Nissan Repair: instrument panel stopped working in 2006 Nissan Altima, nissan altima, blown fuse

Question
I hope you might have an answer for my problem. My Nissan Altima only has around 7000 miles and I had taken it in for an oil change to a "fast lube" place in town on Wed. On Thurs. my parents and I went on a trip to a neighboring state.  I noticed that the check engine light was on. My Dad checked under the hood and the only thing we could find was that they had left the wiper fluid cap off.  We corrected that, but the light continued to stay on.  We drove on about 30 more miles on our way home, then my mother and I started to smell oil.  Thinking it was the truck ahead of us we drove on.  About 20 more miles down the road the instrument panel just died!  I pulled off in a safe place and had the car towed 200 miles home!  The car  WOULD start and run, but I was afraid to drive it.
Would you have any idea what could be wrong?  The car is now at the Nissan dealership where we bought it, but it will be next week before they will get to it.  They did however say that it is NOT a blown fuse, which would have made me feel really silly having it towed!  Any ideas?  Thank you so much!

Answer
Linda,

The oil smell is probably from the oil change place getting oil on the manifold.  The check engine light could be from a number of things.  Have the dealership tell you what the reading was.  For the instrument cluster it could have been from the connector coming loose as it is a new car and these things do happen from time to time.  If the connector came off the computer could not read the vehicle speed as it gets the information from the cluster and not the transmission.  So, if it gets disconnected the check engine light will come on.  Now, they could have messed up the connector on the transmission and that would cause a code too.