I need to find out as much as I can to confront them tomorrow. Here'* whats happened.
On Monday, January 19, 2010, I took my car in to Pep Boys to have my Oil Pan gasket replaced. (there was small leak from the gasket-no major leaking just blow-back).

As of Monday evening my car'* Check Oil light would come on at start-up, but go out shortly thereafter. I checked the oil when I arrived home 10 minutes after the work, later that eveing, and Tuesday. The oil level is above the FULL mark.

While driving to work this evening, I accelerated to pass another vehicle and experienced a sudden loss in power and my engine temperature gage (which normally sits right at about 195 shot up to about 250 and crept towards 300. I drove maybe 10 more minutes onto work without running into the red. There is WHITE smoke coming from tailpipe with water!!!

Is it possible that PEP BOYS (Who I've caught being faulty before) filled my engine with too much oil causing this to happen????

THANKS TO ANYONE WHO CAN TAKE A SHOT AT THIS........


Signed a guy who just wanted to take care of his baby.
1997 SE

UPDATE: Just went out to start and position for tow. IT WONT TURN OVER!!!!

Putting in too much oil does put extra pressure on the head gaskets, the white smoke sounds like some coolant is getting into the cylinders, did the smoke smell sweet?

pull a spark plug and crank it, see if coolant comes out because it might be hydralocked

The good news is, many motors have been resurrected from being hydrolocked.

Hey Marvin,

Couple questions along with Crunk'*........how many miles on your baby? Have you ever had the upper plenum replaced or lower intake gaskets replaced?
And the obvious....did you go through any large puddles of water?

Also check your coolant in the radiator and reservoir tank to see if there empty.

Sorry this happened!

Check oil could mean a couple different things. What did the oil pressure gauge say when the light was on? How far over the full mark was the oil level? My car is typically a touch over because I use 5 quarts to fill mine instead of the recommended 4.5 quarts.

Once you noticed the oil level over full...why didn't you take steps to fix it? With the temp going up, why would you keep driving? I'm not blaming you here, but come on. If you were a car and gave warning signs with a giant red mark at 240F degrees, what do you think you'd do if someone kept driving you well into the 300F degree mark? Heart attack territory isn't it?

FWIW I'm guilty too. I thought my new to me, day old Bonnie was lying when every gauge on the dash lit up. In reality..I was doing 80mph on the highway leaking a ton of coolant. All those pretty lights were real. Fixed the leak, refilled and that car purred again. You might get lucky, and if you do... please take the chance to realize the gauges etc are there to warn you like the owners manual states.

If I had to take a guess here, you over heated the engine and cracked the EGR stove pipe and leaked coolant in to the engine from just behind the throttle body. If you remove the throttle body, do you see coolant in there? Could they have messed up your engine? Depends, did they drain teh coolant to change the oil pan? If so, they didn't fill it all the way and you have a vapor lock behind the thermostat.

Thanks!!! I am not sure "EXACTLY" how many miles because I am the 3rd owner - 2nd owner purchased it, put a rebuilt engine with what he said was about 117K on it (Odometer said about 183K) I bought it from him. It currently reads 190 K

I'll respond in UPDATE 2 post about it being exactly the plenum.

I originally noticed the Check Oil Level light on the evening of the day the work was done. The light went out and only resurfaced again at start-up intermittently. After being on a couple seconds, or by the time I got out to look at oil and / or around for leaks...it would be out.

Regarding the temp rising. I was ignorant. Although it'* asscension was sudden, I thought I could continue to drive even though it dropped back a bit and didn't go into the (RED). I now understand that a rising temp means YOU MUST PULL OVER IMMEDIATELY.

Got it towed to Pep Boys. They performed a pressure test on the radiator cap, performed a dye test & visual inspection to check for coolant leaks. These resulted in the discovery of failure of the upper plenum and gasket. There was extensive coolant infiltration into the cylinders as well as throughout the Plenum assisting in its deformation.

They replaced the Plenum and upper intake manifold gasket. They did a coolant exchange, new oil and filter. They also changed the spark plugs and air filter due to contamination.

They informed me that I may have check engine light trouble due to O2 sensor sensors failing from the extensive coolant contamination in the cylinders.


I just picked it up and have only driven 30 miles (to work). It drove good except my Cruise Control isn't working (was prior) and there was a little smoke from around the radiator when I arrived at work. But the temp stayed around 195, Oil Pressure seemed to possibly go down a little (sits just below 40 and red line while Idle, but a strong 40-60 while driving.
I'll be taking it back in the morning.

Thanks for all the feedback

Hate to hijack a thread but I am assuming if your oil pressure was too high or low the DIC would let you know before the gauge would am I correct on this. Cause my gauge is not working so I cant tell what the oil pressure is at any time, whole dash needs to come out to replace the gauge. But I would hope the DIC would tell me the oil pressure was too high or low if this was the case. I replaced the oil sending unit and that low oil pressure DIC went away for me.