The mystery of the missing drain plug

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(Sharing this here in the hope that someone might be able to find some clues here)

Background

The car in question: a 2017 Subaru Outback (2.5i limited), bought from a local dealership. (also, the first time I bought a non-used-car, and went for Subaru after forming an impression of safety and reliability).

Now, I have not driven it on excessively long road trips, but it did become the “family car” for various trips and I found it quite enjoyable.

The incident

This July, as I was driving I saw the yellow oil level warning light come on. Since it had been a year since the last Service visit at the dealership, I made an appointment for that week two days away. I also bought and filled 1 quart of OW-20.

However, as I was driving there the red (oil pressure warning) light, instead of oil level warning, and soon after I had to pull over to the side of the highway, as my car basically stopped moving forward.

I had it towed to the dealership since I was on the way there. No surprises: the engine was gone.

The diagnosis

After ruling out an initial suspicion of rodent damage, the symptoms turned out to be a missing oil drain plug.

(btw, the extra oil I’d added was useless, it just leaked out)

This was surprising, because as I understand it, this is the part that isn’t supposed to ever fall out.

I do have comprehensive insurance on my vehicle, but this turns out not to be covered by that, because it falls under “mechanical breakdown”, which seems ridiculous, because this isn’t some 20 year old used car that we’re talking about but some thing that was bought five years ago and has had annual service regular service since then.

Oh Allstate doesn’t cover this, because it can’t determine the cause (once again, “mechanical breakdown” – ironically, it would have been covered if it had been the rodent).

The mystery

As I see it, the only possible reasons are:

  1. negligence (not screwing this oil drain plug correctly at the last service visit): the last service was about a year ago though
  2. “vandalism” (someone removing the oil drain plug): can’t prove this
  3. A bump of some sort that made it loose: however there is no indication, from photographs of the underside of the car, of any impact for damage, that would explain this being knocked loose
  4. An actual fault with the vehicle itself (?!)
One clue

There is an outdoor camera looking out over the driveway, and I can see some oil pooling under the car. It doesn’t seem like the “full amount”, and looks like it’s leaking. I went back in time and as far as I can tell, this started happening two weeks before (?!)

It turns out that on that day I’d parked at a garage in San Francisco, and a few months ago there had been a spate of break-ins , and I had my window broken too. So, it’s possible that someone did something to my oil drain plug? It sounds crazy, but in the absence of any other reasonable explanation … dunno.

Now what?

As you can see, this is a genuine mystery at this point. No one I’ve talked to has any idea how this could’ve happened.

As things stand right now, I have to pay out of pocket for a new engine at the dealership, with no coverage because of “mechanical breakdown”.

So of the reasons above, unlikely as it is, I’m forced to conclude (4) – i.e. this is a bizarre but possible occurrence in Subaru Outbacks.

Suddenly, this doesn’t look like the reliable car I thought it was, and I’ll likely try to resell it as soon as possible.

Does anyone here know of anything even vaguely similar to this?

(Update: I’ll also post it to the “Subaru Outback forums” and share if I find anything interesting there)
 

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