ughhh, overall I have to say I'm very disappointed in my experiences thus far with the service departments at my local subaru dealers. I'm also dissappointed that I have had soo MANY encounters with them. Oh, and I might add, I contacted SOA regarding this. Though very empathetic, the gentlemen I spoke too told me I should take my car BACK to these incompetent persons to have the smell removed. As you can imagine I'm rather weary of the idea of going back there. He said that though this was considered to be covered by my warranty that it was an issue of workmanship and that I should seek resolution from the same dealer at which this occured. I asked the service manager at the dealer how might one remove this horrid smell from their car. To which he replied that I should wait 24 hrs and if it does not disappear "My guys are really good at getting rid of smells. They will spray something up in there." No solace from me was found in the service manager's comments about his workers' competence in removing smells. I'm gonna wait it out a lil longer and see if the funk lingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agctr Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Hey Icehousewvu, sorry to hear about the troubles you have had with yr new Subaru. When I first bought mine, I had taken it to get serviced at 2 places before I found the one that was right for me. Because these guys service so many cars, they are not as careful as one should be. Its always important to try and check out the things they serviced before you drive out. I know not a lot of ppl know about the internals of cars but by them just reading out the service print out and you saying "oh ok", paying and driving off doesnt help. Even if you quiz them atleast they know that you are keeping yr eye on the ball. Im not talking about an 1hr quiz, Im talking about a few questions like, 1. What was the condition of the oil like? 2. Did the car use much coolant since last service 3. How is the powersteering fluid. Now they have to write all this down especially if they need to top anything up. If someone was to do work on yr house, you would inspect it before you pay them, well I think the car should be the same thing. I have taken this attitude because the last few times I have had my car serviced, the oil was still pretty dirty and the coolant wasnt topped up. As soon as you drive that car away, it becomes your problem because the dealer doesnt see the car again until then next service or when something goes wrong. I hope that your next round of servicing is a lot better All the best Adam. PS, NEVER get Subaru to do a wheel rotation, because they rotate them but they DONT re-balance them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_hunter Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Bah, they didn't tighten the filter down properly, that's why it leaked. CRaig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icehousewvu Posted October 20, 2004 Author Share Posted October 20, 2004 Adam, thanks for the tips. As far as why the filter failed i think it possibly wasnt tightened down or perhaps the mechanic didnt oil up the rubber seal....Anyway thanks for the advice from both of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tide Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 i vote no oil on the seal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-2.5-GT Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 well i asked this in another post a little bit ago, but we'll try here. How much do you have to tighten down the filter and the plug for that matter too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John M Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 I bet the first filter's gasket stayed attached to the engine and you had the old "double gasket" problem, something any newbie oil change jockey should know to check for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firedawgs Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Idiots Updated my vBGarage: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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