Things You'll Need:
- Owner's manual
- Receipt with oil change description
- Contact information for dealership or auto mechanic
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Step 1
Pull your car to a safe location where you can open the hood and look at your engine.
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Step 2
Check to see if your engine looks slick or wet. The mechanic may have spilled oil on your engine, and within several miles or so, this small amount of oil will burn off from the engine heat. You may smell the oil while driving so close your vents, but it's nothing to panic about as long as it's a small amount.
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Step 3
Kneel under your car to see if oil is dripping beneath. Unless there was a massive amount of oil spilled on the engine, this should never happen.
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Step 4
Check for smoke alongside your car or underneath the hood. Be very careful when opening the hood if smoke appears while driving. Touch the hood the same way you would a doorknob during a fire. If it's too hot to touch, call for a tow truck or wait until your car has cooled off and then look.
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Step 5
Make sure that the oil filler cap is in place. If you don't know what it looks like, check to see where oil could be splashing from. If the cap is missing, you'll see a hole in your engine where a cap should be. (Check your owner's manual for an image of the oil filler cap.)
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Step 6
Contact the dealership or mechanic to notify them that your car is smoking or you see an oil leak on the ground or around your engine. The dealership or mechanic will verify whether oil leaked or whether you should return to the shop.
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Step 7
Return the dealership if you do not feel comfortable driving the car with this leak. The mechanic is required to check to make sure there's nothing wrong with your car and that it's functioning normally. You should not be charged for a mechanic's mistake in the case that he forgot to put the oil filler cap back on or spilled oil.
