[Ave]

Driving home tonight, I was greeted by the not-too-unfamiliar "engine oil" light. Once in the garage, I proceed to top her off with half a quart of Mobil 1 I had left over. Well, you know those little plastic rings that are left behind whenever you remove a plastic cap for the first time? You know, the same ones that are left behind from the caps on plastic coke bottles or gallon jugs of milk?



Well, the little plastic ring from the quart-size oil container decides to do a swan dive down the neck of the oil filler reservoir, mid-pour. I felt like I had just swallowed a brick.



Not knowing whether to cry or curse, I grabbed a flashlight to survey the situation. Lucky for me, the ring was wedged part way down the filler tube, and I was able to extract it. I can't even imagine the alternative to finding that piece of plastic.



Which begs the question... anyone care to speculate the deleterious effects of a plastic ring swimming around in the engine oil? What are the potential disastrous possibilities? I know nothing about the inner workings and what effect this could have had. Thank God I don't have to worry about it.

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[Larry Currie]

Thanks for sharing, because this sounds like something I would do.

Larry



[quote name='Ave' date='Feb 7 2005, 10:02 PM']Driving home tonight, I was greeted by the not-too-unfamiliar "engine oil" light.  Once in the garage, I proceed to top her off with half a quart of Mobil 1 I had left over.  Well, you know those little plastic rings that are left behind whenever you remove a plastic cap for the first time?  You know, the same ones that are left behind from the caps on plastic coke bottles or gallon jugs of milk?



Well, the little plastic ring from the quart-size oil container decides to do a swan dive down the neck of the oil filler reservoir, mid-pour.  I felt like I had just swallowed a brick.



Not knowing whether to cry or curse, I grabbed a flashlight to survey the situation.  Lucky for me, the ring was wedged part way down the filler tube, and I was able to extract it.  I can't even imagine the alternative to finding that piece of plastic.



Which begs the question... anyone care to speculate the deleterious effects of a plastic ring swimming around in the engine oil?  What are the potential disastrous possibilities?  I know nothing about the inner workings and what effect this could have had.  Thank God I don't have to worry about it.

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[Greimann]

I guess it depends on where it ends up. Is the filler a straight shot to the oil pan or does it go into small passages where it could get trapped an plug something up? If straight to the pan, I would think it would just get slung around, maybe chewed up a bit by the crank, but otherwise be fairly benign because it will never make it past the oil pickup screen.

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[ds968]

note: project for Dave - build a screen for the top of the "neck" to prevent plastic rings or other things from falling in. I'm sure there'll be a few buyers <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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