5-6000 miles with no oil cap? Dipstick gritty, how worried should I be?

Napalm

How do you drive your car 6000 miles and not pop the hood once?

Not to beat you up about the cap missing but this simple procedure has always worked for me. Whenever I have my oil changed at a shop, afterwards I drive straight home and I change my oil and filter again.

That way I know it’s been done right.

Hope this helps!

I would bet the safest thing to do is drive it 500 miles or so and have the oil and filter changed again. And hope the filter trapped any debris or grit that may have gotten in the system.

also, you're fricked.

Get an engine flush and oil change. If its still bad then ripperoni.

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How do you drive your car 6000 miles and not pop the hood once?

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Or not notice your oil bubbling out and leaking on the driveway?

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Or not notice your oil bubbling out and leaking on the driveway?

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It didn’t do this.

The filler has a tube that extends 4-5 inches above the valve cover so oil didn’t make it out of there.

Also 5k-6k of driving is about 2 months worth for us.

My field of expertise is Diesel engines in heavy earth moving equipment and not gas burning automobile engines.

But having made that disclaimer, I’d say you’re at significant risk of a major engine failure due to contaminated oil. That grit you’re seeing on the dipstick is only a small sample of the dirt that’s inside your engine. You need to go get your car checked out by a professional.

ETA: If possible, see if they can take a sample of your oil. Things to look for will be elevated silicone, water, and aluminum.

Im sure the silicone Levels will be high due to the ingestion of a lot of dirt. There will probably be trace water as well. The real concern would be high levels of aluminum or other wear metals. If those are present, you’ve already got bearing damage.

Should be fine... when sealed the engine operates at a light vacuum so you may have sucked in a little dust with the pressure leak. Just change the oil. Unless you lost a few quarts, which would have probably happened the first day if you car was prone, more than likely not much harm done.

I left a Jiffy Lube on Perkins Rd. quite a few years back in my Audi at the time, went down Lee Dr, and when I turned at Highland Rd., I got a warning light. Those morons either forgot to rep[lace the oil cap or didn't tighten because it was gone, my car was completely dry of oil. It's a miracle that there was no damage but I will NEVER go to a discount oil service again or have my oil changed without watching or looking before leaving. Changing my own oil just doesn't save enough money to be worth the time.