Last night I went on a quick gas run and I was looking for a 24-hour station. So I was heading down this street called tower road when I passed the only one I knew of on it(and it was closed), so I got into a left turn lane and turned around. I was accelerating up the street and before I shifted out of 2nd gear, I felt a BIG drop in power(like 30hp or so) and my oil light came on. I was like, "WTF?". So I hurried to the nearest 24-hour station and quickly bought 3 bottles of 10W-30 and put them in right there. I started the car again and it ran ok for about 3 seconds until I heard this splashing sound. I looked underneath and all of the oil I had just bought was falling out of my car! I left a HUGE puddle in the parking lot. I tried to get it home before it died, but I just kept losing more and more power so I had to park about 2 miles away from my house. What happened?!!?! I remember seeing some oil splashed in the engine bay between the valve cover and the TB. Please tell me it's something easy to fix. I hope I didn't too any major engine damage either. My poor SE-R!! My mods are listed below and the car has about 75k miles on it. Would this have anything to do with me disconnecting my EGR valve? Maybe I did it wrong? Also I've taken the heat shield off of the underside of the hood. Help my baby!
Just a suggestion...when your car starts dumping massive ammounts of oil and you loose power, DON'T DRIVE IT. Just get it towed by AAA or just get a local tow company, paying a 50 dollar tow fee is better than a new engine, on why the oil just blew out that fast, thats a mystery to me dude, good luck.
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I like my women like I like my coffee, ground up and in the freezer!
Could be a blown oil pan, incorrectly seated oil filter, or a massive leak from somewhere in the engine. Only way to find out is by looking.
I ripped my oil pan once, so I know how it feels watching all the oil spill around like that. One smart move I made was that I immediately stopped and got the car towed instead of taking the risk of driving it without any oil in the engine.
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"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist".
-The Usual Suspects
Last edited by Harris : Jan 16th, 2004 at 12:35 PM.
Yeah, about that...what exactly happens to an engine when it's run with very little oil in it? It was stupid to try and get it home with no oil, but I'm very, very poor and couldn't afford a tow at the time. It was also 2:30am.
If I were you, I would take off your cam cover to see how your cams and rockers look. Depending on how long they were without oil they may be shot. Thats about all you can do to inspect for damage to the engine without having to tear it apart.
Well, probably the worst that could happen would the engine would seize, no oil in parts that are metal on metal= bad combination. No oil in the engine will mess it up BIG TIME. Hopefully its fine though..
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I like my women like I like my coffee, ground up and in the freezer!
Thanx for the concern guys. I found the problem. Apparently the Grease Monkey that I took it to less than 1 month ago replaced my oil filter with the wrong one. It wasn't even for any Sentra of any year. So I guess it just finally busted off. So that's where all the oil was coming from. I stormed back into that grease monkey and demanded a redo. They were actually very cooperative about it. The whole crew wasn't anybody I recognized from the last time, but they redid my oil change(with the proper filter), steam cleaned my engine bay and gave me $10 for a car wash or gas or whatever. I don't think there was any engine damage incurred because it didn't run very long when it was low on oil, it was never completely empty, and it feels like it's running very strongly again. Whew, I thought I was gonna lose my baby.
why did you put 3 qts in, was it 3 qts low? it should hold 3.75qts of oil....
if it didn't need all that oil it might have been spewing it out cuz it was too much?
Yeah, it was VERY, VERY low on oil. It took all 3 quarts easily but after it all poured onto the ground I just said forget it and tried to get it home before it got too low again.
Do oil changes yourself. That way you know that everything going in is right and won't pop off like it did with you. Last thing you want is a blown motor because a shop messed up. The only time I take my car to a shop is when its not motor related or when I don't have the tools/help to do the job. Even then I only take it to one guy who has served me well and knows what he is doing, unlike many dumb mechanics you see every now and then.
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"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist".
Yeah, about that...what exactly happens to an engine when it's run with very little oil in it? It was stupid to try and get it home with no oil, but I'm very, very poor and couldn't afford a tow at the time. It was also 2:30am.
when I was a kid we had a 2 level parking lot at the school and there was a litle ramp like drive connecting it and at night I took my old hardbody out and jumped it doin like 30 well I bottomed out one day and the oilpan came right off and I drove home it was like one and a half miles and I went slow
but after I fixed the pan about a week later I had a piston rod that came right thru the block and I was screwed so I wish I stopped drivin it too
Do oil changes yourself. That way you know that everything going in is right and won't pop off like it did with you. Last thing you want is a blown motor because a shop messed up. The only time I take my car to a shop is when its not motor related or when I don't have the tools/help to do the job. Even then I only take it to one guy who has served me well and knows what he is doing, unlike many dumb mechanics you see every now and then.
do ur own oil changes.....i wouldnt trust anyone else....i work at jiffy lube and from what i see, workers tend to get really lazy and do a half ass job.... oh yeah if u ever come to the jiffy lube that i work at and ur being an asshole to me, ill just bring ur car into the bay, sit down, wait for 10 minutes, then pull ur car out and ring ur ass out...haha jk...
do ur own oil changes.....i wouldnt trust anyone else....i work at jiffy lube and from what i see, workers tend to get really lazy and do a half ass job.... oh yeah if u ever come to the jiffy lube that i work at and ur being an asshole to me, ill just bring ur car into the bay, sit down, wait for 10 minutes, then pull ur car out and ring ur ass out...haha jk...
Heh, i work at a Lube Shop too, our local jiffy lube is pretty half assed, and hten some of hte local dealers always dry gasket hte filters, gets our pit guys pretty pissy sometimes... I would never take my car in to get it worked on, after workin at a lube shop esp, and just seeing some crazy shit on other peoples cars and such. But then again, i do everything myself, that way, if i ever screw it up, i'm the only person i can blame =P
Oh yah, whenever we have people w/ leaky filters or when we had some -30* weather, we had some with gaskets splitting and such, we have no problems w/ replacing filter, plug or gasket on the plug....
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91 Sentra E
205/50R15 Falken 502's on 15x7s
Yeah, about that...what exactly happens to an engine when it's run with very little oil in it? It was stupid to try and get it home with no oil, but I'm very, very poor and couldn't afford a tow at the time. It was also 2:30am.
The usual events that occur in an engine without any oil (or oil pressure) are these.
1. All oil pressure is lost. Oil is no longer being pumped into main crank journals, valvetrain, and on some engines, big ends of rods and/or piston squirters and/or timing chain/valve timing devices. Shut off your engine.
2. A slight knocking or rumbling sound is heard about 10-40sec after pressure loss. This is the sound of the main bearings and crank journals slightly contacting each other at engine speed. This occurs because the film of pressurized oil that the crank usually floats on is now becoming absent. There is a slight power loss. Slight wear is now occuring on these parts. Slightly decreased engine life expected. Shut off your engine!
3. If continued engine operation occurs, knocking becomes very pronounced, to the point of overpowering normal engine operation sounds. This is the sound of the crank and main bearings slamming into each other at engine speed, and pounding the slight oil film that was protecting them off of bearing surfaces. Major power loss. Major wear is occuring at main bearings, and possible crank journal scoring may occur. High decrease in engine life expected. SHUT OFF YOUR ENGINE!!
4. Knocking turns into extreamly loud banging(30sec-1min after pressure loss)
that can be heard over normal road noise. (All previous indications might not be heard whilst driving) This is the sound of the crank moving freely in the main journals. Unbelivable wear on main bearings, bearings may sometimes seperate from seats, valvetrain starts to wear. Engine may stall. Possible catistrophic engine failure may occur, including, but not limited to, Crankshaft snapping in two and exiting engine through oil pan,(happened to a buddy's Mustang), Rod and crank seperation,( this is throwing a rod) Shattered pistons, cracked block(yes, it can and does happen) and torn out main webs.
JESUS CHRIST!!! TURN OFF YOUR FRIGGEN ENGINE!!!
5. 1min-5min after oil pressure loss. If the damned thing is still running, massive valvetrain wear is occuring, your crank is hoplessly scared, you need a new camshaft, you need new pistons, you need to reevaluate the way you drive your cars.
Oil is the lifeblood of an engine. DO NOT drive on a engine with no oil pressure, and get a oil pressure guage and don't trust the idiot light.
I can only wish you the best of luck, and dont dispair, the SR20's a tough motor, mabey it will be all right . Good luck!
. Good luck!
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