...what happens if you "miss" the oil fill hole in the valve cover?

If you get sloppy and some of the oil drips outside of the filler neck, have you noticed where it ends up?

I did it tonight, didn't think it was that much, a few drops.

Went straight down and landed on my alternator. In fact, it hits the electrical connection on the top of the alternator as well as going right into it.

I wonder if that would explain why so many alternators die an early death?

<knocking on wood, hope mine survives>

knew I shouldn't have been changing the oil at 9:30pm in the dark

 

A good electrical cleaner & use compressed air to dry it out.

 

$0.99 funnel from AutoZone ftw.

 

Yeah I busted that like twice when I was adding a quart too lazy to go get the funnel and clean it!!

 

Just did that, it flushed a lot of OLD crap off the top where the connector is.
Probably inside the alternator as well. I obviously wasn't the first person who has done that to this car.

Left a big dried-puddle of oily residue on my driveway.

 

Things happen..Try Techniseal's degreaser for your driveway.

 

I just pressure wash my engine every year. It gets rid of most of the gunk.

 

So on the way to work this morning I was a little worried about the alternator.

I stopped at Wally World and for $15 picked up a nifty little digital gauge that plugs into a 12v outlet in the car and gives a constant readout of the charging voltage.

It was all good at 13.7-14.1 charging volts.

Kind of a nice thing to have in the car, has anyone installed a permanent volt or amp meter in their Max? Our cars need more intelligent gauges than Nissan supplied them with.

 

JUST once a year?

 

Well they kind of do... they just light up if there is a problem. I like a cleaner look, I don't need to see that it is doing what it is suppose to do 99.99999% of the time. I just want to know when it isn't.

I do like the little gadget, I might pick one up for that price to have on hand if needed. Didn't know they had such a thing.

Edit: Did you check behind the plastic cover, you know the one that covers the top of the engine, for more of the oil?

 

What is this engine gunk you're talking about? Never heard of it...

Seriously though, if you have build-up, then you have an oil leak somewhere.

 

No leaks on mine, just oil that missed the filler spout and ran down the block to land on the alternator.

J-Rod, they also make one that actually fits on the battery post and gives a digital readout as well.
Problem is, you can only see it when you have the hood up...

 

oooo I like that one better, you remember how much?

 

No leaks, but I have missed the stupid oil filler hole once or twice, which of course creates a mess on top of the hidden valve cover. Yea, I know I should use a funnel but sometimes I don't. My engine gets dusty looking after a year or so, mostly from our extremely dry climate and the road sand they use in the winter. I just don't like it looking like new under the hood. I also had a leaking high pressure PS hose this year too that built up a nice layer of gunk around the back and passenger side of the engine. Oh and I also had a battery that was leaking acid before I could get to it. It's always something.

 

Hmmm maybe i should clean up my alternator too. Now that i know this i dont hVe piece of mind anymore

 

Sounds like solid engineering to me.. The more oil on the connector, the less corrosion to screw it up!

Stuff like that almost never ends up being an issue. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

 

My missed oil (from when I'm adding a half quart on the go) always pooled up on the indentations created for the spark plug boots/ignition coil/whatever the proper name is for that top piece that sits on top of the engine. I found that out when I took the cover off to clean it. I was a little panicky at first, but then realized that oil wasn't magically coming out of the spark plugs--it was 100% user error.

 

Raptor is the company that makes the battery post LED readout of the voltage