Driving without an engine oil cap

[antmanyo]

Hey guys, so i took my car in for a service today at the dealership i purchased the car from to keep my warranty going. All was good and the service went smoothly until i arrived home and decided to check the engine bay to ensure a proper job was done(as you do).

And to my surprise, my engine cap wasn't even screwed on! in fact it was sitting beneath the engine bay on the chassis. Tucked away, I realised i had just driven 45 minutes or so through traffic without an engine oil cap on!! the engine bay still looked fairly clean, with small blots of oil here and there, im just hoping this hasn't done any damage to my engine, and if anyone could inform me on what could have gone wrong, i will call the dealership first thing tomorrow as by the time i got home they were closed..

Pretty fortunate that i did not lose my engine cap during my trip from the service center to home!!

[zch91]

Should be fine. Check your oil level is ok and be on your merry way. Maybe have a stern phone call to them also.

[antmanyo]

Should be fine. Check your oil level is ok and be on your merry way. Maybe have a stern phone call to them also.

Checked oil and it seemed all okay, but i did find a few splatters of oil around near that area where the oil cap is located. Hopefully no dust or dirt got in is what im worried about as i did drive it about an hour or so through traffic.
Sent them a long email today and i will speak to them tomorrow so will see how i go from there.

So many things could have gone wrong had i not found this as sooner but i definately have learned to check everything straight after i get it serviced, i would of preferred to have done it myself but im trying to keep the car under warranty in case anything goes wrong.

[andrewt]

go all street fighter on them!

[bradr]

I remember once, before we were married, travelling with my then girlfriend (we've been married 21 years now) to Victoria for some horse thing she was in (the things we do).

Anyway, before commencing the journey home, I dutifully checked her engine oil. We then towed the horse float, with horse, back to Adelaide. When we got back, we noticed an oily smell and, yes, you guessed it, no oil cap. Anyway, we had used half a litre of oil (most of which was on the underside of the bonnet) and in the couple of years or so afterwards, we had no trouble with it at all.

So I would think you'll be fine.

cheers,

bj

[HyRax]

Pretty fortunate that i did not lose my engine cap during my trip from the service center to home!!

You're lucky. Years ago I took my old WRX to Subaru for its normal service where they promptly drained the oil and... never put any new oil in. Didn't discover it until I got home and found I was blowing loads of smoke. Lucky for me home was only 15 minutes away at the time.

Not Happy Jan was an understatement...

[Robbks]

nothing much would get in there, but if both your oil cap and dipstick don;t seal properly, the breathers don;t work properly either and it can suck in un-metered air into the engine.