Look at the rear view mirror!


First drive this year and after oil change I checked the level and added a little oil but forgot to put the oil cap back on. Drove to the local gas station and filled up with fresh gasoline. Car ran a little rough when starting at home and same at the gas station but thought it had to do with it being the first start up this year. Drove to a hardware store a couple of miles from home and on the way back I got MASSIVE white smoke when accelerating! The EML turned on so stopped the car immediately and opened the hood, first thing I saw was the oil cap still lying on the plastic cover. Put the cap back on and cleared the codes which where Bank 1 and 2 running lean. Started the car and it ran nice on iddle again. Started driving and had a lot of blue smoke coming out as you see in the video for at least 10 miles before it cleared.

Scared the hell out of me but is there any danger that I drove with the cap of for about 10-14 miles?

 

Have you checked your oil level? I'd say the PCV sucked a lot of oil through the intake because there wasn't a vacuum getting pulled via the PCV system, so it sucked and suck all it wanted. With all that slime in the intake, it probably took awhile to clear.
SO, check your oil level! Also, make sure your catalytic converters get REALLY warm for awhile to burn off all the crap.

 

Oil level is okay and I drove an extra couple of miles on the freeway at around 150km/h. After that the blue smoke disappeared so all good I hope! :-)

 

The cats won't have loved it but they're high quality and hopefully survived.

The O2 sensors also won't have loved it but they're much cheaper if they fail.

 

It probably won't be an issue, I'd just drive it until the smoke is gone.

 

+1

and just hope.

 

If you start to get engine mis-fires I would be concerned that the spark plugs may need to be changed. It seems you pumped enough oil vapors into the cylinders that you would foul them. Also as mentioned the 02 sensors might throw codes. Did you start the car again after a day of rest and was the exhaust clean. If you continue to get smoke on start up there may be other damage. I would also start running FI cleaner through the system . Good luck.

 

The first time I changed the oil on my XK, it ran rough after start up. I was like “WTF? How did I break my car by changing the oil?”
Put the cap back on, and all was good in the world again.
It’s the first car I’ve changed my own oil on that’s had a pressurized system. Scared me. Lesson learned.

 

Runs fine again and no oil smoke! Have put a bottle of cleaner in. :-)

 

It's actually a sealed system, air-wise. If the seal is broken, then the PVC can draw more air. That's what happened to Peterv8.
When sealed, it is much more difficult for the PVC vacuum to draw out any atmosphere, so it is mostly the blow-by, which it is specifically designed to do. When there isn't a sealed crankcase, the PVC vacuum can pull as much as it wants, pretty much. I'm surprised OP didn't also get a LEAN CONDITION code and a CEL.

 

Yes I did and it's in my first post but said EML(engine management light) which I thought was the correct word:-)

 

Ah, well, I forgot and didn't look again. Makes sense. Sorry 'bout that.

 

No problem and thanks! :-)