Pursuit2550

So I have a oil leak on the oil filter adapter housing. The housing has 2 o-ring seal and apparently one or both are bad. So heres a short history of the car before the dealer experience. Bought the car, 10 CPO with 5500 miles. Car now has 8300 in alittle over month and half. The dealer I bought the car from did a oil change prior to selling it. Well I have had a minute oil leak from the above mentioned part, that I found out about about a week ago. So I take it to Miami Acura and tell them I have a oil leak and where I think its coming from. The tech puts it on the lift and cleans the whole area and waits for the leak to show. Well after about an hour he sees where it coming from. He calls me to the back and shows me and tells me that its the o-rings in the adapter housing and it has to ordered so I would have to come back friday or sat to get it fixed. I tell him, ok order it and I will bring it back. I go and sit back in the waiting area and 10 minutes later he comes and asks me who did the last oil change. I tell him the oil was changed when I bought the car in the pre sale car prep. The oil indicator is at 60% and only about 3k on it. We walk back to the car and he pulls the dip stick out. The oil is about 1" to 1 1/2" above the top hole. He then starts this spill about how dangerous this is to the engine and that I need to do a oil change. He also tells me that thats what caused the leak because the more oil you have in the engine the more pressure there is on the oil system. I act all stupid and tell him I am not going to do a oil change( I do my own oil changes).

So now hes still trying to scare me about how bad it is and that this might be a issue with the warranty. In other words tryng to blackmail me into a oil change or no warranty work. I tell him I didnt change it it was a acura dealer that changed it and the best I can do is go home and drain the excess oil. He starts to tell, ok drain it or change it and I will keep my mouth shut and do the seals on the agreed day. But at the same time I can tell hes not really happy with that and starts to say, well let me check with my service manger. He comes back and tells me they wont warranty because I wont do a oil change. I tell them fine, I will take it to the acura dealer I bought it at and have them do the work.

I wantted so much to ask the service manger how it the hell more or less oil in the pan would make the pressure rise or drop. The pick up is in the bottom under oil at all times. The pump doesnt care if there is more or less oil in the pan. As long as there is oil it will pump it. Also the pump will only pump to a set oil pressure at a given rpm.

My Trailblazer SS always ran with 1 extra quart of oil because on a hard launch the pump would starve for oil and spin the #6 bearing. The cheap fixwas to run the extra quart or the expensive fix was to switch to a c6 oil pan. I and tons of other tbss owners who run the extra quart of oil never have had oil leak or problems because of it.

Screw Miami Acura, I will never go back there again.

turning japanese

Overfill can causing frothing. When the crank dips into the pan you get foam. Maybe he saw foamy oil on the stick. Maybe he was just trying to be helpful. Maybe he's just looking out for any liability they might end up with. No big deal. Why not ask for a deal due to the circumstances, and then do the oil change anyway (it's not expensive) and just call it a day.

I doubt anybody is blackmailing anybody. Just like you're looking out for yourself, they're looking out for themselves. Dealers are independent franchises and aren't responsible for each other. Go back to your purchasing dealer and get new O rings and some fresh oil. Life's too short.

its rayden

well, not for nothing, i can understand how it could cause oil pressure to rise because if you overfill, the extra oil will have less places to go when it's flowing through the system. think about it, the more air you put into your tires the higher the pressure goes. it makes sense from this point of view, but there are probably other things at play that i'm not considering, so it may not necessarily be the case.

it was right for him to suggest an oil change as it is the best course of action for this situation. getting a partial drain and fill probably isn't the best thing to do, but better than doing nothing.

ceb

You don't know what a "horrible experience" is.

Overfill (even on your trailblazer) can cause future issues including early demise of the catalytic converters.

From your post I deduce that you may have approached this with a bit of an attitude. Your apparent arrogance at refusing the oil change made this experience go south.

Why should Miami Acura correct the screw up of the selling dealer? The proper resolution is an oil change and the leak repair - why should Miami foot the bill.

You have two choices - go back to the selling dealer or cough up the money for an oil change - assuming you haven't burned your bridges at Miami.

Choose your battles wisely. In this case you lost the battle and the war.

Pursuit2550

I know life is short but I am not going to pay for something I dont need. Why not instead since the car was on the lift remove the plug and drain it. Takes all of 1-2 minutes to remove the excess oil. No Instead they want me to do a oil change.

Pursuit2550

It was probably a quart high. There is enough area in the engine to hold this.

Pursuit2550

I approached it without attitude. I played stupid to the fact that he was saying that the engine would blow up or bust other seals because of high oil pressure. I told him I would remove the excess oil or do a oil change before it came back for repair. Where was I wrong, wheres my arrogance. I got home and took me all of 5 mins to remove the excess oil. You win customer loyalty by helping them not feeding them B/S on something they dont need. I dont know where your from, but Miami has alot of shady dealers, I should know I have worked for a few. The car was already on the lift, remove plug, drain some oil, done. Customer is happy and will come back because thats the dealer that fixed someone elses screw up. He just didnt like that I didnt give him the job of a full oil change that I can do. Foot what bill, the bill goes to Acura regardless. Its a warranty issue, they acually lost money by not doing the repair. There are plenty of dealers I can go to for repairs, they are not the only one. Besides I didnt make it a big deal while I was there. I simply told them I would have the selling dealer fix it.

turning japanese

Just for the record, for a dealer to get rebated from Acura for warranty work they need to follow protocol exactly by the book or risk not getting rebated. A dealer will make various decisions, and also goodwill calls depending on the customer. If the tech thought the oil had foamed from overfill, then he was making a call to recommend an oil change be done to protect their own liability. Who cares how he might have explained his decision to you. It was their choice, they own the business.

If the oil was foamy, he may have felt it best to change it and not just assume that you would do it later; that could be interpreted as negligence on their end. It's a call he made. If you don't like it, then go back to the originating dealer who made the mistake in the first place. They need to fix it on their own dime; an overfill by an inept tech is the dealer's fault and not Acura's. A warranty rebate isn't in the picture.

If you have indeed worked at a dealership yourself, then you know all about potential liability issues. Anyway, why get bent out of shape over this minor thing. If a private business such as a car dealership doesn't do things the way you prefer they do it, then just go somewhere else. No big deal.

ceb

It is a warranty issue. If the cause of the leak was overfill then it isn't a warranty issue at all for Acura. Whoever did the last oil change (selling dealer, you, whoever) should be footing the bill.

In this case it seems that Miami was trying to meet you half by repairing the leak under warranty if you would correct the original cause (the overfill).

You have two choices - take it back to whoever did the oil change (perhaps it was you since you think it is fine to run cars with an extra quart of oil) and have them fix it or pay for an oil change and have Miami do it.

In either case I wouldn't call this a "horrible" dealer.

Pursuit2550

^^I have only had the car for alittle over a month so no it wasnt me who changed the oil. I already call the selling dealer. He couldnt believe they would fix it and that they wouldnt fix it just because I wouldnt change the oil. Anyways the selling dealer is taking care of it. Like I said before it took me 5 minutes to remove the excess oil which I measured and it was alittle over a quart. So apparently the selling dealer thought they put in the 4.2 but instead put 5.2. Anyway you look at it Miami Acura did nothing but try to get me to do something that wasnt needed. I have been around engines for 20+years, worked on the, built them, been around them at the dealers. I also know that dealer mechanics get paid for what they do not by the hours. So an oil change would have be cake for him since it was up and the skid plate was off. I asked the selling dealer and the ase certified mechanics at my job if a quart of oil would cause a rise in pressure, just for my entertainment since i know what the answer is. They all say no. Take a pump, 55 gal drum filled with 40 gal of water. Now pump that water through some piping and back into the drum. Now add 10 more gals of water. Is the pressure going to change, no. The car engine is the same pumps oil from the pan through out the engine and falls back in the pan. The only way for pressure to rise is if there is a clog and it is restricting the flow there for creating back pressure.

TrojanTSX

Maybe the lesson learned is to always take it back to the person who last worked on the car especially when the problem is related to any work done on the car by that said person.

Case in point, my 2002 Civic Si blew up on the way home from its first oil change. The tow truck asked if I wanted to go to the dealer that was 5 miles away vs the original dealer who did the change who was 15 miles away. I told him to take it to the dealer who did the work last. I ended up getting a new 2003 Civic Si off the back lot that day.

Simba91102

What's an oil filter adapter housing?