I had my oil changed recently and now have a small puddle of oil in the front of my parking space. I guess the oil drain plug wasn't tightened properly. Can I easily access this to tighten it? Is the drain plug in the center or off to the side?

 

Check your oil cap up top as well- I had an oil change place leave it off my Integra years ago, so oil went everywhere and pooled below the car.
Also check for leakage around your oil filter. If both the bolt and filter feel tight, but one is leaking, it might have been cross-threaded upon install.

Post #74 has a scan showing the locations of the oil bolt and oil filter in this thread:
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...=550701&page=2

 

the bolt is towards the end of the oil pan on the passenger side, the oil filter is there too
Often - oil spills from from the old filter and gets on the metal frame rails- and doesnt get cleaned up like it should

Take it back for a wipe down
If the plug were loose that it leaked- they will be buying you an engine when it drops ALL the oil in a big hurry!

How is the level on the dipstick??

we have freaky fluid filled motor mounts too- a really wierd fluid center under front of car is possibly coming from there

 

01tl4tl I checked the oil level and it's ok, it's a very slow drip. Also MID shows I'm at 90%.

Will Y. I did check the oil cap since that was easily reachable, and it is tight. Thanks for the link.

I guess the best thing to do is bring the car in and have them make the adjustment. I was trying to avoid the hassle but it's too dirty under there to do it myself.

Thanks guys!

 

Good luck. Whatever you do, don't leave that shop until they fix it!

 

it is most likely leaking from 1 of 2 places

1. oil filter- cauesd by tech not cleaning mating surface or lubing the new filter seal with clean motor oil

2. oil drain bolt- caused by either over/under tightning or non replacement of crush washer

if your oil cap was off you would definately

1. smell it
2. most likely SEE SMOKE
3. oil all over your engine and hoodliner

 

Oddly enough, with the cap off of the TL, nothing splashes out. On other cars I've onwed, it would quickly cover the engine in oil splash.

The biggest fear here is that they overtightened the drain plug. Hopefully not but it's more likely than under tightening. Check the drain plug for tightness and the crush washer. Check the oil filter to make sure they didn't leave the old 0-ring on and it's now double stacked and leaking.

 

I brought my car in to STS Tire today, where I originally had my oil changed. They handled the problem very professionally. The drain plug thread was showing wear and they replaced it. I had used/lost a quart of oil and they replaced it for free, and ran the car for a while to make sure the leak had stopped. No charge.

 

They should not have screwed it up the first time.

Brett

 

Let's see, I've changed my own oil for 68,000 miles. That's 15 oil changes and no "wear" on the threads plus I'm using the original crush washer and absolutely no leaks.

What happened is they stripped your oil pan and rigged it to not leak for now. They used a different plug that is either bigger or has a different thread pitch. The leak will be back...

 

It sounds like the drain bolt was indeed cross-threaded- oil drain bolts are not moving parts and thus don't "wear."
Hopefully just the bolt threads were messed up and not the oil pan's threads.

 

You would hope, but with the bolt being steel and the pan being aluminum, you can guess which one will most likely win.