How bad is it?

[Wxman]

2005 Impreza RS - 120,000 miles - MT

 

Last week I took my Impreza to the dealership for the 120k service. They told me I had a leaking valve cover, which I noticed the last time I did the oil myself, and I agreed that they could change it.

 

The current tech is either careless or incompetent. While driving on Thursday the car started bucking/missing badly. I got both a flashing CEL and CRUISE light. Looked under the hood and found one of the plug wires was only resting on the plug and not snapped on.

 

Fast forward to today...I got out at work this morning and smelled oil. I went to check on it after about 30 minutes and saw a large puddle of oil on the ground. Decided to check the oil level. It was severely overfilled (about midway between the two twists on the dipstick), but I don't know how much extra oil this is. Started looking for the leak and found that quite a bit of gasket material sticking out on the bottom of the driver side valve cover.

 

I guessing the gasket failed due to excessive oil pressure from being overfilled. Any guesses on how much more damage may have been done (other seals, bearings/rings, etc)? I plan on going to war with the dealer tomorrow and would like some knowledgeable feedback. I'm also concerned about the exhaust sensors and cats from the misfires a couple days ago.

 

I resumed doing oil changes a couple years ago since I was tired of this being screwed up by every type of shop. I also do some basic maintenance like filters and brakes. Maybe I should try doing everything. While I'm not a mechanic, I'm not a careless boob either.

 

Thanks for listening to my rant and for any advice you can provide.

[idosubaru]

as long as it wasn't low on oil you should be fine.

 

get the oil level right, have the valve cover gaskets properly replaced and spark plug wires properly installed and you're done.

 

the spark plug tube seals should be required to be replaced with the valve cover gaskets, they are rarely in good shape by this age/mileage.

 

boards like this are a great resource for determining which jobs you can/should attempt yourself and which might not be a good fit for you. and we can pretty much walk you through any repair, every repair has been done by at least one person on here and usually quite a few.

 

valve cover gaskets on the 4 cylinder motors are really easy actually.

[Olnick]

Last week I took my Impreza to the dealership for the 120k service . . . The current tech is either careless or incompetent . . . found that quite a bit of gasket material sticking out on the bottom of the driver side valve cover.

 

Give that dealership a call. They owe you one.

[Fairtax4me]

The tech installed the gasket incorrectly and it just took a few days to fall out. Too much oil doesn't help anything because it does cause higher pressure in the crankcase but it sounds like the techs poor job installing the gasket took the brunt and failed before anything major happened. Luckily you discovered the leak before it dumped all of the oil out and ruined the engine. Call them and make them TOW the car back, make them replace the gasket again and change the oil and filter. Then find a new shop for when you need repair work done.

[Wxman]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Picked up the car last night. Seems ok at the moment. Hopefully nothing adverse will show up in the next few months as a result of the misfires and major overfilling. However, at 120K it would be hard to pin on them anyway.

 

They actually fought reimbursing me for the tow, even though they agreed it was their fault. First they said no, then they wanted to split it, I guess I was enough of a pain in their a$$ that they finally caved. However, I still don't have the check in hand so we'll see.