[chris712vt]

First of all, calm down a little bit. I know it's frustrating, you just spent your savings on a new car and it's having problems. But stop bringing the car from shop to shop for a minute, that game can add up the $$ quick.

Now, start by inspecing a few things yourself. Look on top of the valve cover by where the spark plugs plug in, is there any oil pooled up on top there? Also look along the outside edge of the valve cover, any oil drips? If so, you're valve cover gasket/seal maybe be old and leaking. That's $20 and a half an hour of your time to do swap it yourself. 8 bolts, scrape off the old with a razor, put on the new gasket, a little rtv, you're done. Don't need a shop to charge you hundreds for a valve cover gasket you can do yourself.

Next, inspect your oil. Is it "milky" looking? Could be a sign you have a head gasket problem. Are you dripping oil out from the joint between the head and block? dab a paper towel around to search for for fresh oil. If that ends up being the source, you could fix it yourself but it's much more involved so you may want to just have a shop to do it... but not for $1500.

Get under the car and inspect the oil pan. You said it's dented or bent? Is there also a crack somewhere? If so you'd definitely leak oil there. Check the perimeter of the oil pan where it bolts to the block. Perhaps that seal is worn out if oil is leaking from there. That is also a simple fix you can do yourself. Again, $20 and less than an hour of your time and you can drop your oil pan, replace the gasket, and bolt it back on with a fresh snug seal. I have an extra oil pan gasket laying around that i never even opened actually if you found out that is the solution and you need one. But anyway, if your oil pan is damaged, you can find used ones for sale here or on the 2gnt classifieds from other members for cheap if you need to replace it completely, or just replace the gasket yourself.

And about the check engine light. Bring the car, if you can drive it, up to advance auto or one of those places. Ask for their OBD-II code reader. They'll let you bring it out to your car and scan the computer yourself. You plug it in under the dash below the steering wheel. Easy to do, just follow the directions on it. Then walk back in, they'll print off your list of whatever codes are going wrong, and then you can search this forum (or 2gnt, I know you'll find it there) for a list of what the codes mean. Then you can tell us what codes it's throwing and we can help more.