I took my car somewhere that I've gotten my other cars' oil changed, and this is the first time there is a potential issue. I will not name the place I went, don't want to be flamed

Anyway, I got the oil changed on Saturday, and then Sunday/Monday and today I've smelled a slight oil burning smell every now and then. I figured it was just excess that was burning off from the engine. This morning I had a slight oil spot on the driveway. I think maybe they messed up? I tried looking, but my splash guard is not very cooperative, not sure how anyone could get it off, I broke one bolt trying to loosen it, the rest are just as bad/weak. Anyway, from what I could tell, the oil filter and drain nut were at least hand tight....

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I can't tell what's wrong, because I am a noob. I guess I should just take it to Infiniti if the oil level drops or I keep seeing spots on the driveway?

 

That's no good. Have the shop fix it. I did once get a filter with a bad o-ring, so it could be that.

 

What's that blue crap around your drain plug?

It looks to me like they may have stripped your oil pain in the process of reinstalling the drain plug and filled it with some sealant/putty to stop the leak that they caused. If this is the case, you'd better go back to the ASAP and tell them about the problem. Chances are that they'll already deny responsibility for it since it's been a few days.

If it's just the seal around the oil filter leaking, perhaps they didn't clean the surface where the oil filter mates up against, and there's some dirt in there preventing a clean seal between the oil filter O-ring and the surface of where the oil filter seals against.

 

No that blue crap is called torque tamper seal. Walmart has a traditional blue mark on the drain plug to tell if someone has got inside and broke it loose the bolt. Proof of tampering and to tell if last oil change was done at walmart since it is company policy to use that. Also the fram filter along with blue tamper seal is good clues pointing to oilchange done at walmart. I could be wrong on all this but regardless you need to jack up you car and remove spalsh car using a proper tool and then wipe off all oil and see where it is leaking from. More than likely the oil filter is not sealing well and needs to be replaced.


Edit: As much as I hate to say this take that chit back to walmart and have them redo it. Never return to that place and always find a local shop that works on foreign cars. They will do the work for $15 if you bring the fluids. Pick up the weekly deal at Autozone for $30 bucks for synthetic with filter. Vacuum, top off fluids and fill up your own tires and spend less than walmart yet get competent mechanics who know what they are doing.

 

Super detective we got here faiz, walmart it was :P They did my first change no problem, this is the 2nd one I've had them do

 

I once got my wife's oil changed at Wal-Mart in a pinch, and after they were done, they told me not to bring it back until I got the correct size drain plug because the one on it was TOO SMALL? What? How is it staying in? It was on her old intrepid that I've since gotten rid of, and it had high mileage, so maybe they were just making something up so they wouldn't be liable for....whatever. The dealer didn't even say anything about that drain plug, probably because it was the CORRECT one.....just sayin'.

 

I work in auto parts sales and we have customers come in all the time with stripped out drain plugs after having walmart/jiffy lube change their oil. One of the "mechanics" at one of the local oil change places has told me its not uncommon for him to just clean off the oil filter on some cars. If i dont have time to change my own oil, ill purchase the oil for $32 and take it to one of the family run shops down the street, they charge $15..... a synthetic oil change at some of these other places will run you $80+

 

Took it to a friend's place, seems like it was definitely leaking from the filter, and when he took it off it didn't seem as tight as it could be, so we inspected it, looked fine, cleaned it a little, and tightened it back down. hopefully that's all that was needed...

 

I agree with you 100%. A lot of my friends bring their cars into a place to have their oil changed because they live in an apartment and say that they can't change the oil for their car in the parking lot. I don't see why they couldn't though, unless the apartment complex owner explicitly told them not to work on your car outside in the lot.

I will however say that, as far as oil changes are concerned, the G35 is not an easy car to do an oil change on. That stupid plastic plate under the engine bay is ridiculous. It has 20 screws and a pop rivet holding it on to the car and if you try to change your oil without removing it or having access to a vehicle lift (where you can just remove the rear 2 screws plus the pop rivet and then pull it down and hold it down while the oil drains), you'll make a huge mess out of the plastic undercover when removing the oil filter and draining the old oil out. I've read that installing one of those Fumoto oil change valves really helps with the whole process, but I haven't installed one on my car.... maybe something I'll do in Spring if it saves me the painstaking effort of removing the god-damn undercover every time I do the oil change.

 

You could, but it's really supposed to be there to help with the aerodynamics of the car, which impacts fuel economy at all speeds as well as stability at high speeds. It also keeps water from splashing up onto the pulleys from under the car to some extent and generally keeps the engine bay pretty clean from road grime dispersed upwards from under the car.

A better solution would be to cut a larger hole in the undercover around the area where the oil change stuff is.

 

That plastic thing under my car isn't coming off, I tried to remove one bolt and it snapped off, the rest are equally weak and brittle, and too tight.

 

Did you try pre-treating them with some penetrating chemical such as PB-Blaster or Seafoam Deep-Creep? That Deep Creep stuff is absolutely amazing, but costs about twice as much per can as PB-blaster. Personally, I'd use the Deep-Creep on this application, as PB-Blaster is now to dissolve certain types of rubber, and it's probably not that good for plastic, whereas Deep Creep is safe on those things.

 

so no one thinks the oil filter a little small? I haven't seen the underside of a G in awhile... and Walmart? WTF are you thinking?

I used to have my oils changed at Nissan, Motul Synthetic and Nissan oil filter for around 60

 

I usually get a coupon from the infiniti dealer for $20 oil change, usually get them every quarter, my last oil change cost me $23 bucks.

 

for those complaining about the plastic under tray about two years ago i purchased an aluminum one off the market here... it has a trap door w/ 2 bolts keeping it closed that opens up to the oil drain and oil filter... it's pretty sweet looks better!