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I was driving to my family's house from my house this weekend for dinner. I take several back road for some fun driving to relieve some finals week stress.
I take a 90* corner kind of aggressive. I hear something come loose, from what sounded like behind my radio. Now, beginning at 3000RPM, there is a HUGE rattling sound (almost like a valve-knock sort of vibration). I drive carefully the rest of the way. When I pull into the garage, I remove my head unit (I am running all external amps, so there are a LOT of wires back there) as I figure the DC converter for my head unit probably just slid out and was vibrating against something. Unfortunately, everything was good there. Next I pop the hood, and I find my oil fill cap is MISSING and there is some oil splatter on the valve cover and intake manifold. I am thinking the worst...how long has this been like this? Is there any oil left in the car? Did this little cover just kill my engine? and HOW did it come off (I always torque it down when I refill). I talked with a friend of mine, and he says it sound like it "vibrated" off (apparently he has seen it in racing before with cheap caps). I go ahead and change my oil and filter (I was only down 1/2 qt., so it must have just happened) and grab a new cap from Advanced Auto Parts (cheapy for now). After everything is done and buttoned up, the vibration is still there. I assumed the oil fill cap had just fallen off and rolled out on the street, but NOOOOO... That stupid thing actually fell TOWARDS the firewell, behind the block, wedging itself between the top of the transmission and the transmission tunnel of the body . It took us over an hour with a little extendable grabber (one used for grabbing dropped bolts in tight spaces, etc.). It eventually took me dragging it back up the transmission with the grabber, while my friend got under the car and reached around to grab it.
This was SUCH a PITA. I was wondering if anyone has had their oil cap just "mysteriously" come off.
I'm not trying to hijack this thread since my oil cap didn't mysteriously vibrate off; however, I can appreciate all the the trouble you went through to get the cap back where it belongs.
On a somewhat related story... I bought my S2K earlier this year, and after the very first "free" oil change at about 6500 miles I was driving down the freeway and decided to turn the A/C on because it was hot.
As soon as I turned the A/C on I noticed a ""burnt" smell, so I get off the freeway and pop the hood... Imagine my surprise when I didn't see my oil cap anywhere, but I did see a lot of oil splashed all over the engine and on the felt-like material beneath the hood.
I found the oil cap kind of behind the engine and dug it out with my fingertips (Ouch! Hot!), then I checked the oil level and nursed the car back to the dealership.
On my way back to the Honda dealership I grabbed the cell phone gave them a #!@*&! piece of my mind. They gave me a bunch of worthless apologies and Civic loaner while they cleaned up car and swapped out the felt-like stuff under the hood from a new S2k on the lot. In case there are any problems later on, the service record was annotated to show that the engine had been covered in oil because of a dealership mistake.
I love the car; however, I do not trust anybody to work on it.
No oil cap, but my dipstick would vibrate up and off its seal, so I had the dealership order me a new one - no issues so far.
Fwiw, I always do a walk around and inspect my car before I drive it off from any garage or dealership - it can saolve a few issues. So far I've caught (on various cars) a screwdriver in the engine bay, a instant battery charger in the back seat, body damage from backing into a yellow pylon, and a dirty carpet. Better to find them before you drive off.
if your o-ring comes off the oil cap and you put it back on upside down, the cap will eventually vibrate off, you can't keep it on. it has been discussed here before. if you can see the score when you wipe the o-ring you've got it on correctly.
after an oil change at honda, i had an oil-burning smell coming from my car. i noticed that the oil cap was not on the car. honda admitted to forgetting to put the cap back on after the change. they put a replacement oil cap on while the S2000 one i ordered came in. then i started hearing a rattling sound upon even slight acceleration which sounded similar to when i spun a rod bearing on my prelude. turns out that when the oil cap was off, some oil squirted onto the rubber piece that runs along the top of the firewall/under the windshield wipers and i thought that was the noise, they replaced the rubber piece and the noise was still there. finally they got the car back up on the lift, and found my ORIGINAL oil cap in the same location that you found yours in. put it back in and the rattling stopped. the vibration from the accelerating engine was making the misplaced oil cap rattle. thats my oil-cap horror story.
-Chris
Yep. Had to replace the entire bonnet lining as it soaked up the oil.
I also had this happen to me recently after an oil change by the Honda dealership.
I noticed it because of the engine sounded a bit different and a bit louder. I didn't lose very much oil before I noticed it, but the hood (bonnet) liner was soaked with oil, and I also found the oil cap wedged between the back of the engine and the firewall.
The dealer replaced the hood liner (no charge), cleaned up the engine, gave my money back for the oil change, and gave me a couple coupons for free oil changes.
I love these threads. There are so many oil cap gone AWOL threads on this board that it's almost ridiculous. For future reference we need to let all noobs to the board know that if they just bought a used car and hear a rattling that sounds like it's coming from inside the dash, to check between their engine and the firewall for the original cap.
12-09-2006, 10:53 AM
Ever open your hood...
to relieve some finals week stress.
I love these threads. There are so many oil cap gone AWOL threads on this board that it's almost ridiculous. For future reference we need to let all noobs to the board know that if they just bought a used car and hear a rattling that sounds like it's coming from inside the dash, to check between their engine and the firewall for the original cap. 