Canadian Tire DUFFERIN & FINCH // oil leaks after oil change

[gdimiter]

Hi fellow Mazda 3 enthusiasts,

I wanna share my experience with Canadian Tire today ...

I went for an oil change and chose the 5W20 Formula 1 synthetic (I am driving 2006 M3 2.0 l). I had the car back and after a couple of hundred meters I saw that the sticker on the windshield reads 10W30. I went back to ask them what oil they have put. The service manager says, they have put 5W20 just he guy have entered the wrong grade and gave me another sticker which had wrong KMs this time. So far not such a big deal, but when I drove the car for 20-30 km today I noticed the engine was sluggish. When I came back tonight and looked under it, I saw that oil is leaking from the area around the oil filter (about a drop of oil every couple of minutes). I may be wrong, but I think they may have not tighten something good enough. The other possible reason would be that the oil is synthetic and as we know Mazda does not recommend using synthetic oil. The car is at 125K KM and this was the first time I used synthetic so there is a chance that a gasket might have leaked.

I will be back tomorrow and share what would be the rest of the story ... any piece of advice or suggestion what might have gone wrong is much apprecited

zoom-zoom. forever.

[MistaChin]

Synthetic is better for the car. Mazda actually uses synthetic now I believe. Your big mistake was taking your car to crappy tire. Take this as a lesson to you.

[bman13]

Synthetic is better for the car. Mazda actually uses synthetic now I believe. Your big mistake was taking your car to crappy tire. Take this as a lesson to you.

+1

[SonicBoy]

OK guys, we all know the advice we give everyone not to go to Cdn Tire for an oil change.

Let's leave it at that and not crucify the OP anymore as the thread will just continue to grow with these types of comments.

[bman13]

OK guys, we all know the advice we give everyone not to go to Cdn Tire for an oil change.

Let's leave it at that and not crucify the OP anymore as the thread will just continue to grow with these types of comments.

Good point. If you're in the Dufferin and Finch area you could go to M&D. They are right by there.

[DualSoul]

Synthetic is better for the car. Mazda actually uses synthetic now I believe. Your big mistake was taking your car to crappy tire. Take this as a lesson to you.

+1

+2

OK guys, we all know the advice we give everyone not to go to Cdn Tire for an oil change.

Let's leave it at that and not crucify the OP anymore as the thread will just continue to grow with these types of comments.

Not trying to crucify the OP, but considering that the advice about Canadian Tire seems common enough, it's obviously not being heeded.

[bman13]

My dad actually has never had issue w/ Crappy Tire and their work but yeah, he doesn't go there for his oil changes.

[bluemazda3]

lol.. crappy tire... over tightened ur filter..

[S.F.W.]

lol.. crappy tire... over tightened ur filter..

Agreed, oil filter housing likely over tightened, and now likely has a small crack, thus the oil leak.

[MPS]

go get ur car checked by M&D before its to late and ur motor runs out of oil
http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/sh...ct-Information

[wildcard50]

Is your oil pressure light coming on when you rev the engine, either way it looks like you need to get it checked out,next time go to a reputable place or dealer.

[WeatherB]

I second that they over tightened your filter housing cap. The filter housing cap on the pre-2010 is made out of plastic and you need to make sure you tighten it to the correct torque spec.

From what I've read, people suspect that the pre-2007 also used a thinner plastic for the cap which wasn't as durable.

Probably best to not drive the car until you get it checked out and I'd replace the cap as a precaution.

[gdimiter]

Thanks for the feedback! This was quite a response for a posting at Sat night. I owe you the end of the story.

I went back today and spoke with the service manager. He remembered me from yesterday so they took my car to the express lube. The problem was that whoever changed the oil yesterday did not take out the engine shield before changing the oil so he spilled oil all over it and did not clean it. The oil I saw leaking was actually the old oil dripping from the engine shieid. So a new guy cleaned the engine shield and changed the drain plug washer which seemed in quite a bad shape (it was not replaced yesterday). He allowed me to go under the car. The filter looked good. The oil pan gasket looked good, too and the engine was actually quite clean. So hopefully that would be the end of the story.

The moral is to avoid CT, but the guy who took care of the car today deserves a credit. His name is Santana and he works in the express oil change bays.

BTW. I did know about MD Auto and I actually did my previous oil change with them with a coupon from DealTicker. The mechanic at MD Auto has quite a lot of Mazda certificates (Mazda 6 mostly). But yesterday I was just in a hurry and when I saw the sign for 30 min oil change guarantee I gave it a try.

[WeatherB]

Good to hear that they resolved the problem in the end... I really wonder how they managed to change the oil without taking the under shield off though, the hole isn't in the correct place so you can't get the oil filter off without taking the under shield off.

Anyway, from now on just take your car to somewhere proven for your oil changes.