Toyota Avalon puddle of oil

Art, our 98 fairly often and the 02 maybe once a year, will dribble a bit of oil after the dealers change it. Apparently some of them are a slightly clumsy when dropping oil or filter and get some in the chassis. I griped about it and it stopped in the 98 but has only happened a couple of times in the 02.

I never really paid too much attention if it is dirty. I have it done

3000/3 month interval with "lifetime" changes. It hardly gets discolored. I use castrol 5-30 by the way.

Ron

I am betting this was 3 or 4 ounces of oil. It was a thick puddle about 6 inches wide. Every see that much after a sloppy oil change and driving 12 miles from the dealer? If yes, I can rest easy tonight.

did you check to make sure they 1. reinstalled the oil pan drain plug, ( I doubt you would have made it home if they had not)? 2. remembered to reinstall the oil filler cap (you surely would have smelled somthing on the way home). They might have also spilled some oil on the engine and it took awhile for it to reach the ground, but I doubt it. The other idea is that you don't drive it much so the seals are drying up and leaking oil all over the place. Are you sure it's motor oil?

Yes to all.

Tape some newspaper on the garage floor and park your car so you know exactly where the front on the oil pan is relative to the front edge of the newspaper. Wait for oil to appear on the newspaper. At least you'll have an idea from where the oil is dripping. It could be a gasket, seal or sloppy filter change. The drip location should help determine what it's from.

Personally, I'd make sure the filter was tight. Can you relate the drip location to the car?

Ed

Art wrote:

He should mark the tires when he parks it next. Then, when he moves, he can easily figure out where it's leaving the bottom of the vehicle. That isn't always where the leak is, of course. But it's a start.

I've seem oil pool up on cross members and stay in place until there was a minor change (like you garage floor is at a slight angle, or you got out of the car, so the angle changed slightly). It is also possible that the oil pooled up in one location, and that as you drove, the air flow under the car "blew" it to another location and that it leaked from this location.

Since the oil showed up after an oil change, I'd suspect something related. My number one guess would be the oil filter.

Ed

I checked today in the garage where the car sat for 24 hours. Not a drop. Doesn't leak when it runs either. Must have been a lot of oil left on the chasis during the oil change.