I brought my car in to the dealer and had a number of services performed to prepare for winter including an oil change. Today as I was driving two hours away from my home, the car was suddenly filled with oil fumes. It was so bad, I started wheezing and still don’t feel quite right. I immediately pulled over at a gas station and popped the hood where I saw oil everywhere because the person performing the oil change didn’t put the cap back!

To make a long story short, I ended up buying an oil cap, filling a whole quart of oil and contacting the dealer. They said they would clean everything when I brought it back and reimburse me for the oil cap & oil and give me a coupon for a future free oil change. Whoppee. I just had new air filters installed that were $$$ so I hope they replace them if they are all oiled up now.

Anyway, I continued on the rest of my trip (another three hours.) Tomorrow I will have to interrupt what I had planned to drive five hours back to get this taken care of, then drive the five hours yet again. I am concerned that I might have engine problems in the immediate - or not so immediate - future as a result of this incident. My car is only two years old and barely has 30,000 miles on it. I bought a new car to feel safer on the road during these long trips in the middle of nowhere especially in the winter and now I feel less safe. Please be brutally honest: Am l going to have all sorts of engine problems? I can’t believe my bad luck.