Lore

Did I just get a free oil change? You be the judge.

So I finally picked up my car after 1.5 weeks at the dealer, Stevens Creek Acura. They had to sublet the repainting of the bumper to Sturken Auto Body (also in San Jose) who did a good job with the bumper but damaged two areas during the process. The car was ready for me by Wednesday, but due to additional damage I left it until today. They scraped the paint off the edge of the body where the left tail light meets the quarter panel and chipped some paint off the internal side of the trunk area, where it's not visible.

Both were easy fixes, so they took care of that in 2 days. However, they also re-aligned my trunk so now the right side doesn't stick out like a sore thumb (it stuck out so much I could actually see the VIN sticker from the gap).

They also replaced both door panels to address the rattles and applied some felt tape between the dashboard and windshield to quiet down some additional rattles.

I drove the car back to the East Bay and noticed a lube reminder sticker on my windshield. Next service due at 9-5-04, 11,500 miles, which means it was probably changed on 6-5-04. My MID reminder was reset to 100%. (I had 30% left). I was shocked! No one told me they were changing my oil. A call to my service advisor gave me no additional information. He said that as far as he knows, no person changed my oil and they have no records of that, but it's funny that the lube sticker and the MID was reset.

When I got home (after a grueling 1.5 hour drive) I checked dip stick and noticed that the oil was beyond the top of the top indicator line -- so it appears like they filled it up.

But the question is, did they REALLY change the oil? Is there any way to definitively check? I don't want to be under a false impression that my oil is good for another 7000 miles if it really isn't, but I also don't want to spend $40 for no reason.

zeezz

would it work if you wiped the dipstick and checked how dirty the oil is? if it's old, it'll be pretty dark and dirty.

Xpditor

Look at the oil filter. If you turn your wheels all the way to the right, you should be able to see it behind the right front wheel. Many places will write the date on the filter with a felt tipped marker. If they changed the oil, they changed the filter and vice-versa.


If in doubt, change it again. Don't mess around with oil. The stakes are too high.
XP

Lore

I don't know - does that work? I did wipe it and it looks like a light brown to me.

Lore

I will definitely look for the filter tomorrow. I checked under the hood and the little area where you pour oil into the oil pan looks pretty clean (as if someone had gripped it recently), but I can't be sure.

Lore

I checked the filter - no marks or dates whatsoever. Blue Honda filter.

rets

They seemed to do the work, but I really couldn't understand why your service advisor couldn't remember it...

PbPedis

Just look at the colour of the oil, if unsure, compare it to fresh oil from a bottle. There is no way you can mistake new oil with old.

Lore

It wasn't written on the service order so no one knew what was going on. The color of the oil from the dipstick is a light brown, almost golden color. But with an engine this new (4813 miles as of today) would even "old" oil be that black?

JoganJani

Lore if it's golden, I think they might have changed it. Is there a way to see if the oil filter is clean? Maybe you can check that if possible.

PbPedis

From your description, it sounds like new oil. Yes, even 4800 miles on a brand new engine will make an obvious colour change to the oil.

Lore

I looked at the outside of the oil filter (the blue canister) and it looks reasonably clean - no road debris, no mud, no splashes, etc. I think that would be the most positive indicator yet. However, I'm still skeptical because no one seems to know what's going on, and I don't really have a definitive way to say "YES - the brown oil indicates new oil."

How I feel right now:

Lore

Sample oil stain.

Mylriahd

Looks pretty clean to me!

Lore

What would "dirty" oil or "old" oil look like?

6mtV6

Just to be safe, change your oil again. This way you don't have to keep worrying about whether or not your oil was changed.

Mylriahd

Depending on how old, it could look as bad as coffee.. but more likely when I've changed it it looks like.... plain tea. That looks pretty light to be old. But its your peace of mind you gotta cover, maybe you'd just feel better changing it and not having to worry at all. $35k machinery, $40 peace of mind.

rets

Yah, for peach of mind, this is the good way to solve Lore's issue. Again, asking the service advisor why MID had been reset, if he still finds no records, asking him to change oil for you since their man mistakenly reset the MID and caused your inconvenience. Or you change oil by yourself.

Lore

I talked to the Service Manager about this issue; they had a tech look at the color of the oil. They said it looked pretty clean to them, so he wrote me a letter to serve as documentation of the oil change in case my engine dies or something.

The other thing I noticed is that they rotated my wheels. Since I got the 18s at 3000 miles, I wasn't planning on rotating my wheels for at least another 4000 miles. But hey, they rotated it for me so now it's in sync with my oil change schedule.

They must have performed an A1 service without knowing it or keeping any documentation of it!

rets

What a dealership!

nick04tl

yeah they changed your oil. that paper towel is a golden color. thats the color of new oil. if it was used it would look dark brown/black