MITCHWELLS wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:59 pm
It was the pickup after all. The screen was totally clogged. She's running great now.
Thank you very much for this thread!
I learned a *very* important lesson, the hard way. For a while I have trusted quick oil change places because where I live now it's extremely difficult to find a spot to do work.
A few weeks ago we were out with our '06 Vibe and I decided "It's time for an oil change". So popped into Jiffy Lube (first mistake). Got the oil/filter change and decided to have the battery swapped as it was fairly old and they carry Interstate. The battery price was fair. On the way out I distinctly recall a fairly loud "ticking" sound and kind of shrugged it off to "maybe it's the fresh oil on a cold start -etc. I should have immediately stopped what I was doing and questioned them (second mistake). The noise subsided and we drove home.
A few days later - my wife mentioned that it seemed the car was acting like it was not running right. When she got home I noticed a subtle clacking/slapping. This may have been the oil starved chain? Not sure, but I read a thread on here (there was one specifically talking about the ticking noise) but this gave me some clues:
viewtopic.php?p=521858&hilit=baffle#p521858 . So - I opened the oil cap and sure enough the baffle was JAMMED down against the cam and upon inspection a large section had broken off from rubbing against the cam. Blood - pressure - rising...
So I tried prying the baffle up and my tool slipped and fell in. So a trip to the autoparts store later for a valve cover gasket and then retrieving the tool and also rebending the baffle to the correct position, I started it up. At first it was dead quiet. Then the ticking. So I drove it around the block and on the way back was my "oh crap" moment. Ticking starts really getting loud and then the oil light. Dead stall. I was able to start it back up and gently drive back to the apartment a block away.
That's when I found this thread.
Thank you *so very much* for sharing. It wasn't an easy job in 97 degree heat, full sun and a damn oil pan RTV'd on. It took about 2.5 hours alone to get the pan off because of the RTV. Upon opening I am sure the broken metal were the straw that broke the Camel's back as they say. What I suspect happened was the oil uptake had already been partially sludged. I think a big part of this was the degraded RTV that had squished into the pan inside had broken off over time and been part of the problem. I cleaned the pan (third mistake - I should have just bought a new pan for $65 or whatever and saved the headache of cleaning it. What a damn mess because the metal bridge that stabilizes the pan is *very* hard to get to thoroughly). The uptake I removed and used a small hook pick to scoop out the crap and then parts cleaner spray, I placed it inside a cardboard box to catch the drips/etc. That all did the trick. 3x10mm bolts hold it on I believe. I was able to take a few pics during the process as evidence but at one point I stopped because my hands were filthy and I didn't want to muck up my camera and case and it was so damn hot out I just wanted to finish. But the ones I did take tell a pretty clear picture.
When I opened the drain - there was no damn gasket on it. Thanks again Jiffy Lube and I had to *damage* the filter to get it off it was so over-torqued. I was livid. I plan on a write up to get at the very least my money back for their $50 robbery for oil change, my parts and labor cost. It was absurd.
So after I put the new cork gasket on - a good trick btw is to take electrical tape and on the clean outside of the pan, let the bolts just peek through the gasket in about 5 spots around the gasket to keep it aligned. This worked super well first shot. You just attach one side of tape, feed the bolt through and then attach the tape so that the bolt hangs down and only peeks through the gasket.
All went together great, added new 5W-30, new filter and started it up. Quiet.as.a.mouse. Oil light immediately went off and the vehicle has been super quiet since. In fact I don't think it was ever this quiet since I picked it up second hand a few years back. Probably should have done all this work first thing but, live and learn to anticipate these issues.
Super thanks to this thread and the forum. I was having dizzying thoughts of having to go get another car all triggered by incompetence and carelessness. This was kind of a "hail mary" because I didn't know that even after I got it all back together there wasn't some critical damage that happened. I have the old filter - I bet if I were to cut it in half I'd see more of that metal.