Well, my 2K2 now has about 8K miles on it. I went about 2k for my first oil chg (at Nissan dlr) where I went to synthetics. Then at about 6k did another oil chg, again at Nissan dlr. It had been about 2k miles since then.

Problem:
I clean my engine w/ a little armor all and a rag regularly. Admittedly, It's been about 1500 miles since the last time I did this. But man... There was dirt ALL OVER my engine, even on the engine cover! It took forever to clean. I looked under the car, and unless I'm imagining it.. It looked like part of the plastic under-body guard is missing! Coincidently, It's right by were the oil plug is. Maybe it was removed when the oil chg was done, or maybe it's just my imagination. But one thing's for sure... My engine has never been that dirty. It was like someone just dumped sand on my engine.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

CHAZMAX, I haven't done an oil change (have 680 miles on the odo). But , when I did a "dry run" on how I'm going to change it I noticed that there is a "splash shield" on the passenger side which covers up the oil filter and front of the engine. I'm assuming that this shield also prevents all the other crap from getting up on top of your engine (and not just the front of the engine...which faces towards the front passenger tire).
Anyway, it appears that they can do an oil change without removing the shield (it bends enough to do the job). Or perhaps in your case, they did remove it to gain better access to the oil filter.

Take it to the dealer, have them put it on a lift and see if it's missing. If they removed it (which they may have done in order to change the oil)then they had better find it in the shop and replace it pronto!!.
Good luck!

P.S. If they argue the point with you, then tell them to a least go halfway on the price of new one installed.

 

Mark S,
Yeh, I think you're right. It just seems like some of the guard is missing. I'll take it in.

Thx.

 

CHAZMAX, it's got to be that splash shield. Just make sure in the future that the shield is on before you leave the next time you take it in for an oil change. You can see/feel it reaching underneath from just in front of and to the inside of the passenger tire.

(just one more reason to do the oil/filter change yourself...you just can't trust them)