did my IMS blow? did the RMS explode?

[tonycarreon]

actually, i think the technical term is "dumbass forgot to open air hole on oil catcher."

the oil started racing down the drive-way at me while i'm trying to open the hole after it's filled up. oh my. i can't think of something less fun!

so remember - open the air hole on your oil catcher BEFORE you remove the drain plug.

[E Kaplan]

That is the worse case of Boxster Diarrhea I have ever seen!

[Flavor 987S]

That's gonna leave a mark!

[mptoledo]

I take it the dry patch on the right is were you laid under the car? Damn, hope it it was on sale!! at least you didn't forget to put you oil filter seal on like I did!!

Better get it cleaned up before the environmental police and al gore show up and fine you!!

[Frodo]

One of my earliest posts on this forum dealt with my first oil change, which was (more or less) an unmitigated disaster. The post was cut and pasted from an email that I sent my father-in-law, a retired farmer from Nebraska who has always owned/worked on Detroit iron vehicles, including autos, trucks, tractors, earth-moving equipment, etc. (I doubt that he even sees a Porsche more than once every few weeks---months?) Anyway, an excerpt of that email/post (BTW, I also own a Camry, and Colin & Nathan are my sons):

Started by getting a bigger drain pan to catch the oil: it's a hard plastic, self-enclosed affair, with a
shallow funnel arrangement at the top that sends the used lubricant down through a hole in the center,
to be collected in the hold below, which has a spout for pour-off later. The problem arose as I removed
the drain plug from the oil pan (it comes out with a 8 mm Allen wrench---German engineers have to do
EVERYTHING different it seems). Well, it was a quite a bit hotter than I realized and, as I exclaimed
"Ouch" I more or less simultaneously dropped the plug. Ordinarily (as in a Camry oil change) this
wouldn't have been a problem. In this case, however, as I witnessed the oil drain pan funnel (which only
holds maybe a quart) quickly filling up, I suddenly realized that the dropped plug fell INTO THE FUNNEL
(wanted to use a different f-word there) HOLE, more or less blocking it completely. It being entirely too
hot to reach down into the pool of oil to dislodge the somewhat wedged-in drain plug, I haplessly watched
as 9 quarts of nasty used motor oil formed an ever expanding pool beside me and ran on down the
driveway. Colin and Nathan got to watch.

The resulting lake was approximately 4 ft x 8 ft in size, and was undoubtedly one of the nastier
clean-ups I have ever tackled.

Good times...

[Lil bastard]

It wasn't the air hole, or the dropped drain plug, it's the type of pan used. Whether you'd opened the air hole, or not dropped the plug, you'd still have had a hazmat disaster using those type of pans.

The Boxster drains oil VERY fast, much faster than any of the 'take it to the recycle center' type of pans can handle... it will inevitably overflow as the oil comes out faster than it can go in.

I use a fairly standard pan like this - Then I transfer the used oil to a covered 5 gal. kitchen pail to take to recycling.

[Bladecutter]

Originally Posted by Frodo

In this case, however, as I witnessed the oil drain pan funnel (which only holds maybe a quart) quickly filling up, I suddenly realized that the dropped plug fell INTO THE FUNNEL (wanted to use a different f-word there) HOLE, more or less blocking it completely. It being entirely too hot to reach down into the pool of oil to dislodge the somewhat wedged-in drain plug, I haplessly watched as 9 quarts of nasty used motor oil formed an ever expanding pool beside me and ran on down the driveway.

The best thing to do in this type of situation is to keep a magnetic pick up tool on hand. Once the drain plug fell into the oil pan, the pick up tool would have spared your fingers a dip into the hot oil.

Don't ask me how I learned this, but lets say that it was similar to your situation.

BC.

[yimmy149]

Originally Posted by tonycarreon

actually, i think the technical term is "dumbass forgot to open air hole on oil catcher."

the oil started racing down the drive-way at me while i'm trying to open the hole after it's filled up. oh my. i can't think of something less fun!

so remember - open the air hole on your oil catcher BEFORE you remove the drain plug.

I did the same thing a couple weeks ago when doing a transmission fluid change. I did not realize 3 quarts of oil could come out of that small a drain hole in 5 seconds.

-james