Oil Change in Washington, MO

An oil change disturbs two seals every time: the drain plug and the oil filter. Almost always both seal perfectly. Once in a while one does not, and the simplest way to know is a glance at the ground where the vehicle spent the night.

A fresh drip of clean, amber oil the morning after a change is worth a call to the store the same day. It is almost always one of a small number of causes, and all of them are quick to put right when they are caught early.

• The drain plug gasket. Many drain plugs use a crush washer or gasket meant to be replaced at each change. A reused one may not seal.
• A doubled filter gasket. Occasionally the old filter's rubber gasket stays stuck to the engine when the filter comes off. A new filter with its own gasket then sits on top of the old one and leaks.
• A filter that is not seated. Too loose, and it weeps. The fix is a quick adjustment.
• An existing leak. Fresh, clean oil sometimes shows a leak that was already there and hidden under grime. That one is not caused by the change, and it is worth knowing about.

A slow drip from a drain plug can become a fast one, and a doubled filter gasket can let go suddenly under pressure. Either can drop the oil level quickly enough to damage the engine. Checking the dipstick the next day, as well as the driveway, is the other half of the habit.

Say when the change was done, where the drip is, roughly how big it is, and whether the level on the dipstick has dropped. Fresh oil at the front of the engine, near the filter, or directly under the drain plug points to different causes.

The national oil change page covers what the service includes. A leak that turns out to be older is engine repair, and fluid checks beyond oil are part of scheduled maintenance, both here.

Fenton and De Soto also change oil in eastern Missouri.

The Washington store runs seventeen services and is managed by Kurt Kottwitz.

See the national oil change page for all 33 locations.