Face Palm

So I changed my oil yesterday and I took my car out to run a couple errands. This morning I notice a little oil on my bumper. So I opened my hood and there was no oil fill cap there.

I do that constantly on the Escort. And ONLY the Escort. My first clue is when i pull off the highway and smell oil burning.

I did it once on my old Civic. So now I always check and I could have sworn I put it back on.

happened to me before. The first thing I noticed was the HUGE FRIGGIN POSITIVE DENT in the hood from me shutting the hood with the oil cap on top of the valve cover....of my girlfriends (now SWMBO) car....after I just spent an afternoon convincing her about my lofty knowledge about all things mechanical. Yeah, that was fun.

I once left the fill cap off. Apparently, it happens to everyone.

Did that once too on a Civic. Wondered why the windshield kept getting dirty.

i had once taken off my jeep's 4.0L aluminum valve cover to sand and paint, the next day i went out, started the jeep to give it a minute to warm up and went back inside.... a few minutes later i saw the valve cover sitting there on a table. wasnt as messy as i was expecting.

of course that's really only possible on non-MAF cars as they just wont run right.

4cylndrfury wrote: happened to me before. The first thing I noticed was the HUGE FRIGGIN POSITIVE DENT in the hood from me shutting the hood with the oil cap on top of the valve cover.

BTDT.

Next time put it on the latch where the hood latches. It won't shut if you have it on there.

I managed to lose the cooling system cap on my old 328i when doing a coolant flush, but haven't lost an oil fill cap (yet).

Its obvious this forum is a support group FOR enablers. Im glad Im not alone...

I did that on the E30, then wondered why it ran like crap for the next day, until I popped the hood. That's how I learned that leaving the oil cap off creates a vacuum leak on an E30.

killerkane wrote: Next time put it on the latch where the hood latches. It won't shut if you have it on there.

Quoted for truth.

My brother goes for gas on Thanksgiving day. On fumes, of course. Puts the cap on top of the car. Realizes when the pump doesn't work that the place is closed. Drives to another station. Opens flap, sees no cap. Afraid to fill tank, so gets one gallon. Back to closed station. There's the cap on the ground. What luck! Puts on cap and back to open station to fill tank. WTF? Cap won't come off. Not his cap. Locking cap. No key. 3/4 gal of fuel in tank. To local service station the next morning. "Aw, we see this all the time." Chisel's cap off along with half of filler neck.

That's where he stopped telling me. I was laughing so hard, he got mad.

Better now?

chuckles wrote: My brother goes for gas on Thanksgiving day. On fumes, of course. Puts the cap on top of the car. Realizes when the pump doesn't work that the place is closed. Drives to another station. Opens flap, sees no cap. Afraid to fill tank, so gets one gallon. Back to closed station. There's the cap on the ground. What luck! Puts on cap and back to open station to fill tank. WTF? Cap won't come off. Not his cap. Locking cap. No key. 3/4 gal of fuel in tank. To local service station the next morning. "Aw, we see this all the time." Chisel's cap off along with half of filler neck. That's where he stopped telling me. I was laughing so hard, he got mad. Better now?

Wow, that's rough. I wonder if he was able to maintain a thankful demeanor throughout the day?

As I get older I notice myself doing more and more of this stupid E36 M3.

Last week I was changing the oil and transmission fluid on my 4runner and got suddenly got cold chills. I thought I was putting motor oil in the transmission. Fortunately I wasn't, but it scared me that I hadn't really double checked. Then in noticed that the one gallon container of NAPA brand of oil is really 5 quarts and not 4. So I thought I had over filled the sump., Then I remembered I poured out of a partially used container and actually looked at the indicator on the side. Whew! I quit after that because I felt I had used up all my luck for the day.

I once started a fire in my k-car's engine bay that way. No oil cap + 20 miles on the interstate = smoky disaster.

I stopped for gas on the turnpike once at 4AM enroute to work... checked the oil... topped up a little. Now on an E30... leaving the cap off is a huge vacuum leak. With that in mind - I drove 100 miles to work wondering WTF was wrong with my car - thinking water in the gas, etc. When I came down the off-ramp and slowed down I smelled the oil... FACEPALM.

Moral of the story: Have coffee before leaving the house.

I once was checking the coolant on my Dart, then drove about 30 miles to a friend's house. He had some question about the motor and I popped the hood - only to find the radiator cap sitting on the inner fender. Thing must have been holding on for dear life.

I've done this too. Car had just had some bodywork done, as someone had hit my car. So I got a new hood out of the deal. Freshly painted for no more than a week....then covered with oil splatter. Uh, whoops.

Yup, Totally done it. Drove for a whole day before I realized (Work - park- home) but live like 5 miles from work so no smell in the morning, soon as I got back home I realized though, thankfully the cap was still there...

I did this on my old '86 MR2. I noticed that there was smoke coming from the engine cover, pulled over to check, opened the cover, and BAM! Motherberkeleying flames!

Mini Jr. just did this very thing on his Prizm. I showed him the double face palm and he almost peed himself!

Its funny, a lot of this seems to be when doing "preventative" maintenance/inspection. That is why with rallying on lower budget teams, if something ain't broke, we don't fix it or check it!

WilberM3 wrote: i had once taken off my jeep's 4.0L aluminum valve cover to sand and paint, the next day i went out, started the jeep to give it a minute to warm up and went back inside.... a few minutes later i saw the valve cover sitting there on a table. wasnt as messy as i was expecting. of course that's really only possible on non-MAF cars as they just wont run right.

I forgot about this. That's awesome! haha I want a video of the valve train doing its thing while the cover is off.