First time for everything I guess. Something I thought would never happen and would be the first thing I think of when taking the car in to have the oil changed, not from the owner.

Wife's 04 Mazda3 2.3l.

Put it up on ramps, took off the poor excuse of a 'belly shield', drained the oil, swapped out the filter and tightened, put in drain plug*, took off fill cap*, filled with oil, wife drives car 40 miles to work and 40 back and says the car is louder than normal. Thinking my wife is not mechanically inclined what so ever, I tell her it's probably fine and will look at it when she gets back. She pulls in the garage and as I lift the hood I'm smelling burnt oil and seeing the smoke.

1st problem discovered: Oil cap is missing. Oil is everywhere! Dipstick reads nothing. CARP! Could be anywhere I figure and it's after work hours at the dealership so no new cap for me till morning after I drive my wife to work and come back. Investigating how bad all the oil is in the engine compartment I see the plug, thank goodness had fallen onto the belly shield and stayed put. Rag cleans up what I can and we head off to retrieve some more oil with my car.

2nd problem discovered. Only hand tightened the drain plug and oil has coated the entire underbelly of the car. No wonder the dipstick read 0. Dipstick in charge (me) was careless and got distracted.

So, plug tightened, lots o' kitty litter in the garage, topped off with new oil and fueled it up. Seems to be running ok, sounds the same as always. Anyone have any recommendations on what I should do? Other than fire myself. I'm thinking have the dealership take a look given they may catch something I'd have no clue about and could potentially save me from replacing the entire engine if there is some damage that could be fixed now for less cash and hassle later.