Oil Leak / Help with potential vandalism

art14019 · Sep 4, 2024

My 2016 3500 was at the airport for a week. Got it home and noticed a slow oil leak from under the engine compartment.

Underneath, there is an oil soaked rag stuffed into a black square shaped pan. The rag is dripping which is what appears on my driveway. It’s not loose and stuffed into some sort of port or opening in the pan.

I’ve had no work done in the past 5 months and the leak marks are fresh. It’s not coming from the oil drain plug further rear.

In the pic you can see the rag hanging down. Since the drip is new, the rag looks fresh, and oil levels and pressure are normal, this feels like someone tried to tamper with it.

Can anyone tell me what this pan is for and what someone may have been trying to do?

jr27236 · Sep 4, 2024

Is the rag actually inside the pan??? Looks like your oil pan of your engine. But if you don't know what your even looking at, I'd take it to a reputable mechanic to get it looked at.
Who did your last oil change??

DanAR · Sep 5, 2024

Bizarre - Although it’s been months, I think I would take it back to the last place that did work on it and ask them to look at it and see if they have an explanation for what’s going on.

Daw14 · Sep 5, 2024

Looks like someone spilled oil all over at the last change ,then after attempting to clean it up they left a rag in the engine compartment.

Get some degreaser and have at the entire engine.

If someone was tampering with it, they are not going to worry about it leaking or being cleaned .

zrock · Sep 5, 2024

Agree with above that is a shop rag that most shops have a rental contract and they get cleaned every week.. SOmeone forgot to remove it last time or were trying to hide a oil leak they did not want to deal with.

BenchTest · Sep 5, 2024

Not typically a bandwagon type of person, but the above posts seem to track. Looks like a sloppy tech's poor attempt at oil leak control/cover up. Do you do your own oil changes?

diymirage · Sep 5, 2024

Can you see where the top of the rag is, is it actually inside a hole ?

DanAR · Sep 5, 2024

After just now completing my first oil change on my 2023, I’m agreeing with the last oil change scenario. Probably got oil everywhere removing the filter, stuck the rag and pan up there to try to soak it up as it drained down. Then either forgot to pull it or figured it would fall out on the road after awhile and no one would be the wiser.

The filter change is a pain in the ass in these trucks. I put in an 820 Royal Purple filter which is larger and the next change promises to be even more painful.

BenchTest · Sep 5, 2024

DanAR said:
After just now completing my first oil change on my 2023, I’m agreeing with the last oil change scenario. Probably got oil everywhere removing the filter, stuck the rag and pan up there to try to soak it up as it drained down. Then either forgot to pull it or figured it would fall out on the road after awhile and no one would be the wiser.

The filter change is a pain in the ass in these trucks. I put in an 820 Royal Purple filter which is larger and the next change promises to be even more painful.

Well, just change your oil every 30k miles and save yourself the hassles

Engineers don't give a ***** about who has to work on these things after they hit the market. I've spent years in service industries and there are very few service-friendly things being put out.

Zoe Saldana · Sep 5, 2024

art14019 said:
My 2016 3500 was at the airport for a week. Got it home and noticed a slow oil leak from under the engine compartment.

Underneath, there is an oil soaked rag stuffed into a black square shaped pan. The rag is dripping which is what appears on my driveway. It’s not loose and stuffed into some sort of port or opening in the pan.

I’ve had no work done in the past 5 months and the leak marks are fresh. It’s not coming from the oil drain plug further rear.

In the pic you can see the rag hanging down. Since the drip is new, the rag looks fresh, and oil levels and pressure are normal, this feels like someone tried to tamper with it.

Can anyone tell me what this pan is for and what someone may have been trying to do?

Is the oil filter above that 'pan'?

If so, your filter might be lose.

Sherman Bird · Sep 5, 2024

BenchTest said:
Well, just change your oil every 30k miles and save yourself the hassles Engineers don't give a ***** about who has to work on these things after they hit the market. I've spent years in service industries and there are very few service-friendly things being put out.

The engineers have very little to do with it. It is a problem of communication between the powertrain division and the body division. GM had big problems like that from the 50's thru the mid 90's. The solution came when the CEO got replaced and HE canned the head of Fisher Body and put a younger, more progressive fellow in charge. After that, one didn't have to remove the transmission crossmember just to drop the trans pan to do a service, among other niggling issues being fixed!

BenchTest · Sep 5, 2024

Sherman Bird said:
The engineers have very little to do with it. It is a problem of communication between the powertrain division and the body division. GM had big problems like that from the 50's thru the mid 90's. The solution came when the CEO got replaced and HE canned the head of Fisher Body and put a younger, more progressive fellow in charge. After that, one didn't have to remove the transmission crossmember just to drop the trans pan to do a service, among other niggling issues being fixed!

So, an engineer didn't design the location of the oil filter, or he/she designed the location of the oil filter but some other engineer engineered something else to be obstructive to the oil filter's removal? How's that not an engineering failure?

JayLeonard · Sep 5, 2024

BenchTest said:
So, an engineer didn't design the location of the oil filter, or he/she designed the location of the oil filter but some other engineer engineered something else to be obstructive to the oil filter's removal? How's that not an engineering failure?

You are correct it IS an engineering shortcoming or whatever you want to call it. NOT the engine manufacturer's issue, rather Ram's for not making provisions for easy filter removal.
I just took my truck back to the dealer an hour ago because I now have oil spots in my driveway from wednesday's oil change. Never had any oil on anything previously, so this mechanic didn't know what he was doing. They cleaned it of but did a half-a$$ job. (I crawled underneath and wiped it off more with a paper towel and tossed the dirty towel on the service writer's desk before i left).
This is probably the 5th or 6th oil change (50 k miles) and first one that was sloppy.

Blood pressure back to normal now.

BenchTest · Sep 5, 2024

JayLeonard said:
You are correct it IS an engineering shortcoming or whatever you want to call it. NOT the engine manufacturer's issue, rather Ram's for not making provisions for easy filter removal.
I just took my truck back to the dealer an hour ago because I now have oil spots in my driveway from wednesday's oil change. Never had any oil on anything previously, so this mechanic didn't know what he was doing. They cleaned it of but did a half-a$$ job. (I crawled underneath and wiped it off more with a paper towel and tossed the dirty towel on the service writer's desk before i left).
This is probably the 5th or 6th oil change (50 k miles) and first one that was sloppy.

Blood pressure back to normal now.

With all of the tools, knowledge bases, and things at their disposal, to get a sub-par oil change is just sad. Your experience is one of the reasons I still do my own maintenance. When I reach the point where I'm physically unable to do my maintenance, I might just quit driving. I can't stand the "cutting corners" mindset. Lazy. Incompetent. "Not my vehicle" syndrome. Whatever you want to label it as. Mistakes happen, filters get away from you, but for sanity's sake, clean up your mess before giving it back to the customer.

crash68 · Sep 5, 2024

Zoe Saldana said:
Is the oil filter above that 'pan'?

The OP has a Cummins and that looks about right below where the oil filter is.

DanAR said:
After just now completing my first oil change on my 2023, I’m agreeing with the last oil change scenario. Probably got oil everywhere removing the filter, stuck the rag and pan up there to try to soak it up as it drained down. Then either forgot to pull it or figured it would fall out on the road after awhile and no one would be the wiser.

The filter change is a pain in the ass in these trucks. I put in an 820 Royal Purple filter which is larger and the next change promises to be even more painful.

There are plugs for changing the Cummins oil filter that allows you to remove the filter without making a mess. Chances are the previous oil change tech didn't use or have a plug for the filter.

diymirage · Sep 5, 2024

JayLeonard said:
You are correct it IS an engineering shortcoming or whatever you want to call it. NOT the engine manufacturer's issue, rather Ram's for not making provisions for easy filter removal.
I just took my truck back to the dealer an hour ago because I now have oil spots in my driveway from wednesday's oil change. Never had any oil on anything previously, so this mechanic didn't know what he was doing. They cleaned it of but did a half-a$$ job. (I crawled underneath and wiped it off more with a paper towel and tossed the dirty towel on the service writer's desk before i left).
This is probably the 5th or 6th oil change (50 k miles) and first one that was sloppy.

Blood pressure back to normal now.

you know what they say, an engineer will step over a pile of virgins to screw one mechanic

chri5k · Sep 5, 2024

The Cummins trucks have a plastic pan underneath the oil filter to catch drips during an oil change. I have a screw in plug for the filter to trap most of the oil in the filter.

I leave my drip tray stuffed with the Intex cloth-like towels so any drips don’t run out onto the driveway. I change them every few oil changes.

For the fuel filter, I have an extension tube permanently zip tied to the OEM tube so fuel doesn’t get all over the front axle during fuel filter changes. Another engineering foul up. If they just made the drain tube 6” longer, the entire fuel filter housing full of fuel wouldn’t drain on to the front axle.

BenchTest · Sep 5, 2024

@Sherman Bird - not picking on you, but what say you on these items? Sounds like engineering was involved in this.

DanAR · Sep 5, 2024

I missed this truck is a diesel. My above comments may not apply.

Sherman Bird · Sep 6, 2024

BenchTest said:
@Sherman Bird - not picking on you, but what say you on these items? Sounds like engineering was involved in this.

Oil Leak / Help with potential vandalism

Junior Member

Attachments

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

ACME product engineer

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Forum statistics

Share this page